The Cleveland Browns take a major step forward in the quarterback competition this week.

Following two days of joint practices with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Browns and Eagles will meet Saturday afternoon for a preseason game at Lincoln Financial Field.

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Barring any injuries or other setbacks, at some point, possibly as early as next week, head coach Kevin Stefanski will announce that Joe Flacco will open the season as the starting quarterback. That has been as close to a lock as you can find in the NFL, given that Flacco knows Stefanski’s offense, and his competition is a pair of rookies who are not ready and Kenny Pickett.

How the rest of the room shakes out behind Flacco is still a bit open, but it should surprise no one if the initial 53-man roster has Shedeur Sanders as the backup, Dillon Gabriel as the developmental third quarterback, and Pickett plying his trade elsewhere after general manager Andrew Berry moves him for a conditional draft pick.

Even though the plan appears to be coming together, there are still legitimate questions about how much the Browns can rebound from a 2024 season that saw some of the historically worst quarterback play in NFL history:

How long can Flacco hold up at age 40?

Does Flacco realize his “big arm” may not be able to make the throws it once did, and can he adjust?

If/when things start to go south, when will the Browns move on to Sanders?

Can the Browns really go with two rookies behind Flacco and “risk” losing Pickett?

We’ll start knowing the answers once the season kicks off against the Cincinnati Bengals, but if you go by The Athletic’s annual NFL QB Tiers ranking system, it is still going to be a rough season.

For those not familiar, The Athletic polls a panel of 50 NFL coaches and executives, who are granted anonymity, to share their evaluations of the league’s quarterbacks. The panel comprised six general managers, six assistant GMs, six former GMs, five other executives, eight head coaches and 19 other coaches, including 15 coordinators.

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Each voter places 34 veteran quarterbacks into five tiers, from Tier 1 (Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and others) down to Tier 5 (more on the lone quarterback in this group in a minute).

So, how does this relate to the Browns?

Flacco, who hasn’t been included in the rankings, makes his less-than-triumphant return at No. 31 in Tier 4, which includes unproven players or a veteran who should not be starting a full season:

Flacco is making his first QB Tiers appearance since 2021. Voters are slightly higher on him now, at age 40, than they were back then, at 36.”He’s still playing?” a defensive coordinator asked.

Flacco is the favorite to start in Week 1, with Kenny Pickett limited by a hamstring injury and the two rookie draft choices, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, working in the background.

“I respect him, particularly in that scheme,” another defensive coordinator said of Flacco. “He pairs well with what (Kevin) Stefanski wants to do.”

Little-known fact: Flacco has a higher completion rate, yards per attempt and passer rating over the past two seasons than he had in his career previously.

“Flacco has no regard for ball security, so you don’t know when he is going to throw into a crowd,” an offensive coach said. “He’s going to make some throws because of that, but he’s also going to have bad plays and turnovers.”

Flacco’s two pick-sixes for Cleveland in the playoffs after the 2023 season come to mind as examples.

“I think Joe is a good backup,” a third defensive coordinator said.

So if Flacco is best suited as a backup, the Browns should hold on to Pickett, yes?

Well, remember that quarterback who is sitting by himself in Tier 5? Yeah, that would be Pickett, who is behind such luminaries as Spencer Rattler, Anthony Richardson, and Daniel Jones:

Pickett and Ben Roethlisberger combined to start 38 games for the Steelers when Matt Canada was the team’s offensive coordinator. The offense averaged slightly more yards per play (4.9 to 4.8) and EPA per play (-0.05 to -0.06) in the 22 games Pickett started than in the 16 games Roethlisberger started.

“Sometimes, guys just get into bad situations, so you really don’t know what they are,” a defensive coordinator said. “That is why sometimes you see guys go somewhere else and you say, ‘Hey, the guy can play a little bit.’ They can all play if they are drafted in the first round. Do they get in the right system?”

Pickett has made 22 of his 25 career starts so far with Canada as his offensive coordinator. Canada’s only NFL job was with the Steelers from 2020 to ’23. He has not coached since.

“I liked Pickett coming out of college, but he really collapses in the pocket; he doesn’t like to get people around him,” an offensive coach said.

Pickett has been limited in camp and missed the preseason opener as he recovers from a hamstring injury. He’s competing with Joe Flacco and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders for the starting job in a Browns offense that ranked last in EPA per play over the past two seasons.

“I was never a big Pickett guy,” another defensive coordinator said. “When they had success against us, it was because of their run game and defense.”

At first blush, this appears to signal panic mode in Berea. But it doesn’t reveal anything that wasn’t already known. Flacco is on the downside of his career, Pickett is what he is, and if the Browns truly want to sabotage anyone’s career, the best way to do that would be to name Sanders or Gabriel the Week 1 starter.

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The quarterback play should be better than in 2024; it can hardly be worse, but this has always been a transition year with an eye on rebuilding the quarterback room in 2026 if needed.