The Browns quarterback room is getting increasingly crowded, and more expensive.
After two days of drama and a precipitous fall compared to prior predictions, Cleveland selected Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round of the NFL Draft. That drop compared to an earlier, first-round projection cost Sanders as much as $37 million, given he will now sign a four-year rookie contract worth an estimated $4.6 million.
The son of Buffaloes coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, however, will compete in Cleveland against at least four other players for playing time, and a spot in the Browns’ long-term plans. Among Sanders’s challengers:
- Joe Flacco. A 17-year veteran and prior Super Bowl winner with the Ravens, the Browns signed the 40-year-old Flacco to a one-year, $4 million free-agent contract earlier this month.
- Dillon Gabriel. The Browns selected the Oregon signal-caller in the third round of the draft, two rounds ahead of Sanders. Gabriel will earn an estimated $6 million on his four-year rookie contract.
- Kenny Pickett. Once seen as the potential heir apparent to Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh and a former first-round selection, Pickett spent a year with the Eagles before he was traded last month to the Browns. He has one year and $2.6 million remaining on his rookie contract.
- Deshaun Watson. The 29-year-old’s troubled history continues, as after previously serving an 11-game suspension in 2022 amid accusations of sexual misconduct and an Achilles tendon tear last fall, he suffered a second Achilles injury in January and is expected to miss at least the majority of the 2025 season. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam recently said trading for Watson was a “big swing and miss,” and the quarterback still has two seasons remaining on a five-year, $230 million deal.
Following the draft, Browns GM Andrew Berry suggested that there may have been external pressure to select Sanders, saying, “It wasn’t necessarily the plan going into the weekend to draft two QBs.”
How will the Browns sort out the crowded field? Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski plan a wide-open competition between the four currently healthy quarterbacks for the 2025 season.
“Obviously, you may not divide [training camp reps] 25, 25, 25, 25, but we feel really confident that we’ll have a plan that is fair to each player and fair to the team as well,” Stefanski said.
In the meantime, the father-and-son Sanders duo was caught on camera discussing the other Browns quarterbacks before Cleveland selected Shedeur Sanders.
“Flacco my age,” the 57-year-old Deion Sanders joked. “I like Flacco.”
