{"id":23181,"date":"2025-05-04T13:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T13:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/23181\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T13:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T13:20:09","slug":"browns-qb-room-kenny-pickett-or-joe-flacco-could-be-the-odd-man-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/23181\/","title":{"rendered":"Browns QB room: Kenny Pickett or Joe Flacco could be the odd man out"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Cleveland Browns<\/a> selecting two quarterbacks in the NFL Draft<\/a>, the quarterback room is suddenly crowded<\/a>. Removing Deshaun Watson from the equation since he will likely not play at all this season, the room consists of Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, rookies Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel. <\/p>\n

One veteran, a former first round pick and two rookies. A boiling pot that is the Browns QB room. So everyone wants to know, who will be the odd man out in a very crowded room? <\/p>\n

Hint: It\u2019s the answer that some fans won\u2019t be pleased to hear.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an open competition, everyone will get a fair shot to prove that they deserve to be QB1<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s not obvious by now, it\u2019s clear that the Cleveland quarterback situation is unresolved. There is no clear starter right now, and from reading from what head coach Kevin Stefanski said, everyone in that room will get an opportunity to showcase if they are worthy enough to start. <\/p>\n

Everyone is just assuming that Flacco will be the starter because he has the most experience but he\u2019s also 40 years old and on a slow decline. Pickett is a former first-round pick who hasn\u2019t had much success, but like Flacco, he has experience. <\/p>\n

Enter the two rookie QB\u2019s. <\/p>\n

When the Browns drafted Oregon Ducks<\/a> Gabriel in the 3rd round, it was considered a reach based on where the projections had the QB but it\u2019s obvious that the coaching staff sees something in Gabriel. <\/p>\n

The former Oregon QB doesn\u2019t have many athletic traits; he\u2019s around an average athlete but he can play with rhythm and timing not to mention he can operate well when it comes to the RPO and play action. <\/p>\n

Sanders, who fell to the 5th round, was selected by the Browns, and similar to Gabriel he also plays with rhythm and timing. Sanders has his limitations as an athlete, but he makes up for it with his processing. He\u2019s an effective game manager but will tend to hold onto the ball for too long and has issues creating out of structure. <\/p>\n

A crowded room with a lot of question marks.<\/p>\n

Joe Flacco could be the odd man out of the crowded QB room<\/p>\n

Someone has to say it, so I might as well. Respect to Flacco and what he did in 2023, but expecting him to replicate that in 2025 might be an unrealistic expectation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t understand, Flacco gives this fanbase hope and he can be a leader in the quarterback room!\u201d Why should they get rid of Flacco?\u201d<\/p>\n

Relying on a 40-year-old Joe Flacco to give you hope in 2025 is kind of crazy, but we have seen crazier things.<\/p>\n

Factoring in his age and the contract he signed, Cleveland can move off Flacco with only a $1.6 million in dead cap after June 1st. If the team were to cut Pickett, Sanders or Gabriel, none would clear waivers and would be picked up immediately. <\/p>\n

Could the team cut Flacco and put him on the practice squad? Possibly, but the veteran would have to accept that. Depending on what happens in training camp, any number of trade possibilities exist in the room and injuries tend to pile up and change the equation as well.<\/p>\n

The team taking two swings at the quarterback position is allowing them to figure out what they have at the position. The team already knows what Flacco is at this point: Not the long-term answer. Either Sanders or Gabriel could be and both will be getting a fair opportunity. <\/p>\n

In sports, we often talk about \u201cfollow the money\u201d in trying to understand why decisions are made. With the Browns QB room, \u201cfollow the investment\u201d is a little more appropriate:<\/p>\n

Pickett cost the team a 5th-round pick and Dorian Thompson-Robinson
\nGabriel was selected with a 3rd round pick
\nSanders was selected with a 5th-round pick
\nFlacco was signed with $1.255 million in guaranteed salary<\/p>\n

If everyone is healthy at the end of training camp, who do you think is the most likely odd man out of the Browns crowded QB room? Share your thoughts in the comment section below<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve never signed up for an account with us, which you will need to comment, you can do so here<\/a>, then come back and share your QB thoughts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Cleveland Browns selecting two quarterbacks in the NFL Draft, the quarterback room is suddenly crowded. Removing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[3937,86,93,85,54,3295,95,8574,2337,3801,92,4778,7,29,1573,97,3389,94,6,10693,869,3464,98,1293,604,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-23181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-be","9":"tag-browns","10":"tag-by","11":"tag-cleveland","12":"tag-cleveland-browns","13":"tag-cleveland-browns-free-agency","14":"tag-cleveland-browns-nfl-draft","15":"tag-cleveland-browns-salary-cap-contracts","16":"tag-clevelandbrowns","17":"tag-could","18":"tag-dawgs","19":"tag-flacco","20":"tag-football","21":"tag-front-page","22":"tag-joe","23":"tag-kenny","24":"tag-man","25":"tag-nature","26":"tag-nfl","27":"tag-odd","28":"tag-or","29":"tag-out","30":"tag-pickett","31":"tag-qb","32":"tag-room","33":"tag-the"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114449771709439486","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}