It's about time.
Shedeur Sanders finally gets good news in Browns' QB competition originally appeared on The Sporting News
The Cleveland Browns may have been bluffing after all.
All along, they acted like they'd keep four quarterbacks heading into the regular season. The rookies Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel were slated to be joined by veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett.
Except that on Monday night, the Browns traded Pickett to the Raiders, where he'll slot right in as their QB2.
And that leaves Cleveland with a much-more-normal number of three quarterbacks heading into the regular season.
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It's also good news for Sanders, who spent the summer as QB4 despite some positive moments.
Now, at worst, the fifth-round rookie from Colorado is QB3.
There could be a legitimate chance to start a game or two in the second half of the season. If the Browns are out of contention, they'll likely give Gabriel the first crack at starting a game, but it wouldn't hurt them to see what they have in both Gabriel and Sanders.
Sanders had one positive preseason start and one negative one, but that's not yet a huge sample size. Regular season action can help inform Cleveland of how they should handle Sanders in the future.
Is he a long-term backup? Could he actually start down the road? It's all stuff they've got to figure out before they've got two first-round picks to work with in the 2026 NFL Draft.
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Pickett's trade is good news for both Sanders and Gabriel on that front. There's no long-term future for Flacco in Cleveland. He's a stopgap option right now.
But with Pickett out of the way, the rookie QBs might get a real chance to prove themselves, and that could make all the difference in their careers.
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