Joe Flacco Cut Candidate in Cleveland Based on Browns’ Recent Moves

Cleveland Browns quarterback Joe Flacco.
The Cleveland Browns are going to have to cut at least one of their five quarterbacks ahead of the regular season, and Deshaun Watson isn’t likely to end up the odd man out.

Watson continues rehabilitating his twice-torn Achilles tendon and may not be available at all in 2025. Even if he is, the Browns are unlikely to put him on the field based on comments from ownership and the front office this offseason, which essentially amounted to calling the trade for Watson and his subsequent signing a mistake.

But Watson has two years remaining on his $230 million guaranteed contract and axing now doesn’t make much sense for a variety of reasons. As such, the four players whose futures with the franchise are in question are Cleveland’s two 2025 draft picks, Dillon Gabriel (third round) and Shedeur Sanders (fifth round), as well as veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett.

The Browns probably didn’t intend to select two quarterbacks coming into this year’s draft, but Sanders’ unprecedented slide from the potential No. 1 overall pick a few months ago to selection No. 144 on Saturday provided them an opportunity that essentially no one saw coming.

Given the ages of Gabriel (24) and Sanders (23) and their minimal contract costs, both figure to remain fixtures in Cleveland for at least the next year or two. That means that the Browns will eventually part with either Pickett — for whom they traded a fifth-round pick and QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson to the Philadelphia Eagles — or Flacco, who they just agreed to pay $4 million.

 
Cutting Joe Flacco or Kenny Pickett Represents Similar Cost to Browns
 
GettyCleveland Browns quarterback Joe Flacco.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated explored Cleveland’s QB situation on Tuesday, April 29, looking at the likelihood of either Flacco or Pickett exiting the franchise ahead of this season through a financial lens.

“One interesting thing to consider about the Browns’ quarterback room, as Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders enter it, is how they have Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett on level ground,” Breer wrote. “Flacco’s contract has $4 million in base pay, $3 million of which is fully guaranteed. Pickett has $2.623 million in base pay for this year, the final year of his rookie contract, and all of it is fully guaranteed. Which means that the cost for Cleveland to walk away from either player at the end of camp is virtually equal — and puts the two in competition not just for the starting job, but a job, period.”

Breer pointed out that the division of meaningful summer reps will be an indicator of who the Browns will stick with, but there are multiple factors that appear to lean in Pickett’s favor in the context of either he or Flacco ending up as cut candidates.

 
Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco Both Have Points in Their Favor to Remain With Browns This Season
 
GettyCleveland Browns quarterback Kenny Pickett.
First off, Flacco is the more accomplished player by far. He’s also been a starter for portions of each of the past two seasons (11 total starts in Cleveland and with the Indianapolis Colts combined), where as Pickett started just one game last season in Philly after the Pittsburgh Steelers gave up on him in 2023.

However, Flacco is also 40 years old and could embarking on his last professional campaign in 2025. Meanwhile, Pickett (15-10 career record) will play this season at only 27 years old. Pickett’s youth makes him a more viable long-term backup QB option should Sanders or Gabriel win the starting job at some point this preseason or in the regular season, which could swing the final QB roster spot in Pickett’s favor. Beyond that, the Browns surrendered two assets to acquire him, while they just signed Flacco in free agency.

Flacco has a strong, albeit brief, history with Browns fans after leading the team to the playoffs in 2023, and GM Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski probably need the team to improve significantly from its three-win total last season to secure their employment futures.

That all theoretically favors Flacco, as does the notion that Pickett’s considerably longer future in the league beyond 2025 makes him a stronger potential trade chip if the Browns decide to move one of their QBs ahead of Week 1.

All of that said, father time eventually catches up to every professional athlete, and Flacco had some rough moments in Indy last season after replacing Anthony Richardson as the starter for a short stretch. If his game has continued to deteriorate in the interim, the Browns may face an easier decision than the one that currently appears in front of them on paper.
Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group's family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible