Leave it to the Cleveland Browns to find themselves in the quarterback position they’re in. After shipping 40-year-old veteran Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday — an interesting move in itself — the top two passers on Kevin Stefanski’s depth chart are rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.
The latter signal-caller’s name rings louder, but, for now, he’s holding the former’s clipboard. When is the earliest Sanders should get his chance at the controls? It’s not a simple answer.
Before their Week 9 bye week, the Browns visit the rested Steelers this Sunday, then host the struggling Miami Dolphins the week after that. After traveling to square off with the New England Patriots on Oct. 26, Cleveland will get its brief reprieve. If it loses ugly during two or three of those matchups, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them make the switch.
The extra week would be useful in crafting a game plan for Sanders before the Browns hit the road to take on the New York Jets in Week 10. If he can’t lead Cleveland to a win over Aaron Glenn’s squad, which is currently an NFL-worst 0-5, the Browns would probably be in contention for the No. 1 overall pick in next spring’s draft.
Either Cleveland would be able to have some cautious optimism about Sanders, or it could look ahead.
Dillon Gabriel is the starting quarterback for now
It would also give Gabriel, the team’s third-round draft choice in April, enough time for a fair audition. Though not spectacular, he played well for the Browns in his lone start thus far, a 21-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Dublin. He was in line for the win before Carson Wentz completed a 12-yard air strike to Jordan Addison with 25 seconds left.
Unless things spiral out of control quickly — or Gabriel gets hurt — Stefanski isn’t going to snatch the reins from him right away.
Hastily yanking Gabriel from his perch on the depth chart would make it look like Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry tripped up in evaluating him. Rumors have swirled that the only reason Sanders is wearing orange and brown is that ownership stepped in and pressured decision-makers to select him two rounds after Gabriel, whom they must have more belief in.
Having both in the same room has made things awkward as it is. A segment of fans has always been in Sanders' corner because he was mocked to go much higher in the draft than he actually did. Even with Flacco and former Pittsburgh Steelers first-round pick Kenny Pickett, who’s also since been shipped off, it wasn’t much of a secret that the job was eventually going to be handed to one of the rookies.
Sanders turned heads during his first preseason game, getting the chance because Gabriel was dealing with a hamstring ailment, but the coaching staff didn’t blink while keeping Gabriel where he was in the pecking order.
Stefanski and Berry don’t want to look like they don’t know what they’re doing. Not when they’re ticketed to finish in the division’s basement and already whiffed on Deshaun Watson.
At the same time, if Gabriel doesn’t prove himself to be at least above average, the Browns would be doing themselves a disservice by not seeing what they have in Sanders. If neither Gabriel nor Sanders pans out, Cleveland will be back to the drawing board once again. They did have a franchise face in Baker Mayfield, but I digress.
As a reminder, the question isn’t about when Sanders should get his crack at it, it’s about the earliest point when it would actually make sense. Wait a few more weeks.