Will the Browns really cut this unexpected player before the season?

At this point in the off-season, a lot of the league-wide musical chairs has finally ceased. The music has stopped, and most players have already found their seats. There are still intriguing free agents out there looking for teams, but for the most part, the teams are close to their final form.

With the NFL draft in the books, certain positional battles take center stage as we analyze the numbers game that constitutes NFL roster construction. For example, NFL teams typically seem to carry somewhere between two and three quarterbacks on their active roster. A team, like the Browns, that selected two quarterbacks in the draft while having two healthy ones under contract, creates an interesting predicament.

Will the Browns go the unusual route, and carry four quarterbacks (the Patriots did this in 2000, when Tom Brady was their fourth quarterback)? Or could two of the quarterbacks on the Browns be competing for the same spot when cut-down day comes?

Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report explored this idea for all 32 NFL teams as training camp fast approaches. When it came to the Browns, it was somewhat surprising to see Joe Flacco's name listed, although the reasoning was sound.

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Knox explained: "The Browns won't have Deshaun Watson in 2025, after he suffered two consecutive Achilles tears. However, they traded for Kenny Pickett before drafting both Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. The Browns probably won't carry four quarterbacks into the regular season, and the 40-year-old Flacco simply doesn't carry long-term value."

While Flacco may not carry long-term value, his performance for this same franchise under this very coaching staff in 2023 should carry some weight here. Flacco was a lightning rod for a talented Browns team that just needed something, anything, from the QB position.

One would be hard-pressed to find any stretch of Kenny Pickett's career that was as productive as Flacco's 2023 run, and that's while ignoring Flacco's prime years as a Baltimore Raven. Flacco appears to be the leader in the clubhouse to begin the season if neither rookie dazzles in the ramp-up to Week 1.

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Furthermore, the Browns gave Joe Flacco $3 million fully guaranteed on his one-year deal. While this is hardly backbreaking dollars in the modern NFL, it is not as if Flacco signed a contract with no guarantees for an outside shot at making the roster.

The conundrum is when considering that outside of Flacco, the Browns have Dillon Gabriel, this year's third-round pick, Shedeur Sanders, this year's fifth-round pick, and Kenny Pickett, a player whom the Browns traded a fifth-round pick to the Eagles to acquire.

It is extremely rare for a team to cut a third-round draft pick without even one season under their belt. Less rare, but still somewhat seldom happens, is the fifth-round pick who doesn't make their team's initial roster. In fact, since Andrew Berry assumed his post as the team's general manager in 2020, he has never cut a draft choice made before the seventh round prior to their rookie season.

At the time of the Pickett trade, the move seemed premature and largely regrettable, and it seems more so now. Pickett doesn't offer the experience or playing history of Flacco, nor the upside or youth of Gabriel or Sanders.

With that said, after the Browns invested a fifth-round pick in him, the view here is that the Browns should sacrifice one of those nebulous roster spots (the tenth offensive lineman, the sixth receiver, the fourth tight end, for example) to be able to roster all four quarterbacks. This will allow them flexibility, as well as the ability to add an asset in the future.

If a team loses their starting quarterback in the early parts of the season, or has truly deplorable backup play in the preseason, maybe they'll throw the Browns a draft pick for Pickett, easing the sting of the initial trade.

If nothing else, Pickett is at the very least experienced enough to be Flacco's backup should the rookies not be ready to begin the season. If the Browns are able to find a way to roster all four quarterbacks, it would very likely be the best situation for the team.

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