How the Browns could split reps among their 4 QBs competing this offseason

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The 2025 NFL regular-season schedule was announced last week. The Cleveland Browns already knew their opponents. They now know the order, the date of their London game (Oct. 5, Week 5) and their bye week (Week 9).

For this Browns team, the offseason schedule is still most pressing and intriguing. We’re at the beginning of what’s being billed as a four-man competition for the starting quarterback job as the rookies joined the offseason program in mid-May and soon will be participating in organized team activities.

Browns general manager Andrew Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski have said the best man will win, so we’re trying to collect possible clues as the team begins to transition out of mostly drill work versus no defense into scripted practice sessions over the next several weeks. We’re guessing veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett will be ahead of rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders in May and June. But in a truly open competition, there’s much to be seen and evaluated.

The Browns’ first organized team activity practice is scheduled for May 27. There will be two weeks of voluntary OTA sessions ahead of the team’s mandatory minicamp June 10-12, then there’s a third week of OTA practices scheduled for the week of June 16. The team’s offseason program usually ends with the mandatory minicamp, so the final week could end up being just for rookies and young players.

Stefanski added competitive throwing periods to the rookie minicamp in an acknowledgement that they’ll need reps and that a standard practice schedule doesn’t allow full opportunities for four passers. So we’re anticipating that more throwing sessions will be added to the spring full-team practices.

Stefanski has already tried to downplay the importance of the order and the number of reps each quarterback will get. Only two organized team activity practices over the first two weeks will be open to reporters, but the entire three-day minicamp is open. So if one of the rookies climbs his way up the depth chart in OTA practices, we’ll know. I wouldn’t expect that to happen, but there’s more than a little element of the unknown. Flacco has the experience edge, but for now, the Browns think Pickett is worth the roster spot and a chance to prove he can still be an NFL starter.

Kenny Pickett, a 2022 first-round pick of the Steelers, was told he’d get an opportunity to compete for the starting job when the Browns first acquired him. (Peter Casey / Imagn Images)

If things go well, whichever veteran wins the job can keep it until performance — of the quarterback and the team — suggests otherwise. If there’s uncertainty about which player is the best option or if one of the rookies is truly ready, then August might be super interesting.

The Browns are slated to hold joint practice sessions with Carolina and Philadelphia, and those, plus the three preseason games, will be the biggest evaluation points. But if Sanders or Gabriel is going to make a push for early playing time, that likely will be done with work in the meeting room and walk-through sessions that no one is watching.

I don’t think anyone will win the job or any specific role over the next three-plus weeks. But I think there’s an opportunity for separation at the top and for a runway toward a clear summer push by one of the rookies, so we’ll be watching closely during the two open OTA sessions.

As was the case in rookie minicamp, we expect to never see offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave far from the rookie passers. History says the third and fourth players on the depth chart would rarely get chances to work with the starting offense, but such chances could be earned.

Stefanski will continue to play things close to the vest, and all involved will be evaluating every aspect of things. There are lots of storylines with this Browns team in transition, but the quarterback battle is at the top of every list.

No prime-time love

The first thing that stands out about the Browns’ 2025 schedule is that the team has no prime-time games. That was pretty surprising even in the wake of a 3-14 season. The second notable thing is the early stretch that looks absolutely brutal on paper. The season starts with a visit from the Cincinnati Bengals, then Cleveland has five games against 2024 playoff teams — and just one of those is at home.

If the Browns are going to be better than most think, including the schedule-makers, they’ll post a couple of wins early while finding an identity and probably relying on a defense that still has some nice pieces. But if the offense sputters, the defense isn’t sharp early or the schedule is as difficult as it looks, this could be a season that gets away quickly. Week 2 in Baltimore and Week 4 in Detroit are games that might see the Browns enter as double-digit underdogs.

Let’s not sprain any ankles jumping to May conclusions. There are surprise teams every year. Early last season, the Browns’ offense was so bad that a couple of really strong defensive efforts were squandered in close early-season losses. In early October, the Browns left Philadelphia feeling they should have beaten the team that went on to win the Super Bowl.

If the 2025 Browns can be just a little more efficient through the air and even semi-consistent on the ground, they could at least stay afloat early while teams at every level are figuring things out.

They could also be touchdown underdogs in almost every game before late October.

After a London game against a Minnesota team that also plays in Dublin the week before, the Browns return to the United States to play in Pittsburgh, a place they haven’t won in the regular season since 2003. If things are bad after Week 6, that might be a place to embrace the reality and insert a rookie quarterback ahead of a Week 7 home game against Miami. Or after the Week 9 bye, when the Browns play at the New York Jets.

The annual trade deadline falls between Cleveland’s bye week and the Week 10 return to action, and any struggling team that already has two 2026 first-round picks and Deshaun Watson’s guarantees on its cap would be viewed as a seller.

All of this is getting way ahead of things. But the reality of the situation is the Browns are unsettled at the game’s most important position, and unless one of the veteran quarterbacks clearly wins the job and plays at a winning level, more change and the team’s uncertain future are going to continue to loom over everything.

Other positional battles to expect

Besides quarterback, the Browns seem to have legitimate competition for their starting running back job, backup wide receiver and tight end roles, backup offensive line roles and every linebacker spot. Second-round pick Carson Schwesinger stood out at rookie minicamp, as he probably should have, and it’s easy to see him having a path toward becoming a full-time player right away.

The Browns have made it official that Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah won’t play in 2025 due to his neck injury, so Schwesinger can be full time from day one, and players such as Jerome Baker and Winston Reid can push for roles.

Schwesinger is much bigger than most of the Browns’ linebackers the past few seasons, and that size showed up at the rookie minicamp. It should not be a surprise to see Quinshon Judkins make a summer push for the feature runner role. Eventually, Dawand Jones is probably the starting left tackle. But he won’t practice this spring while recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, so veteran Cornelius Lucas will probably be at left tackle. Teven Jenkins, another free-agent addition, could also get left tackle reps.

In recent springs, the rookies have generally played with the backups (and sometimes the deep backups) while they’ve caught on to their new terminology and surroundings. That might largely be the case again, but Schwesinger and first-rounder Mason Graham should immediately play with the starters, and Judkins shouldn’t be far behind.

The team’s decision-makers like to judge the spring progress of the young players before deciding to take another look at the veteran market at certain positions, and that will still be the case. But the Browns enter this next phase knowing they need young players to be ready to play this season.

(Top photo of Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders: Jeff Lange / USA Today via Imagn Images)

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