Cleveland Browns rookie quarterbacks Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel are having very different showings early on at OTAs.
Sanders and Gabriel are part of a four-man quarterbacks room that also includes Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett. Deshaun Watson is still part of the group, but he’s working his way back from re-tearing his Achilles and might not play in 2025.
So far, Sanders has been “impressive” with his practice reps, according to Zac Jackson of The Athletic.
“Everybody wants to see Shedeur, he’s been impressive,” Jackson said on The Zach Gelb Show. “You talk to people in the building, they say he’s been impressive.”
Meanwhile, things have not got smoothly for Gabriel. Jackson says that the Oregon product “does not look like an NFL quarterback.”
“Dillon Gabriel does not look like an NFL quarterback to me,” Jackson said. “Like, 0%, so I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
While Jackson praised Sanders, he did pump the brakes on that excitement a bit by stating that he’s not sure if either Sanders or Gabriel will ever become NFL starters.
“And I’m telling you, I like what I see from Shedeur, I mean that. But I don’t know that either one of these rookies will ever play, let alone this year. I don’t know that they’ll be ready. We just don’t know at this early stage.”
When it comes to the starting job, Jackson believes the competition is between Flacco and Pickett, which was expected given their experience.
“So, what this competition is right now, for at least two more months and probably beyond that, it’s two different competitions,” he said. “It’s Flacco versus Pickett for the starting job, and then it’s the two rookies positioning themselves against one another, but really just in the scheme of things to be ready.”
The Browns are going to have a tough decision on their hands once final cuts come around.
Cleveland is highly unlikely to carry four quarterbacks on its initial 53-man roster, which means one of Flacco, Pickett, Sanders or Gabriel could get cut or traded.
It’s hard to imagine the Browns cutting ties with Gabriel after just one offseason, even if he continues to struggle. But this is the Browns we’re talking about, so nothing is impossible.
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