Why the Browns continue to shift around quarterback reps through offseason workout program

BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns wrapped up their second day of mandatory minicamp on Wednesday, and as will be the case all summer long, the main focus was the four-player quarterback competition.

During the second minicamp session, things looked a bit different in terms of the reps each quarterback was taking and when. At the start of team drills Wednesday, it was rookie Dillon Gabriel taking the first round of work.

Gabriel started off the 11-on-11 session against the first-team defense (that included a defensive line with Myles Garrett on the edge and Mason Graham at the interior) a bit rocky, grounding his first pass seconds after the snap. He was unable to complete a pass in that group of reps before veteran Joe Flacco stepped in for the next reps, but in later drills, he looked more confident.

Flacco, working with the second team in that 11-on-11 session, returned to team drills after not taking reps in them on Tuesday. The Browns opted to take some of the veteran's reps and divide them between Kenny Pickett, Shedeur Sanders and Gabriel—something Flacco said he understands and trusts in the plan.

"I'd love to go out there and take 120 reps a day and get in a groove and do all those things, but like I said, the coaches have a plan, Kevin has a plan, and my job is to just trust that, go out there and do the best they can," Flacco said. "I feel like I'm getting through things and spinning it well and the other things will come and it's not like I've had a million reps, so it's tough to kind of get in a groove and do those things. But as far as when I'm out there, just kind of getting through everything and just the vision of it all, I felt good, felt comfortable."

During his 11-on-11 session, Flacco had a couple of incompletions, one being an impressive pass breakup from linebacker Winston Reid in the end zone, but connected a few times as well.

After some red zone work, it was Pickett who took the first-team reps. He opened up the reps getting chased down by star defensive end Myles Garrett, a sight he's familiar with from his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but one he's thankful to be experiencing now as a teammate rather than a foe.

"His presence has been felt in two days, I can tell you that. Obviously, playing against him, I understood that coming into it. I had a scramble today, and I was running down the right side, and he was chasing me down like 25, 30 yards down the field. So his effort and what he brings to the table, we all know, so it's great to have him here," Pickett said.

Pickett went on to have a couple of nice connections with wide receivers Jamari Thrash and Jerry Jeudy.

Sanders took the next set of reps against the second team, connecting with new Browns receiver Diontae Johnson, then Gage Larvadain, before one down saw him scramble through a collapsed pocket, not unlike many of his experiences in Colorado.

In Sanders' nine passes in team reps on Wednesday, he completed eight.

Still, Sanders isn't getting first-team reps. The order in which he takes the reps has fluctuated, but he's the only one of the four quarterbacks who hasn't gone against the first-team defense.

Some days, most of the work goes to the veterans, Flacco and Pickett. Others, Gabriel gets a bigger workload, and Sanders becomes a bit more featured.

The Browns say it's all part of the plan.

"Every day, like I told you, we’re going to be real intentional about how we divvy [the reps] up," head coach Kevin Stefanski said. "Like I’ve told you guys, let’s not look too much into who’s out there when. We’re in installation phase, we’re in teaching phase, so not much to look into.”

Stefanski said that in this part of the offseason, tracking reps and who is working with whom holds no bearing on where the depth chart stands, nor does it, at this point, reflect any favorites for the starting job.

Instead, the mixup of reps is all about learning what they've got in terms of talent and skillsets. They're using these late spring and early summer sessions as a gauge.

"We have one more practice to go. So, we’ll use all these practices like we have for every position to learn about our players and learn what guys do best and those type of things. Obviously, like for a wide receiver, [we] want to find out what routes he’s comfortable with. For the quarterbacks, find out what concepts they’re comfortable with. So that’s really what this offseason has been about. Of course, your mentality changes a little bit as you get into training camp, but that’s really not our focus right now," Stefanski said.

The Browns will wrap up their mandatory minicamp Thursday, with likely more changes to the reps and usage in the quarterback room. But no matter who gets the reps and who they get them against, this part of the offseason is about one thing: getting better and ramping up for training camp and setting the tone ahead of the upcoming 2025 season.

"It's just kind of giving yourself the reminder that you can do it. Get some confidence back, get some confidence heading into the offseason so that when we come back for training camp, we feel like we're a team that can go win football games. And I think a lot of the offseason is just getting that feeling back. And it doesn't matter what kind of season you had the year before, you've taken three months off, you've been in a weight room, you've been getting back, and every time you take that field, you’ve got to give yourself that reminder like, ‘oh yeah, this is where I want to be. And man, I can do this. I love doing it.’ And to go out there against your team and to actually complete some balls and bat balls down and do all the things that everybody's doing, it just gives you that little reminder like, ‘okay, yeah, we look good. We're going to compete.’ And I think when you have that confidence going into the training camp, it gives you that little bit of an edge," Flacco said.