The Cleveland Browns wrapped up a 3-0 preseason with a 19-17 last-second win over the Los Angeles Rams last week. 41-year-old Joe Flacco surprisingly suited up and started in Week 3, leading three drives, one of which resulted in a TD. Dillon Gabriel then stepped in and looked capable, leading a 15-play field goal drive and an 11-play touchdown drive. Then it was Shedeur Sanders’ turn.
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That turn, however, did not go to plan for Sanders or the Browns. He was given four drives, all of which ended in three-and-outs, and a fifth that lasted just five plays. He managed a 3-for-6 line for 14 yards while being sacked five times. He was eventually pulled for Tyler Huntley (who has since been cut), and Huntley engineered the two-minute drill that led to the game-winning field goal.
There has been much discourse about whether Sanders’ old issues at Colorado with running into sacks were resurfacing, or if the group of Browns’ linemen he was playing with were just god-awful.
With five sacks in 11 dropbacks, it’s got to be a little bit of both. Nonetheless, Browns beat writer Mary Kay Cabot reports that Cleveland will keep Shedeur and the other three QBs on the 53-man roster, as they had always planned to.
“With rumors swirling that the Browns will trade Kenny Pickett or waive Shedeur Sanders, the Browns have never wavered in their plan to keep all four QBs. That means that Joe Flacco, Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, and Sanders will all still be on the 53-man roster when the cuts are made Tuesday by 4 p.m.,” Cabot said.
NBC Sports’ Mike Florio believes they are going the four-QB route with their roster because all four—especially Sanders—are viewed as “assets” that could rise in value depending on how and when they are deployed. He also believes any of these QBs is liable to be traded at some point prior to the deadline in November.
“I think they’re gonna try to trade, maybe Kenny Pickett, before Tuesday, and if they can’t, they’ll carry four guys until maybe they can trade one of these guys. I wouldn’t rule out trading Shedeur Sanders,” the veteran analyst said via the Pardon My Take podcast.
“They view their four quarterbacks as assets that can be flipped. It’s buy low, sell high. They bought Shedeur Sanders low, and now at some point they may try to sell him high… Maybe they can flip him into something more than the fifth-round pick they used to get him,” he added.
The million-dollar question is, can the Browns get more than they paid for guys like Sanders and Pickett? Florio believes there could be a few teams that were impressed by Sanders’ first preseason appearance and are willing to trade a third- or fourth-round pick for the 23-year-old.
“If there’s a team out there that was thinking about taking him in Round 3, and they saw him play in the preseason, and they saw enough from him. And look, he doesn’t have great physical ability, but he’s got great instincts… He’s got something you can work with. So if there’s a team out there that thinks, ‘We really were close to using a third-round pick, we could use a guy we wanna develop.'”
It remains to be seen how the trading shakes out. Cleveland named Flacco the starter, and Gabriel, a 2025 third-round pick, is guaranteed to stay on. Pickett didn’t play in the preseason due to a hamstring injury, but is apparently expected to be ready for Week 1.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski said he’s still working through who will back Flacco up, though Pickett seemed to be the frontrunner for that role before his injury in early August.
