NFL Insider Adam Schefter Weighs in on Browns QB Competition

Fans of the Cleveland Browns may be pining for either of their 2025-drafted quarterbacks to take the reins and win the starting job for their Week 1 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

But NFL insider Adam Schefter poured a whole lot of cold water on Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel under center at Huntington Bank Field against Cleveland’s biggest rival.

The ESPN NFL insider stated his belief that either veteran Joe Flacco or Kenny Pickett would earn the Browns’ starting QB spot out of training camp.

Who Does Adam Schefter Think The Browns Will Start At Quarterback in 2025?

Flacco, 40, quarterbacked the Browns to the playoffs two seasons ago and earned the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award while filling in for Deshaun Watson. Pickett, on his third team in as many seasons, was the backup for Jalen Hurts with the Philadelphia Eagles but is 15-10 in his four-season NFL career.

When asked on the Unsportsmanlike Radio show on ESPN Radio this morning, Schefter, arguably the most well-connected man in football, was blunt.

“It would be an upset if [either] Joe Flacco or Kenny Pickett are not the Browns’ opening-day starting quarterback,” Schefter said.

Neither seems like an ultra-inspiring option for the Browns, after they went 3-14 a season ago.

What Will It Take For Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel To Win The Browns Starting QB Spot?

Schefter cited both Dak Prescott with the Dallas Cowboys in 2016 and Russell Wilson with the Seattle Seahawks in 2012 as late draft picks who won the starting jobs out of training camp of his rookie season.

“There’s been one quarterback drafted in the third round or later [over the past decade] that’s wound up winning the starting quarterback job [Week 1] and that was Dak Prescott in 2016,” Schefter said.

Both Prescott and Wilson started 16 games in his rookie season and overwhelmed his team to win the starting job. Each winning the job was surprising since Wilson (No. 75 overall) and Prescott (No. 135) was each picked after the second day.

“That was the year in which [the Seahawks] signed Matt Flynn in free agency, and I think they also traded for Charlie Whitehurst,” Schefter said, “but Russell Wilson was so good and so dominant in training camp that he took the decision away from them.”

Gabriel, the 94th overall pick of Cleveland, and Sanders, who was picked 144th overall, have yet to even take a preseason snap, and for either rookie QB to play Week 1, a Wilson- or Prescott-level performance is required.

“That’s the level at which either Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel will play at this summer,” Schefter said. “It’s not to say that they can’t do it, but it’s been so exceedingly rare over the past 40 years to see a quarterback drafted in those slots do that.”

Even though Schefter believes the vets have the inside track, he also intimated the Browns are hoping that doesn’t last the whole year.

“Then [the Browns] hope one of these young guys can develop and play well enough to win the starting job,” Schefter said. “I won’t be surprised if one, maybe both, winds up starting this season, but I don’t expect that to be Week 1.”