The Cleveland Browns turned quite a few heads with their unorthodox strategy of taking two quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL draft.
What made things more fascinating was the fact the team already had Super Bowl champion Joe Flacco and former first-round pick Kenny Pickett already on the roster, sparking one of the more intriguing four-player quarterback competitions in recent memory.
Flacco began training camp as the presumed starter—a role he never relinquished—while many believed rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders were battling for one spot on Cleveland's 53-man roster.
More NFL:Browns Insider Predicts Trouble for Shedeur Sanders After Kenny Pickett Trade
The Browns cleared up their logjam on Monday though, trading Pickett to the Las Vegas Raiders for a 2025 fifth-round pick, seemingly leaving Gabriel and Sanders to battle for the team's backup job behind Flacco.
There have been several conspiracy theories peddled about the NFL wanting Sanders to fail — Los Angeles Rams legend Eric Dickerson recently revealed a source in the NFL confirmed to him the league told teams not to draft the Colorado alum to make an example out of him.
But despite the odds being stacked against him, Sanders is still very much in contention for the Browns' No. 2 job. And while Cleveland still have nearly two weeks to decide how to order the passers on its depth chart, former NFL QB and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky believes the choice is clear.
"Dillon Gabriel's tape is very impressive," Orlovsky wrote. "Should clearly be the #2 QB for the @Browns."
Orlovsky isn't alone in believing Gabriel outperformed Sanders in both camp and the preseason as several other analysts were in agreement he's performed better than his rookie teammate.
Gabriel held the edge in both passing yards (272 to 152) and completion percentage (67.5 to 58.6) in two preseason games, and he threw more touchdowns (11 to eight) during the team's training camp practices, per ESPN Cleveland.
But despite all of that, head coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters after Cleveland's preseason finale over the weekend that there's still plenty of evaluating for him to do.
"For Dillon, it goes back to the spring, it goes back to all the work that he's put in with all these young players," Stefanski said. "...I don't care what the numbers say...there's always stuff that you can be better at. We're not going to be perfect...but can we identify some things from the footwork to the decision-making — all those things you can always get a little bit better at."
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