The Browns’ QB1 job is seemingly Joe Flacco’s to lose getting into spring practices.
That’s based on Sports activities Illustrated’s Albert Breer, who stated Tuesday on “The Rich Eisen Show,” the Tremendous Bowl-winning quarterback is in “pole position” to take the preliminary snaps in Cleveland, which added a handful of signal-callers this offseason as starter Deshaun Watson continues his restoration from an Achilles damage.
“My sense is that Joe Flacco is going to take the first snap in the spring, which there’s some significance to that,” Breer stated of the 40-year-old, who’s on his second stint with the Browns after a shock playoff berth in 2023.
“I think [Steelers coach] Mike Tomlin called it pole position last year when he was talking about his own quarterback situation. I think Joe Flacco has pole position here.”
Flacco, who spent final season with the Colts, will compete for the beginning job in opposition to Kenny Pickett, a 2022 first-round choose with the Steelers, and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.
Pickett, recent off a Tremendous Bowl win with the Eagles, was traded to the Browns in March after serving as Jalen Hurts’ backup for one yr.
Though Flacco could also be poised to get “the first snap in the spring,” Breer famous issues might change with Pickett, 26, come coaching camp in the summertime.
“The guarantees in Joe Flacco’s deal and Kenny Pickett’s deal are almost identical to one another. So, walking away from either guy would more or less have the same penalty. So, even though Joe Flacco gets the first snap in the spring, that doesn’t mean, like, Kenny Pickett won’t get the first snap in the summer or that Joe Flacco is gonna make the team if Kenny Pickett wins the job,” Breer stated.
Cleveland has a number of key selections to make earlier than the season begins, together with who the backup quarterback will probably be and which quarterbacks will probably be on the ultimate roster.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Wednesday how the Browns “look at the roster through the prism of value and currency,” with an insider suggesting it “could lead to an eventual trade if injuries happen across the league.”
Gabriel was taken 94th general within the 2025 NFL Draft whereas Sanders, the son of NFL legend Deion Sanders, slid to the fifth spherical and was taken at No. 144.
The Browns are coming off a disastrous 3-14 marketing campaign that noticed a rotation at quarterback following Watson’s season-ending Achilles damage in October.
He re-injured his Achilles earlier this yr.
Watson’s Browns tenure has been a $230 million disappointment, with proprietor Jimmy Haslam saying as a lot in March.
“We took a big swing and miss with Deshaun,” Haslam stated of the quarterback, who signed a five-year, totally assured cope with the staff after a commerce with the Texans in 2022.
Possibly, simply perhaps, one of many 4 QBs Browns brass introduced on this offseason would be the hit they so desperately want.
