The 4-12 Cleveland Browns have one more game on their schedule against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday and will look to end a disappointing season on a high note by taking down consecutive AFC North rivals. While there have certainly been some intriguing developments up and down the roster this season, there is a lot of work to be done in the offseason to ensure things keep trending upward in 2026.
One major issue the team needs to figure out is the quarterback position, which is still somewhat of a question mark even with the flashes Shedeur Sanders has shown in his six starts.
His fall to the fifth round of the draft was quite shocking, and many pointed to the New Orleans Saints taking Tyler Shough in the second round as evidence that the league may have ulterior motives and was conspiring against Sanders.
Nobody is saying that anymore now that Shough has been lighting it up over the past couple of months and has his Saints on a four-game winning streak. During a recent episode of the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show, listeners gained some insight into Cleveland’s pre-draft process in regards to the Saints rookie, and Zac Jackson of The Athletic shared that the Browns never had any interest in Shough.
“Tyler Shough never made the final cut of their quarterback thing. They sent the quarterbacks coach and the O-coordinator to work him out. The full group never went. They just thought that he was too old. He had holes in his game. They made the decision; we’re not in the Tyler Shough business. They had five months to do a quarterback search and zeroed in on Dillon Gabriel. It’s unbelievable.”
The #Browns were never in Tyler Shough pre-draft.
"They had 5 months to do a QB search and zeroed in on Dillon Gabriel. It's unbelievable." pic.twitter.com/De4tbvc4Iz
— Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show (@ultCLEsports) January 2, 2026
Many critics were appalled that Shough went off the board before Sanders, and so far, Shough has proven exactly why that happened. The fact that the Browns did so much homework on Gabriel and liked him enough to take him in the third round might be a bigger indictment on the front office than passing on Shough.
Shough is a 26-year-old rookie and had a daunting injury history in college. He is older than Trevor Lawrence, so the Browns surely couldn’t have been the only team scared off during the pre-draft process.
It’s not a great bit of information for Browns fans, but all the team can do is move on.
There will always be oversights, but the Browns had an exceptional 2025 draft and will hopefully be able to replicate that kind of success in 2026.
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