It's a surprise, but Taylen Green earned this chance with the Browns
Surprise, surprise! Taylen Green didn't get cut by the Cleveland Browns after the team's final preseason game. He didn't get traded to the Miami Dolphins or another NFL team with a QB2 vacancy on its roster. The Browns have decided to keep four quarterbacks. They will have Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders as their top two signal-callers, as we all knew they would, but they kept Green on their opening-day 53-man roster for the 2026 season. Dillon Gabriel isn't on that 53-man roster, but the Browns put him on the injured reserve list as a way of keeping him in the organization while not having to put him on the 53-man roster right away, which gives them a measure of roster flexibility.
It's a happy development for Taylen Green, but let's also be honest about this: It's a very strange turn of events. An NFL team keeping four quarterbacks, even if one of them is technically not on the 53-man roster, is madness. The Browns aren't good enough to use up that many roster spots at one position. They need help elsewhere on offense. Trading one of Dillon Gabriel or Taylen Green is the obvious move to make. Not doing so reinforces how unserious the Browns are.
All of that aside, Cleveland's Taylen Green decision goes against what coach Todd Monken has been saying in preseason camp and in the offseason. Monken said he and the Browns were planning to use Green as a true quarterback, not as a hybrid or as a Taysom Hill 2.0 change-of-pace player who would run the ball in a special package of red-zone or short-yardage plays. Keeping Green on the 53-man roster suggests that the Browns will in fact do that in the coming season, if Green does play regular-season games for the team.
Monken also was clear to say in recent days that "We can't keep everybody," in reference to his QB situation. That seemed to be a very obvious way of telling everyone that the Browns were not going to keep all four quarterbacks. Yet, that's what they're going ahead and doing. It's annoying to sit here and realize that the head coach of an NFL team was simply not leveling with the public on multiple levels when he discussed the QB situation. It's far better to no-comment or simply say "I'm not sure how we're going to do this" than make indications of a specific plan, only for the organization to not follow that actual plan.
Now, though, let's move forward: Give the Browns credit for actually giving their sixth-round draft pick a chance. We always said they needed to. Otherwise, that would have been a wasted pick. It's odd that Green didn't play anything more than part of one preseason game, and yet was able to make the 53-man roster. It's bizarre, but it's a happy outcome for the Arkansas Razorback. Now we wait to see if he becomes the Taysom Hill change-up we all thought he was supposed to be in the first place.
