Sanders Gets Honest About Fellow Browns QBs After Bad Depth Chart News

 
Getty

QB Shedeur Sanders at Cleveland Browns rookie minicamp.
Shedeur Sanders won’t begin offseason workouts as the No. 1 quarterback on the Cleveland Browns‘ roster, and he won’t start as the backup signal caller, either.

Those jobs will belong to Kenny Pickett and Sanders’ rookie teammate Dillon Gabriel, formerly of Oregon, who Cleveland selected late in the third round before taking Sanders early in the fifth during last month’s NFL draft.

“I know Kenny Pickett heads in as the frontrunner to win the starting job at the outset,” Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported on May 19. “He’ll take the initial first-team reps in OTAs and probably the mandatory minicamp, and it seems like it’s his job to try to keep for now.”

ESPN doesn’t even technically list Sanders on the depth chart via its updated website, as Deshaun Watson occupies the QB1 spot, and Joe Flacco is also among the four quarterbacks who made the list.

Watson is rehabilitating a twice-torn Achilles tendon and may not be healthy enough to play at all in 2025. Beyond that, the team has been public in its admittance that the trade for Watson and his subsequent contract were mistakes. That said, he’s guaranteed the next two years on his $230 million contract and thus remains on the roster.

Sanders will have to work his way into a chance to first suit up, then play and finally potentially start. But the 23-year-old QB told Kay Adams on Wednesday, May 21, that he harbors no ill will toward his fellow signal callers and that the unit is actually close.

“Everybody’s cool in the room,” Sanders said. “Outside the room, people try to pit us against each other. But inside the room, we know we’re one.”

 
Browns Likely to Trade 1 QB Ahead of Season, Not Necessarily Any Time Soon
 
GettyCleveland Browns quarterbacks Deshaun Watson (left) Joe Flacco (right).
Cleveland isn’t likely to carry Watson and four other quarterbacks into the regular season, though the team has said it isn’t currently looking to deal any of its signal callers at this point in the offseason.

The New Orleans Saints are among the teams already potentially in the market for a veteran QB like Pickett or Flacco.

“The Browns have no plans to trade any of their quarterbacks at this point,” Cabot continued. “They’re intent on conducting this four-way quarterback competition and having the QBs bring out the best in each other. By roster cutdown day on Aug. 27, they will be prepared to part with at least one of the quarterbacks.”

 
Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel Already Battling for Future as Browns’ Longterm Starter
 
GettyCleveland Browns quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
The battle for this season’s starting job in Cleveland, which the majority of analysts predict to be among the league’s worst teams in 2025, may be a four-horse race in mid-May.

However, the battle for the longterm starting position began at rookie minicamp earlier this month between Sanders and Gabriel.

Conflicting reports emerged from that weekend, with some indicating Sanders was sharper, while others lauded Gabriel’s overall presence (particularly in the pocket) as a factor that put him in the lead.
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