Browns can trade 2026 first-round NFL draft pick to Jets, Saints, keep Colorado Buffaloes football legend Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel

The Cleveland Browns have an uncertain future. Conventional wisdom says that having a four-man quarterback competition means you’re lacking a single quality option. Ipso facto, conventional wisdom suggests the franchise may need to explore getting one at the 2026 NFL draft.

Pro football rarely follows conventional wisdom. If it did, there’d be infinitely fewer busts at the top of draft boards over the years.

Cleveland has two former first-round picks on their roster: 40-year-old Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett, whose trade value was Dorian Thompson-Robinson and a fifth-round pick. Neither is projected to be a long-term stay in Berea.

Colorado Buffaloes football legend Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel were taken on the third and second day, respectively, at the 2025 draft, and one of them just might end up blossoming into becoming one.

If Browns GM Andrew Berry can hit the jackpot with that scenario, the team can reportedly explore trading one of the first-round picks they acquired from the Jacksonville Jaguars on draft night to the New Orleans Saints, New York Jets, or another QB-needy team.

Then, he can build around the pair instead of finding someone to replace them.

“If Sanders or Gabriel emerges as a legitimate starter by the end of the season, the Browns’ draft strategy completely shifts. Suddenly, they’re not desperate for a quarterback. They’re dangerous with assets,” Dawgs By Nature’s Damon Wolfe wrote.

“Berry could easily flip one of those 2026 first-rounders to a quarterback-needy team for a 2027 first-rounder, along with additional compensation. Teams like the Saints or Jets might be staring at another lost season, and desperation makes general managers do expensive things.

“The math is simple: A proven commodity is worth more than a projection.”

Wolfe claimed that Berry pulling that off would be Philadelphia Eagles-esque in his dynasty-building quest.

“By trading back a year, Cleveland accomplishes two things. First, they get maximum value for their pick from a team that needs immediate help. Second, they buy themselves another year to evaluate their young quarterback while building around him with their remaining first-rounder,” Wolfe wrote.

“This isn’t just smart—it’s exactly the kind of long-term thinking that separates good front offices from great ones. The Philadelphia Eagles built some of their Super Bowl-winning franchise this way. Berry learned from the Deshaun Watson situation that mortgaging your future for a quarterback is dangerous. But building your future around a quarterback you’ve already identified? That’s how dynasties start.”

Wolfe isn’t wrong. Berry getting a franchise face in the later rounds allows him to explore adding a top tackle, receiver, or EDGE rusher to really kickstart the dynasty.

It’d require major improvement from Sanders or Gabriel quickly, but that’s not impossible considering how adept both were running their offenses in Boulder, Colorado (and Jackson, Mississippi), and Eugene, Oregon (and Norman, Oklahoma…and Orlando, Florida), respectively.