Inevitably, the Cleveland Browns quarterback room is going to undergo some sort of remodeling this offseason, leaving one of Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson or Dillon Gabriel on the chopping block
Just in time for Valentine's Day, the toxic couple that is the Cleveland Browns and offseason quarterback talk are getting back together...again.
Everyone knows where things currently stand with the Browns quarterback situation. Rookies, Sheduer Sanders and Dillon Gabriel are due back next season, along with veteran Deshaun Watson, who at this point remains too expensive to cut ties with.
Opinions vary on how new head coach Todd Monken will handle that group, and who will emerge as the team's starter ahead of the 2026 season. Sanders is, of course, the most popular choice, given his promising seven starts down the stretch of last season.
There is plenty of intrigue when it comes to the fifth-round pick remaining the starter in his sophomore season, especially if Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Andrew Berry, is as serious about remodeling the offense as he says he is.
Give Sanders a better offensive line, more weapons and a new coach, and it may just spit out a tangible longer-term starter at quarterback.
Still, both Berry and Monken have made it clear that the QB situation is fluid. With free agency now less than a month away, and the NFL Draft looming a little over a month after that, there are going to be plenty of opportunities for Cleveland to tweak their QB room.
At this point, nothing feels guaranteed, but to think the room will look exactly as it does right now, even by the time OTAs open up in May is simply Naive.
For starters, the Browns have a tendency to carry four quarterbacks throughout the offseason anyway, so someone is being added to the group, it's just a matter of who and how?
By the time the season rolls around, it's likely to be cut to the standard three, leaving someone as the odd man out. Would Monken really run it back with the exact same quarterback depth chart of players in the building right now, that he had no hand in bringing here?
Unlikely. He's bound to keep at least one player in the room that he pursues this offseason. If that player is a rookie, it seems especially unlikely that there would be room for Sanders, Gabriel and another young developmental QB.
In any scenario that involves adding another QB into the mix, it feels like Gabriel would become expendable. Watson, for better or for worse, is stuck here. Sanders showed too much promise to completely throw in the towel on him. If someone's gotta go, it's Gabriel.
Now, convincing Berry to move on from a third-round pick so soon is no easy feat. Unless, of course, Gabriel really was a Kevin Stefanski pick.
Berry is no stranger to shopping his No. 4 QB before roster cutdown day in August. This past summer he traded former Pittsburgh Steelers first-round pick Kenny Pickett to the Las Vegas Raiders at the end of training camp.
Why not do it again with Gabriel?