The Cleveland Browns have a lot of quarterbacks. There's the two second-year players, Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel. There's this year's draft pick, Taylen Green. And then, somehow, there's still Deshaun Watson, who it appears has a good chance to win the starting job in Cleveland.
Are any of these guys the long-term answer? No. (I'm not even going to couch that language — no one on this roster is the Browns starting quarterback five years from now.) So when you have too many players at one position, what do you do? Well, you could trade someone! While Dillon Gabriel is the most obvious trade candidate, you aren't getting much return for him, so if the Browns want to get something with more value back, they might want to think about moving on from Sanders. There are teams out there that would likely show some interest.
Dolphins trade proposal for Shedeur Sanders
I really debated if the Miami Dolphins would use a fifth on Sanders. The team just signed Malik Willis to a three-year deal and has a ton of needs all over the roster, so trading a fifth for a quarterback who would be your backup feels like it could be a little rich. But then I remembered something: quarterbacks are really, really important.
I'm a huge Willis fan. I think he's going to prove he deserves a long-term deal as Miami's starting quarterback. But considering how important the position is and that the current No. 2 is Quinn Ewers, I think an upgrade there is warranted, and while Sanders struggled a lot of the time as a rookie, he has more upside than Ewers in the event that Willis proves to be a bust and the Dolphins need to quickly pivot and see if anyone on their roster can be the quarterback of the future.
Yes, there are larger concerns in Miami. There's no wide receivers. The front seven could use a ton of help, as could the defensive backfield. Trading for Sanders shouldn't be a priority, but it's also not the worst idea in the world. Though, I would argue that these next two teams have significantly more reason to go after him.
Buccaneers trade proposal for Shedeur Sanders
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers should be a good bit better than the Miami Dolphins in 2026, so to account for how Miami's fifth-round pick would be more valuable, the Buccaneers have to throw in an extra seventh-round pick here. I also think if they had to go up to a fifth and sixth, they could, though that would only be in the event of a bidding war for Sanders, which likely won't happen.
Here's the situation: Tampa has to decide if it wants to extend Baker Mayfield, who is on the final year of his deal. Mayfield has looked like a new guy in Tampa — not quite like a former No. 1 overall pick, but at least like a top-15 quarterback. The issue is that Mayfield is already 31 years old and just led the Buccaneers to an 8-9 finish in what was arguably the weakest division in the NFL last season. It's very possible this team has reached its ceiling and that the Mayfield era won't get better. If the team finishes under .500 again this year, why waste money and more time by keeping Mayfield around? Wouldn't it make more sense to hit the reset button?
Sanders gives the Buccaneers a backup quarterback with significantly more upside than Jake Browning, and while he'd solidly be behind Mayfield in 2026, he'd have a chance to compete for the starting job in a post-Mayfield 2027 scenario. If Tampa goes something like 8-9 again in 2026, it won't be positioned to grab one of the top quarterback prospects in 2027 anyway, so why not take a flyer on Sanders and see if he can either be Mayfield's future replacement? Worst case, he can be a tank commander in 2027 to position the team for a quarterback in 2028.
Cardinals trade proposal for Shedeur Sanders
This one looks a little different than the other trades. That's because the Arizona Cardinals already have Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew and Carson Beck on the roster, so they aren't trading for a quarterback unless they can move off of someone on the roster.
Because the Cardinals need to focus on being bad in 2026 — I mean, come on, they play in the toughest division in football and have a really awful roster — then trading their best quarterback makes sense, especially considering there's been tension between Brissett and the front office this offseason. Let Minshew start while Beck and Sanders battle for the backup role, with the winner of that battle likely taking over as the Cardinals starter before the halfway point of the 2026 season.
As for why the Browns do this when they already have so many quarterbacks? Well, they're the Browns, so they aren't always known for making good choices. But if you couple this with a Gabriel trade, you solve the "too many quarterbacks" issue, as you have Brissett and Watson battling for the starting job while Green as the developmental prospect.
Because here's the thing: Cleveland, right now, has a bad quarterback situation but a fairly okay roster overall. Brissett isn't a stud, but he would give the Browns an okay quarterback to go along with its okay roster. Is that enough to go from worst to first in the AFC North? Probably not, but I can see Cleveland trying to trick itself into doing just that.
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