BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns have used the week to determine who will serve as the backup quarterback to rookie Dillon Gabriel following the trade of Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals, and on Friday, they made their decision. Rookie Shedeur Sanders has been named the backup for Week 6.
After benching Flacco and making Gabriel the starting quarterback for their Week 5 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings in London, the team received calls from the Bengals, making offers for the 18-year veteran. A deal was struck, and the Browns shipped Flacco to Cincinnati.
That move left the team without an official backup quarterback behind Gabriel.
Sanders has been in the QB3 role, serving as the emergency third quarterback on gamedays.
Watch more on Sanders below:
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Bailey Zappe has been on the practice squad through the season. But head coach Kevin Stefanski entered the week wanting to evaluate their situation before making any restructures in the depth chart.
"Still working through all roster types of things. I always have to be mindful of our players and our players' development, and I want to make sure that I’m always doing what’s best for our players and, of course, our team. But with young players, I’m always thinking about last week, making the change to Dillon, you have to think long and hard about that, because these are young players that you’re so invested in their development. So, I’ll let the week play out and make a decision later on," Stefanski said on Wednesday.
On Friday, the Browns announced Sanders as QB2.
Sanders played in two preseason games this year, completing 17 of his 29 passes for 152 total yards and two touchdowns while being sacked seven times, most of which came in his second game.
The Browns and Steelers kick things off in Pittsburgh on Sunday at 1 p.m. Gabriel will get the start, and the Browns will hope things go well enough that he's the only quarterback to take the field.
