In the wake of the latest injury to a Cleveland Browns quarterback, veteran Joe Flacco appears poised to start the season-opener but the quarterback situation will be a “wild ride” all year, one analyst says.
“Everyone’s hurt except for 40-year-old Joe Flacco so that sort of makes him the odds-on favorite to be the Week 1 starter,” ESPN’s Dan Graziano said Thursday on ESPN. “Flacco looks to be the starter by default.”
Graziano made the comments after rookie Shedeur Sanders suffered an oblique injury that kept him out of Wednesday’s joint practice with the Super Bowl championPhiladelphia Eagles as a precautionary measure.
The fifth-round draft pick won’t practice Thursday and is unlikely to play in this week’s preseason game, per The Athletic.
The injury comes after Sanders excelled in the team’s first preseason game against the Carolina Panthers last Friday.
After that performance, one analyst said Sanders had “earned” the right to “make a push” as the Browns’ starter.
Browns quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Kenny Pickett have battled hamstring injuries, which allowed Sanders to start in the Carolina game.
On Wednesday, Flacco passed 13 times with the first-team offense, while Pickett threw six times. Gabriel passed 19 times, mostly with the second team, and is expected to start against the Eagles.
Sanders informed Flacco about the injury during practice.
“It’s kinda tough,” Flacco told reporters. “We all want to be out there and getting reps. That’s what training camp and football is all about, sometimes these things happen. Sometimes you deal with them. It is what it is.”
He added of the younger quarterbacks:
“We’re in that room together and we’re doing things together. When we come out on this field, I’m not super worried about what Dillon is doing to get back from his hamstring.”
For now, Flacco looks like the starter for Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals, with Pickett as QB-2.
Sanders remains fourth on the team’s QB depth chart behind Flacco, Pickett and Gabriel.
Still, said Graziano, “This should be a pretty wild ride all season long with the Browns’ quarterback situation.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter and Basketball Insider for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.
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