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4 hours ago
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The Cleveland Browns have quite the conundrum.
They have four quarterbacks under contract who could all conceivably be the Week 1 starter. How on earth do you give everyone enough reps to decide who gets the job?
Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot laid out the plan in a new article Monday.
Essentially, the Browns are going to run two passing camps. They'll split the veterans and the rookies one and one, Cabot said. So Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel will go to opposite fields, while Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett go to opposite places, too.
Cabot writes that the Browns have about a dozen receivers to help with this process.
"The key is to divide the reps in such a way that the QBs are on as level a playing field as possible," Cabot writes. "All four must have a chance to throw to Pro Bowlers such as Jeudy and tight end David Njoku, while all must show what they can do with former tryouts (Luke) Floriea and (Cade) McDonald.
"In terms of their batting order in team drills, it will likely be Pickett and Gabriel No. 1 and No. 2, and then Flacco and Sanders splitting the No. 3 and No. 4 reps at the outset, largely based on how and when they were acquired (i.e. the Browns set out to draft Gabriel in the third round, and passed on Sanders six times before trading up to get him in the fifth round). It remains to be seen how they’ll split the concurrent passing drills — but placing a rookie with a vet seems to make the most sense."
MORE: Comparing Shedeur, Shilo Sanders NFL contracts
She also added more detail about Shedeur:
"As far as Flacco and Sanders sharing the third- and fourth-team reps, Sanders might go first at times in part because Flacco has 17 years’ experience under his belt, while Sanders needs as much time on task as possible to get up to speed in the scheme and get his chemistry and timing down with the receivers."
It sounds like it'll be impossible to get the right eyes on everyone all the time.
Cleveland has to be hoping someone separates themselves in a positive way in the early going. By training camp and the preseason, the Browns would certainly like to be dialed in on who should be getting the reps with the rest of the starters.
It might be a long season regardless, but Cleveland has to get the QB decision right to have the best chance of success in 2025 and beyond.
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