Browns GM says team plans to start season with four QBs on roster

The Cleveland Browns entered this preseason with the most intriguing quarterback room to monitor over the month of August.
Trading for Kenny Pickett, signing Joe Flacco in April and then drafting both Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders in this year’s NFL Draft. This left the Browns with four potential starting QBs who could take over for Deshaun Watson, who is on the active/physically unable to perform (PUP) list after sustaining his second torn Achilles in three months in January.
According to Browns GM Andrew Berry during the NFL Network broadcast of the team’s final preseason game Saturday, it sounds like Cleveland will enter the 2025 regular season with all four new QBs on the roster.
“Honestly, (keeping all four QBs is) not much of a decision for us. All four guys have done what we’ve asked… We have a room that we like all the guys in there,” Berry said. “We don’t really see that as a problem. We more see it as an opportunity.”
The 40-year-old Flacco was named the Browns’ Week 1 starter at Cincinnati Sept. 7 on Monday entering his 18th season in the NFL. Pickett was listed as the backup on the Browns’ initial depth chart but he suffered a hamstring injury early in training camp which kept him out of all three preseason games.
Flacco made his 2025 preseason debut in Saturday’s 19-17 win over the Los Angeles Rams, completing 9 of 10 passes for 71 yards and a touchdown pass. Gabriel was 12-for-19 with 129 yards and a TD while Sanders completed 3 of 6 passes for 14 yards.
If the Browns do keep all four QBs on their initial 53-man roster, they would be the first team to do that since the 2021 New Orleans Saints with Taysom Hill, Jameis Winston, Trevor Siemian and Ian Book. All four of them wound up starting games for the Saints that season.