Browns QB contender to miss time with hamstring injury

One of the leading candidates to win the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback job suffered a potentially significant injury setback over the weekend.

Browns quarterback Kenny Pickett suffered a hamstring injury during practice Saturday and will be sidelined. Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reported that Pickett is “likely to miss some time.”

Pickett has been widely viewed as one of the two most likely Week 1 starters for the Browns. There was even some evidence he might have been pulling ahead of Joe Flacco to claim the starting job. It is not clear how long Pickett’s absence will be, and how much it will negatively impact his chances of winning the job.

The Browns traded for Pickett in March, and he was expected to be Flacco’s main challenger for the starting job. The team then drafted rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, but that does not appear to have changed the race significantly, as neither of them have received much of a look so far.

Pickett started 24 games over two seasons for the Steelers to start his career, throwing for 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He served as a backup to Jalen Hurts on the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl team last season.