The Cleveland Browns have made up their minds.
They’re going with Joe Flacco as their starting quarterback, at least to begin the season.
Now, they must figure out who’s going to be his primary backup.
Kenny Pickett should be in the lead for the job, but he also might be on his way out, given that the Browns may not want to carry four quarterbacks on their 53-man roster.
With that in mind, FOX Sports host Colin Cowherd expressed a big concern about Dillon Gabriel.
“I have two strong opinions. I think Dillon Gabriel’s size is an issue. I would have a hard time building around him. He’s small. I like his temperament more than Shedeur [Sanders], who’s silly and kind of goofy, but I think Shedeur was under-drafted. Shedeur is bigger. I would choose Shedeur over Dillon Gabriel. I don’t think either is transformational. What NFL GMs really want from quarterbacks, they want you to be Andrew Luck. Great and boring. If you’re not great, and neither one of these quarterbacks is, you can’t be the life of the party,” Cowherd said on “The Herd.”
Is Shedeur's celebrity status a distraction in Cleveland? @colincowherd pic.twitter.com/fd2OQP5SGu
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) August 18, 2025
The Browns need to figure out what they have with both of these players.
Each might be better suited as an NFL backup than a starter, and that’s fine, but the organization needs to know for sure.
That’s not going to happen with Flacco starting.
The Browns have two first-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft, and most signs point to their quarterback of the future being available then.
Of course, Pickett, Gabriel and Sanders still have a chance to prove the doubters wrong and show that they have what it takes to lead this franchise, but until then, it’s hard to feel confident about any of them.
NEXT: Ryan Clark Says Browns Made Wrong QB Move
