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Cleveland Browns quarterback Taylen Green
Last spring, the Cleveland Browns appeared to have little sense of what direction they were taking when it comes to quarterback. They’d traded for Kenny Pickett in March, signed veteran Joe Flacco to come back to Cleveland in early April, still had a rehabbing Deshaun Watson on the roster after his second Achilles tendon injury, then had shocked many by drafting both Dillon Gabriel in the third round and Shedeur Sanders in the fifth. Watson was anon-factor because of the injury, but the Browns had four quarterbacks vying for the starting job.
Something had to give. The Browns were clear that they did not intend to push through the season with four quarterbacks on board. But they kept all four through training camp before they traded Pickett away to the Raiders in late August.
Now, here we are a year later, and the Browns are entering the next phase of their offseason program with … four quarterbacks on board.
Browns Added Taylen Green to Quarterback Mix
That became the case on Day 3 of the draft when the Browns added Arkansas’s wildcard QB Taylen Green, an outstanding runner with wide-receiver speed and a penchant for turnovers. Green joined a room that included, already, Watson, Sanders and Gabriel, with Watson and Sanders considered the vast favorites for the job.
But this situation is considerably different, of course. Green is the clear No. 4 option on this list, and Gabriel is almost certainly No. 3. It’s much less wide-open than last year, and GM Andrew Berry said in an interview on ESPN Cleveland that he can imagine the Browns going forward with a four-man QB room.
Said Berry: “We’ve preached competition since we’ve been here, and that’ll hold true in the quarterback room. We’re looking for performance. I hate to make it that simple, but that’s what it’s about ultimately. I think you all know that we’d like to keep at least three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, provided that they earned the spot, you know, and another on the practice squad, so what we want to make sure we have talent and depth at the position.”
1 Starter, 1 Clear Backup, 1 No. 3 and a Practice Squad QB
It is easy to imagine a situation in which the Browns can do that, but it will require that things fall the right way. Either Sanders or Watson will need to win the QB1 job, and the Browns will have to be certain that whomever is No. 2 on the chart won’t be problematic. Gabriel then could stay on as the No. 3 quarterback.
Green would be a very good candidate for the practice squad, though if that is the case, there is a danger that another team could pluck him with a 53-man spot.
Speaking about the quarterbacks after the first round of workouts last week, coach Todd MOnken was positive.
He said: “I thought they were in command. I never felt at one time like they were lost. I thought all the work they put in, the last couple of weeks leading up today, Coach (Mike) Bajakian did a great job with them, prepping them. Coach (Matt) Baker, Ian (Kolste), those guys with quarterbacks to prep them, everything from the meeting rooms again to the walks thru here today.
“To me, that’s the start of it. The start of it is how we function, how they lead. Is there a belief system? Who has the ball in their hands every play.”
Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney