Cleveland's four-man quarterback competition will be reduced to three for an undetermined amount of time.
Kenny Pickett suffered a mild hamstring injury over the weekend, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported on Monday. Pickett was able to finish practice on Saturday after the injury.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters Monday that there is no timeline on Pickett's return and that the QB is considered day to day, but there is an initial expectation he will miss "maybe a couple days."
"It happened at the end of practice there a couple days ago," Stefanski said. "Felt something, so we'll just treat it. For any player, you're disappointed when you can't be out there with any injury. It'll be fine, he'll rehab, he'll get back out very quickly."
Stefanski added: "I'm not going to get into specifics on the injury other than to tell you he's gonna do everything in his power to get back ASAP."
The news deals a blow to Pickett's best chance of earning a starting job since his days in Pittsburgh. The former first-round pick entered camp as the slight favorite to win the job in what promised to be one of the more fascinating competitions in any NFL camp this summer, but time missed will reduce opportunities to separate himself from the pack.
In Pickett's absence, the quarterback quartet will shrink to three: veteran Joe Flacco and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, turning a multilayered situation into more of a Master Splinter and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dynamic, at least in terms of age differences and NFL wisdom.
Stefanski said Monday that Flacco will get a majority of the first-team reps.
"Obviously, everybody will get a little bit more because of how you're going to distribute those reps," Stefanski said.
Pickett's absence figures to bring more opportunity for Cleveland's rookie-versus-rookie showdown. Stefanski already knows what he has in Flacco, given the time they shared during their run to the playoffs in 2023. Stefanski cannot say the same about Sanders and Gabriel, providing the coach with a chance to rotate their reps and compare the two directly.
It is unknown exactly how long Pickett will be out. Hamstring injuries tend to be treated with more caution -- especially during training camp -- but with the starting job up for grabs, Pickett will have incentive to try to return quickly.
