As the Cleveland Browns near their first round of organized team activities (OTAs), coach Kevin Stefanski is overlooking a seemingly wide-open starting quarterback competition between Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett.
Sanders and Gabriel were selected in last month's NFL Draft while Flacco is entering his 18th professional season and Pickett his fourth. Three-time Pro Bowler Deshaun Watson is also in the picture but remains out with an Achilles injury.
On Friday, Stefanski appeared on ESPN Cleveland's "The Really Big Show" and was, of course, asked about his crowded quarterback room. The Browns' rising sixth-year coach said each quarterback will see a different number of reps this offseason and during training camp.
"I told the players, 'Don't pay attention to where you are in line because where you are on Tuesday, it may be different than Wednesday," Stefanski told ESPN Cleveland. "So no, we don't pay close attention to that. Certainly, you have to decide what order the guys are gonna go out, and sometimes it may be player X, player Y, whatever it is."
Most notably, Stefanski said the rep distribution will depend on what each quarterback needs and what his staff needs to evaluate each arm fairly.
"The big thing for us is making sure we give the guys enough reps that they need," Stefanski said. "It's two-fold. Both, they're learning the system, they're developing, and we're evaluating them and finding out more about them. That's why I said before, it's not going to be everybody gets 25% of these reps. It's not how it's gonna be. We want to give everybody enough reps where we can learn more about them and prepare them to get ready to play."
The Browns' unique four-man competition began when they selected Gabriel in the third round and Sanders in the fifth, surprising many across the league. Some have speculated that because Gabriel, who led the Oregon Ducks to the College Football Playoff, has the leg up over Sanders because he was selected two rounds earlier. However, Sanders accomplished plenty throughout his two Power Four seasons with the Colorado Buffaloes and turned heads throughout the Browns' rookie minicamp.
How will the Browns split the reps for the QBs in camp?
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) May 23, 2025
"It's not going to be like everybody gets 25% of the reps, that's not how it's gonna be," - @Browns HC Kevin Stefanski. pic.twitter.com/7hRnHdk4vv
After shockingly falling to the fifth round of the draft, Sanders said he's blocking out the outside noise during his first NFL offseason.
“My job here isn’t to prove people wrong, I’m proving myself right,” Sanders said during rookie minicamp. “I fully believe it. What those people say, that’s just their opinions. I don’t truly care. They don’t really live in my mental space about that type of stuff. It really doesn’t do anything for me.”
Cleveland will hold its first OTA practices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday of next week. Another round of OTAs is scheduled for June 3-4 and June 6.
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