{"id":657200,"date":"2026-01-06T00:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/657200\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T00:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:30:21","slug":"cleveland-browns-gm-starting-qb-for-2026-is-still-an-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/657200\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Browns GM: Starting QB for 2026 is still an unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry acknowledged on Monday what everyone who watched the team play this season already knew full well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">And make no mistake, the Browns do not currently have a quarterback on the roster who is deserving of being anywhere near the starter\u2019s role this fall. (Time expired on the benefit of the doubt.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The two most likely candidates, seeing as how veteran Deshaun Watson has certainly played his last down for the Browns, are Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, who both just wrapped up what was, even by the standards of the Browns, an interesting and bizarre season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Gabriel made six starts from Week 5 through halftime of the Week 11 game before turning things over to Sanders for the final seven starts of the season. So that gives everyone involved an even data set to evaluate what the rookies were able to accomplish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">And, oh dear, do those numbers not look good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Looking at the raw numbers projected over a 17-game schedule, Gabiel would have finished the year completing 59.5 percent of his passes for 1,593 yards, 12 touchdowns, three interceptions, and 32 sacks. Sanders, meanwhile, projected out to a 56.6 completion percentage, 2,975 yards, 15 touchdowns, 21 interceptions, and 49 sacks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWe\u2019re going to do our work on the quarterback market. It\u2019s too important of a position, and it\u2019s something that has to be solidified. I can\u2019t sit here and tell you today, you know, whether the solution for or the starter in 2026 is internal or external. But it\u2019s something that we\u2019re going to work through over the next several weeks. And quite honestly, the new head coach will also have a lot of input into that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">That dovetails with the statement from the team attributed to Berry earlier in the day, stating he expects to \u201cdevelop what will be a young offense with heavy investment over the next six months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Fortunately, Berry should have the cap space (possibly around $69 million when all is said and done) and the draft picks (10 overall and two in the first round) to achieve that stated goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Whether or not that \u201cheavy investment\u201d results in wins remains to be seen, but it seems as clear as ever that the Browns are going to be back in the quarterback market come free agency and the draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry acknowledged on Monday what everyone who watched the team play this season&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,1864,2337,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-657200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-cleveland-browns-news","12":"tag-clevelandbrowns","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115845334869484588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657200","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=657200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}