The future starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns spent his time before Saturday's preseason game in street clothes, greeting old friends in Philadelphia.
The QB in question might have been Kenny Pickett, and until about three weeks ago, there was a very good chance of that. The Browns had set up a quarterback competition -- really, two of them -- and it was Pickett who was expected to challenge (and perhaps prevail over) Joe Flacco to become the player who would finally carry Cleveland into the post-Deshaun Watson era. But then -- like so much in this team's tortured quarterbacking history -- things started to go wrong, and the Browns' best-laid plans for a preseason battle fell apart.
The Browns announced the obvious Monday, that Flacco will be the starting quarterback when they open the season Sept. 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals. It wasn't that this was a poorly kept secret; it's that there was no other apparent choice. Flacco, 40, is the only one of the four quarterbacks who started camp who managed to get through it free of the freakish compilation of non-contact soft-tissue injuries that befell the others. Flacco has practiced well in recent weeks, as the Browns increased his reps, and it seems likely he'll get the start in the preseason finale Saturday against the Los Angeles Rams, which head coach Kevin Stefanski is treating as a dress rehearsal, with game-planning and all.
Even if everyone had been healthy, and a full-throated competition had played out, Flacco might still have been the best option to open the season. The rookies, third-round pick Dillon Gabriel and fifth-rounder Shedeur Sanders, likely had no realistic path to winning the job in camp as long as Flacco was healthy, and Pickett does not have the experience and success with Stefanski and his offense that Flacco does. The last time Flacco played for the Browns, two seasons ago, he guided the team to a playoff berth and was named Comeback Player of the Year. Five of the first six games on the Browns' schedule are against teams that were in the playoffs last season, and the first two games are against division rivals Cincinnati and Baltimore. It would be hard to fault Stefanski for going with experience, familiarity and comfort level, at least initially.
That Pickett looked good early in training camp -- and that the Browns clearly wanted this to be a real competition -- is irrelevant for now. Pickett injured his hamstring more than three weeks ago, just as camp was really ramping up. The hamstring didn't respond as the Browns had hoped, and Pickett, who missed three full days of practice and the first two preseason games, has been unable to participate in 11-on-11 work since he returned to practice on Aug. 1.
Pickett, Gabriel and Sanders were on the field throwing in the hours before the Browns played the Eagles on Saturday, and the fact that the focus was not so much on their passes but on whether their bodies would hold up tells you everything you need to know about the QB competition. Gabriel made his preseason debut, although he is still not completely free of his own hamstring tightness. Sanders missed the second preseason game with the oblique strain he suffered last week, ending any chance he could immediately build on his impressive debut, and Pickett is still waiting to get into a game, although Stefanski has held out hope that all four quarterbacks would be available on Saturday.
The greater suspense now is what happens next. Throughout camp, the unofficial depth chart listed the quarterbacks, in order, as Flacco, Pickett, Gabriel and Sanders. How are they ordered once the games count? Gabriel received some first-team reps in Pickett's absence. Sanders has not. How much did their respective preseason performances impact them? What of Pickett, assuming he can get healthy? Stefanski made a point last week of saying the Browns are obsessed with player development -- does that mean they will, indeed, keep four quarterbacks on the roster, at least for now? Is there a scenario where Pickett could eventually supplant Flacco, or is he more likely to be available in a trade? If the difficult schedule takes its toll, how motivated will the Browns be to make a change to one of the backups?
Still, as anticlimactic as the competition was, the Browns are in a better spot with their quarterbacks now than they were last season. They have options. They have competence. They might even have the future.
