Browns Drawing Firm Line on QB Trade

The Cleveland Browns have a surplus of quarterbacks but aren’t ready to put any of them on the trade block, per a prominent insider.

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The Browns traded for Kenny Pickett and signed Joe Flacco in free agency to bolster their quarterback room. They followed that up by selecting Dillon Gabriel in the third round and Shedeur Sanders in the fifth during the draft.

That’s not to mention Deshaun Watson, the team’s $230 million quarterback, who is expected to miss most — if not all — of next season as he recovers from a torn Achilles.

Despite the crowded quarterback room, the Browns aren’t currently looking to move any of their signal-callers to a team like the New Orleans Saints — at least not yet.

“I’m sure the Saints are exploring their options, and the Browns might be one of the first places they’d look. But the Browns have no plans to trade any of their quarterbacks at this point,” Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com said. “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. Which one will be determined by the competition, and how their depth chart order shakes out.”

Browns Have Embraced Competition at Quarterback Position

A similar, though less high-profile, situation unfolded last season for the Browns. Watson was named the starter, but Cleveland also carried Jameis Winston, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Tyler Huntley on the roster.

The Browns attempted to trade Huntley, but with teams aware they wouldn’t keep four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, Cleveland had little leverage. Huntley was eventually released and returned to the Baltimore Ravens before later signing with the Miami Dolphins, where he started multiple games while Tua Tagovailoa was sidelined.

Cleveland didn’t head into the draft with the idea of drafting two quarterbacks. But when Sanders slid to the fifth round, the team could not resist.

“We felt like it wasn’t necessarily the plan going into the weekend to select two quarterbacks,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry told reporters after the draft. “But as we talk about, we do believe in best player available, we do believe in positional value, and we didn’t necessarily expect him to be available in the fifth round. We love adding competition to every position room and adding him to compete with the guys that are already in there. We felt like that was the appropriate thing to do.”

Kenny Pickett is Early ‘Frontrunner’ for Starting Job

The Browns plan to give all four quarterbacks a chance to win the starting job, but Pickett appears to have pole position in the competition. He has starting experience, and the Browns showed significant interest by trading for him, giving up Thompson-Robinson and a fifth-round pick.

“I know Kenny Pickett heads in as the frontrunner to win the starting job at the outset,” Cabot said. “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.”

Pickett expressed his desire to be the starter in Cleveland shortly after the team signed Flacco.

“That’s the plan, man. I’m not going there to hang out,” Pickett said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I want to go play. I’m excited, been working hard for it, taking it a day at a time.”

Pickett was a first-round pick in 2022 by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He spent two years as the starter in Pittsburgh, posting a 14-10 record. Pickett racked up 4,474 yards, 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in a Steelers uniform. He spent last season backing up Jalen Hurts with the Eagles.