Browns Send Clear Message on Leader in QB Competition Including Sanders, Gabriel

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Max Dible | Last updated Jun 5, 2025 7:49 AM ET

The Cleveland Browns are in an interesting position at the quarterback position as training camp nears.

The team is both replete with as many options as just about any franchise in the league, though who might start Week 1 is as unclear as who might start Week 18 -- even if every one of Cleveland's signal callers remains healthy for the entire 2025 campaign.

The exact order of the depth chart is a bit murky, though it is relatively safe to say that veterans Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco are battling for the QB1 spot, as rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders find their footing in a new offense at the NFL level.

That said, both Gabriel and Sanders have impressed in their own ways early in OTAs, and the team has been cagey about what its quarterback hierarchy looks like with nearly two months to go before the Browns submit their initial 53-man roster to the league.

New offensive coordinator Tommy Rees spoke to media members on Wednesday, June 4, and was crystal clear in his messaging that the offense has not made a decision on its top quarterback. He was also clear that Flacco, Pickett, Sanders and Gabriel all remain contenders to win the top job come Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, September 7, in Cleveland.

"You can see them all winning the job, I think, right?" Rees said. "And so in terms of the competition, we’re so early in the process, we’re so early in evaluating that. ... We have a good group of guys that continue to push one another, and by the time September rolls around, we’ll be ready to go."

Rees spoke of four quarterbacks in the hunt for the starting position while answering multiple questions about the offense Wednesday, which indicates the team doesn't believe Deshaun Watson will be healthy enough to compete for snaps come Week 1.

Watson suffered an Achilles injury last season and hurt the same tendon again during rehabilitation, so it remains unclear if he will be available at any point during the upcoming campaign.

It is also likely that Cleveland will look to move on from one of the four QBs in contention for the starting job as the end of summer approaches, as most NFL franchises don't carry more than three signal callers once the regular season begins.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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