At some point, a door to the Cleveland Browns starting job was going to open for Shedeur Sanders. Little did we know it would be before he took his first snaps in this week’s full squad mandatory minicamp.
That’s effectively what happened last week, when the most intriguing quarterback competition in the NFL was basically described as a completely wide-open affair. So wide open that minicamp and training camp won’t just end up shaping the starting spot — they will likely end up deciding the entire order of the quarterback depth chart. Including the possibility that one of the rookies, either Dillon Gabriel or Shedeur Sanders, is under center when Week 1 rolls around.
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That was the takeaway from Cleveland offensive coordinator Tommy Rees last week, when he was asked if he could realistically see any of the four Browns quarterbacks winning the starting job.
“I mean, yeah, you can see them all winning the job, I think, right?” Rees said. “In terms of the competition, we’re so early in the process, we’re so early in evaluating it. But yeah, I think we have a good group of guys that continue to push each other and by the time September rolls around, we’ll be ready to go.
“[The QB] rotation day by day has been kind of fluid. These days we have probably the most reps to go around, so we’re able to balance them out. But all those guys have done a nice job coming to work and understanding that each day is going to be a little bit different rotationally. It’s an evaluation process for us still, so we’re just working through those as the days come.”
While vague and non-committal — and also rooted in the keep-it-positive vibes of most organized team activities — Rees did nothing to dispel the idea that the quarterback stack in Cleveland is up in the air. He did laugh when asked the question, though, likely because he knows it will be processed through the Shedeur prism. Right now, that seems to be how every bit of Browns quarterback news is focused: How does this impact Shedeur and where does he stand in the hierarchy now?
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Those two questions are going to be incessantly beaten to death for the next three months, or however long it takes for head coach Kevin Stefanski to lock in the order of the quarterback depth chart. It will be spelled out in detailed reporting on how each quarterback handled their reps, who looks better running whatever grouping they’re plugged into and who begins to steadily take snaps with the first-team offense. Starting with this week’s minicamp, some of those details will become less fuzzy as the Browns start installing at least some packages that they’ll be working into shape in training camp.
Right now, there’s at least one finite piece of information to chew on: All the quarterbacks have a chance to be the Browns starter when the season kicks off in September. For Sanders specifically, he’s going to need some dominoes to fall in his favor that include some things that are in his hands, and some that aren’t. After speaking with sources inside the Browns organization, here are the three factors that I believe weigh heaviest when it comes to Sanders’ path to the starting job …
First and foremost, Shedeur Sanders has to master the scheme, the verbiage and the terminology
Physically, Sanders can start in the NFL right now. But despite all the talk about Colorado Buffaloes offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur utilizing a pro-style scheme that supposedly made Sanders more “pro ready” than some other quarterbacks, I don’t think that has proven to be the case. Not only is Sanders going to be mentally swimming with the complexity of an NFL offense, there is a lot of work to do with the basic terminology and verbiage utilized by Kevin Stefanski’s scheme.
In short, I don’t believe Shurmur’s Colorado offense had as much NFL overlap in either of those departments, which means that Sanders is going to have to learn from the ground up when it comes to something as simple as being able to memorize and spit out all the verbiage of an NFL play inside the huddle.
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That’s hardly an unusual problem when it comes to rookie quarterbacks. But it’s a much bigger challenge when you weren’t really operating a complex offense in college or calling complicated plays or protections in a manner that had a lot of NFL overlap. Sanders has to learn the Browns’ offense and then learn how to speak it — and quickly — so that he can get to the line of scrimmage and make his pre-snap reads.
Take advantage of what should be ample reps in the preseason games
If I had to call it now, I think the Browns depth chart would be Joe Flacco as the starter, Dillon Gabriel and Kenny Pickett battling it out for the No. 2 spot, and Sanders entering camp as Cleveland’s fourth quarterback. If Sanders can pick up the offensive scheme quickly and get the verbiage down, then his opportunity to climb the depth chart will vastly improve if he performs when given chances on the field.
Preseason success will not be ignored. If Sanders lights it up when he gets his chances, that will be a conversation in the building when it comes to naming a starter. Of course, Gabriel will be under the same umbrella, too. One source inside the Browns called Gabriel “like a computer” when it comes to processing information and absorbing the offense. That alone slots him in front of Sanders.
Shedeur Sanders faces an uphill battle to become the Browns’ Week 1 starter. But the possibility does exist. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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But one thing is certain: Sanders or Gabriel merely playing well in the preseason will not be enough to win the starting job heading into the regular season. One of them would have to be exceptional.
The Browns have to decide if they’re committed to winning now or developing a young QB
In a sense, this is out of the rookies’ hands. Even if one or both play well in the preseason, the Cleveland braintrust has to decide whether it’s going to prioritize winning out of the gate in 2025. If the answer is yes, the experience factor of both Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett lean into that approach — at least to begin the season. Even with Gabriel’s extensive number of college snaps and Sanders having been a four-year starter, neither is likely to offer a better chance than the veterans to hit the ground running in September.
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Of course, there’s the caveat that both Flacco and Pickett could look horrible in training camp, which would undercut the experience factor. But the basic point still remains: If the Browns want to develop a young quarterback in either Sanders or Gabriel, the fastest route to getting that moving is to get one of them starting snaps sooner rather than later. Doing that would likely require scaling the offense back a bit to make the transition smoother. Do the Browns want to commit to that from Week 1? If not, can they scale the offense back later in the season and pivot to one of the rookies?
These are the kinds of internal discussions that are happening now and will continue to happen in the coming weeks and months. But the stage is absolutely set for a very legitimate quarterback battle. Shedeur Sanders’ path to the starting job may be the steepest amongst his competition, but it’s there.
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