BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns were still more than a half-hour away from breaking into stretches at their eighth training camp practice last Friday, but quarterback Shedeur Sanders was already on the practice field.
Within the next 15 minutes, Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel and Kenny Pickett joined Sanders to practice taking shotgun snaps and throwing a few warmup passes as quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave watched each player.
The Browns are one of three NFL teams (the Colts and Saints are the others) embroiled in a quarterback battle this summer — and they have already experienced their share of wrinkles based on observations through the first 10 practices.
Last Friday, Pickett returned in a limited capacity from the hamstring injury that cost him three practices. On Saturday, Sanders was held out of team drills after reporting arm soreness during individual drills, leaving Flacco and Gabriel to handle all the reps. On Monday, Sanders returned to full participation but Gabriel was limited because of hamstring tightness. And on Tuesday, the Browns signed Tyler Huntley to add depth in the wake of the injuries in the position room.
Talk about quarterback movement.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has emphasized that a final decision on QB1 has yet to be made, but the team’s first unofficial depth chart released Monday listed Flacco as the starter, followed by Pickett, Gabriel and Sanders.
A hierarchy had already been set as far as reps in practice. Flacco (an 18-year veteran), Pickett (a 2022 first-round pick) and Gabriel (a 2025 third-round pick) have all split snaps with the first-team offense. Sanders, a fifth-round pick and the final QB added in the offseason, has led the backup units. Deshaun Watson continues to rehab an Achilles injury the team expects will sideline him for most of the 2025 season.
“It’s next man up and when you’re not in a competition, I think you’re losing ground,” said Pickett, who as of Monday had not been fully cleared to practice.
With the Browns set to hold joint practices with the Carolina Panthers on Wednesday ahead of their preseason opener (Friday at Carolina, 7 p.m. ET) — a game in which sources told ESPN that Sanders will start — here is how the team is navigating its four-way quarterback battle.
STEFANSKI STOOD IN in front of a Browns-themed backdrop and faced a large media scrum ahead of Cleveland’s first training camp practice on July 23. As Stefanski was peppered with questions about the forthcoming quarterback competition, he issued a warning.
“I know it will get reported on who’s in there first,” the sixth-year head coach said. “And it may change. It will change tomorrow. So, I caution you to [not] read too much into it until we get much later on in the process.”
When the Browns broke the huddle for their first set of team drills, it was Pickett lining up with the starting offense. Pickett, who was drafted by Pittsburgh, took every snap with the starting unit in 11-on-11 drills, while Gabriel and Sanders led the backups. Flacco, who won Super Bowl XLVII with Baltimore, took zero snaps in 11-on-11s and watched from afar, save for a few passes during 7-on-7s.
In the following days, Pickett and Flacco rotated leading the starting unit. It’s the daily juggle of finding reps with each quarterback for Stefanski, who after the draft said that reps wouldn’t necessarily be divided equally but would be “fair to each player and fair to the team as well.”
Pickett emphasizes he takes it a day at a time.
“You don’t know what you’re going to get that day,” Pickett said. “You’re just showing up and prepared to — I mean, I think every guy here is prepared to go play the entire practice. That’s how I look at it. … So whatever reps I do get, I can take advantage of it.”
Each quarterback has typically thrown no more than a dozen passes in each practice but they have said they aren’t focused on the rationing of those reps.
“There’s a bunch of reps to go around in terms of mentally, physically, the combination,” Gabriel said. “…The moment you’re thinking about the reps you don’t have, you’re not focusing on the reps you do have. … you just got to be where your feet are and take advantage of that, because that’s all you got.”
The adjustment hasn’t only been on the quarterbacks but the pass catchers who are building rapport with multiple passers and the offensive linemates who are attempting to get in sync with each quarterback.
“Right now, it’s been a big emphasis with all of them, getting their cadences to be rhythmically the same,” said right tackle Jack Conklin, “which is helpful but there’s definitely working pains with that. But honestly that’s kind of good for us. It makes it so we’re really having to tie into the cadence, which I think is good for being in camp, not being able to just be on one or two cadences.”
Through 10 training camp practices, Gabriel has outpaced every quarterback in total practice snaps but Flacco has taken more than half of the snaps leading the first-team offense.
Sanders, who dropped to the fifth round before being selected with the 144th pick, has yet to take a snap with the first-team offense but received four plays leading the second-team offense against the starting defense last week.
“The thing for me is if you’re not getting a ton of reps out there and you’re only getting a certain amount of throws through individual [drills], it’s just, like, maybe keeping an equipment guy out and just playing some long toss or something like that,” Flacco said. “Just make sure your arm [is] still getting the load that it’s kind of gotten over the last three, four weeks as you’re kind of getting ready to come back.”
THE SHEER NUMBER of quarterbacks needing reps daily and the limited number to go around has led the Browns to find creative ways to get each passer experience, even if they aren’t on the field.
During the offseason workout program and the first four training camp practices, the Browns “two-spotted,” breaking the offense into two fields to maximize reps.
Inside the practice facility, there is a virtual walk-through room with a turf floor that allows the quarterbacks to go through a script of plays as if they were leading the offense.
A walkthrough room with two 25-yard screens that allow for interactive film study pic.twitter.com/QBOhopJgaP
— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) August 5, 2024
After practice, the Browns often have a team drill session they call “Hungry Dawgs,” which allows young players and backups to get more competitive reps. Gabriel and Sanders have run the offenses during each of these sessions.
“I think you got to find ways to steal reps,” Pickett said, “whether that’s on the field, watching when you’re not going, watching the other guys in there after practice, staying and throwing to spots that you may not have gotten, the plays that you weren’t able to run.”
On the opening day of training camp, Stefanski said he had a tentative timeline to decide on a starter but hoped to name “one sooner than later.” However, he wanted to give each quarterback ample practice time before evaluating the state of the competition and moving forward. Joint practices with the Panthers, a pair of practices with the Philadelphia Eagles on Aug. 13-14 and the preseason games that will follow will loom large in that decision-making process for QB1.
“I don’t think not getting out the mix [in the QB competition] is even a thought in my mind, in any room,” Sanders said. “So, I know I have the utmost standards for myself, and I know all I could do is go out there and do what I got to do every day and make as minimal mistakes [as possible].
“And I know it’s a long ways to go with everything and I know I lack experience on this realm and on this level, but one thing I can hang my hat on is in all pressure situations, you know who I am.”
