BEREA, Ohio — The Browns named veteran Joe Flacco the starting quarterback for Week 1 last week, before the final preseason game. The decision on how the depth in the room would shake out was still undecided, but on roster cutdown day, the Browns decided to set their depth chart at quarterback, naming rookie Dillon Gabriel as QB2 behind Flacco.
Gabriel will back up Flacco with rookie Shedeur Sanders slated for the QB3 role to start the year.
The Browns had narrowed down the room from four quarterbacks to three on Monday after trading Kenny Pickett to the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for a 2026 fifth-round pick. That left the rookies to be sorted out.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski made the announcement on Tuesday after the first practice following the team setting the initial 53-man roster. Stefanski said that the decision was based on an overall body of work, from practices to the preseason games.
"It's such an all-encompassing evaluation, so everything the guys did in the games was important. We also saw a lot of them out here in practice and how they are at their craft and he's certainly somebody that we think is getting better and better," Stefanski said.
Gabriel and Sanders each played in two preseason games, Sanders in the first game against the Carolina Panthers, Gabriel in the second game against the Philadelphia Eagles, and both in the final game against the Rams on Saturday.
Sanders had a strong game against the Panthers, completing 14 of his 23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers. An oblique injury held him out of the second game of the preseason. The final game of the preseason didn't go Sanders' way, just three for six with 14 passing yards, sacked five times in his five drives on the field.
Gabriel also started his preseason debut strong, completing 13 of his 18 passes for 143 yards, but threw a pick-six and fumbled the ball on a botched handoff. The final game of the season was Gabriel's strongest, throwing 12 for 19 with 129 yards and a touchdown, getting the Browns in the end zone on a two-minute drive to end the half.
While things can certainly change as the season goes on, for Week 1, it's Flacco, then Gabriel, then Sanders.
