The Most Inconceivable QB Room in NFL History
How Cleveland’s QB Room makes the most sense, yet no sense at the same time
Going into the draft the Cleveland Browns had two guys in competition for the QB spot after Deshaun Watson’s repeat Achilles tear. Kenny Pickett along with Joe Flacco. Kenny Pickett has had a career full of struggling to execute the basics. Tumultuous, disastrous, and unfruitful. He’s had plays where he’s struggled to hold onto a football, plays where he looks like he’s an industry plant for ESPN’s C’MON MAN, and never has displayed the ability to pick a defense apart at any level in the passing game. It would be hard to imagine him starting, so Joe Flacco was effectively scooped up as a safety net. After all, Flacco did lead the Browns to the playoffs after being on his couch a couple years prior. That being said, the 40 year old seems to have run out of juice after nearly replicating his Browns stats from 2023 last year. The end of the road for a football legend and playoff riser. I know people don’t love to give Flacco his flowers, but he did it every season against the best of the best when he was the gunslinger for the Ravens. This move to get Flacco was surely for the development of the young QB the team desperately needed in the 2025 NFL Draft. Many pegged the Cleveland Browns with selecting Shedeur Sanders somewhere within the first round of the NFL Draft. Potentially pairing him with Travis Hunter since Cleveland had the second pick and Hunter was touted a can’t miss generational prospect. What ensued afterwards was just pure ineptitude or incredible foresight depending on how you look at it.
Heading into the draft I myself had Shedeur marked as a third round talent. Far below what ESPN had him at, which was a surefire first or beginning of second round guy. The Browns immediately went for fireworks and traded away the rights to drafting Travis Hunter in exchange for the fifth pick, the 36th pick, a fourth round selection, and a first round pick next year from Jacksonville. An incredibly savvy move considering Travis Hunter wouldn’t move the needle enough for Cleveland heading into the future. The team elected to select two ridiculously productive college RBs, a lethal TE target, and the anchor to one of the best collegiate defenses in recent history, Mason Graham. Filling their needs, but not pushing this team anywhere towards contention. That means next year the Browns are a certain lock to most likely have two top ten picks and take a swing at quarterback. Or they can trade the immense draft capital accrued to fill out their roster. So getting back to the draft many QB needy teams associated with Sanders’ name continually passed on ESPN’s guy. Ward went, then Dart, followed by Tyler Shough. Sanders was surely the next guy in line despite his antics and his father Deion being one of the worst agents in NFL history. Nope the Seahawks went with the project gamble of Jalen Milroe. Then the Browns made an unfathomable pick in the third round by selecting Dillon Gabriel from Oregon. Now this is where I drew the line.
Browns went Gabriel?! How on Earth can you select a guy in the third who played six years of college football and seemingly missed every single tool one looks for in a QB? This guy shouldn’t have been drafted and when you pair his horrendous combine with his well below average frame for a QB, the pick was ludicrous. Laughable. Now that the Browns had Gabriel no one knew who was in the market for Shedeur. Would the Steelers grab him since he now had slipped past the third? The fourth round came and went with no new home for Sanders. Then the fifth came and the Browns traded up for the 144th pick to finally snag Shedeur Sanders. A humbling moment for the confident young man. Everyone in sports media had no class when talking about Sanders after his fall. Clowning him since ESPN had ignored various factors that could trigger his pitfall. Even ESPN played Looney Toons-esque tracks when showing Sanders with his party on draft night. No way the Browns had Gabriel over Sanders. It’s reasonable to believe Gabriel’s selection was a strategic move to light a fire under the previously projected top five pick.
The QB room in Cleveland has five potential starters now. All not glamorous, but clearly signifying a summer audition for the coveted role of playing QB for the Cleveland Browns. Yes, that is a joke. It became such a spectacle about what the Browns vision was that DraftKings made odds for the Browns starting QB week one. They opened at: Kenny Pickett -110, Shedeur Sanders +175, Dillon Gabriel +500, Joe Flacco +1200, Deshaun Watson +1500. Since the day after the draft they have changed to: Kenny Pickett +110, Joe Flacco +200, Shedeur Sanders +300, Dillon Gabriel +1000, Deshaun Watson +2000. Having odds for such an insignificant event is unbelievably comical. Why is everyone so keen on humiliating Sanders? No way a fifth round pick is taking the first snap. Or are the Browns set to provide Sanders with an audition to see where their future lies? The whole thing is perplexing, but one thing is certain. Dillon Gabriel won’t take the first snap and Deshaun Watson and I are just as likely to take the Browns first snap. The disgraced Watson just re-tore his Achilles filming a TikTok dance with his wife. Of course, as always, Watson has every comment section turned off because he knows it would be open season if he didn’t. Watson won’t ever be the starter again while Gabriel is most likely to be cut. That leaves three men.
The Mentor, Joe Flacco. The Tanking Titan, Kenny Pickett. And last, but not least, Mr. Positive Expected Value, Shedeur Sanders. Although it’s a mystery who’s the starter week one I don’t think there’s a chance Shedeur doesn’t play a down next season. This carousel might be one of the best situations of all time for a first year fifth round QB draft pick. A room void of potential. Every mold of QB all gutting it out for a shot to make a name for themselves. In a weird way I love it. Why not motivate Sanders? Don’t hype him up to be someone you don’t think he is. Let him prove it. Sanders is such a puzzling prospect. He had no offensive line with two to three defensive lineman caving in the pocket at an alarming frequency. Does everyone forget that? One of Sanders knocks is running away from pressure. What was he supposed to do? Quit on the play. His defense couldn’t even tackle half of the time so points were paramount. Sanders gave it everything he got. He needs to separate himself from Deion and tirelessly work on his fundamentals. Discard his ball pat prior to every pass and use his legs more frequently.
The future for Cleveland is brighter than most think. Just sit back and enjoy what unfolds. Lay off of Sanders. He couldn’t help being thrust into primetime back in college. After all, his father is PRIMETIME. The biggest question of all with this quarterback room is what on earth did the Cleveland Browns tell Myles Garrett prior to his extension? For real. The NFL said he was angry about the lack of a quarterback. No way the organization told Garrett they were signing Joe Flacco, trading for Kenny Pickett, drafting Gabriel before Shedeur, and then taking Shedeur. What a whirlwind. Can the Browns escape being the laughing stock in the AFC North for the foreseeable future?
