The quarterbacks room in Cleveland is currently a bit overcrowded as four new faces vie for the starting job vacated by an injured Deshaun Watson. Veterans Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco seem to be in the lead for the starting gig, but each are on only a one-year deal, and there’s a chance only the winner may get to stay on the roster. Rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders both hold promise, but they’re likely competing for backup roles at the moment. 
Perhaps, after the 2025 NFL season, Watson will be back to full health, and the team will hold on to him so he can play out the final year of his historically terrible contract. Or maybe the team will re-sign the veteran who wins the starting job to a second deal. There’s also a chance that one of Gabriel or Sanders develops into a starter and becomes the quarterback of the future. ESPN’s Tony Grossi has a different idea in mind, though.
In a recent Q&A for TheLandOnDemand.com, Grossi posited the possibility that the Browns could dip back in the 2026 NFL Draft for a new quarterback. On its surface, the claim seems ridiculous after watching Cleveland selected two rookie quarterbacks in this year’s draft, but Grossi makes some compelling arguments.
First, he points to the draft compensation received from Jacksonville in return for the rights to draft Travis Hunter with the No. 2 overall draft pick. In that trade, the Browns got some valuable 2025 pick swaps, but the big kicker was Jacksonville’s 2026 first-round pick, giving Cleveland two Day 1 picks next year. Seeing as both teams combined for seven wins last season, there’s a decent chance both picks could be fairly high, though each team will obviously be hoping for improvement.
The second point he brings up is the fact that the quarterbacks in the 2025 draft were widely seen as an overall lackluster group with only No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward being viewed as a player who would’ve been among 2024’s first-round passers in talent. In contrast, the class of 2026 is widely expected to be a much more talented group of passers for quarterback-needy teams.
We’ve covered this a bit already with our early look into the class’s quarterbacks shortly following the draft. A lot of eyes are on Texas’ Arch Manning, but even if he stays in school for another year, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik, South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, UCLA’s Nico Iamaleava, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, Miami’s Carson Beck, and several others all give the draft class a chance to provide a much stronger group of passing prospects than we saw this past year.
So, if the 2026 class produces a litany of talented passing options that the team rates higher than it did Gabriel and Sanders, and the Browns hold two first-round picks, it certainly doesn’t seem impossible to think that Cleveland might use one of those two picks to take a flyer on a first-round quarterback. This approach might include them moving forward with three young quarterbacks and no veteran options, or one of the rookies from this year might be the odd man out if the Browns keep a veteran and one of the 2025 rookies to compete with their theoretical first-round passer.
Of course, this is all speculation. There’s every chance in the world that the Browns could unlock something in Pickett or see the version of Flacco that led them to the playoffs two years ago and be perfectly happy with them for a year or two while Gabriel and Sanders develop into reliable starting options. There’s every chance Gabriel or Sanders decide not to wait that long and emerge as the quarterback of the future in Cleveland by September. If none of these things happen, though, and the 2026 draft class is as impressive as anticipated, it’s hard to imagine that the Browns would be able to pass on using one of their two first-round picks to improve the quarterback position.
At first it sounds looney, but all thing’s considered, I could see the brute force approach being the no holds barred way to finally fill your need as a team. Thing is, it feels like this isn’t set in stone. I mean, Cleveland has to at least see how this season goes to determine what they think of the guys that they currently have. They really need a franchise quarterback, but they need to balance that with the need to give their current crop some time to at least develop enough to evaluate their potential.
I only opened this link to comment on how stupid the headline is.
I didn’t bother reading because it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out they’ll load up on QB’s. They draft like a 10 year old on Madden.
A rocket surgeon or a brain scientist? 😉
A Myles Garrett trade would have helped w/ that next draft.
Sanders is a doing a great job staying in the media for all the wrong reasons. How many other mid round picks get tickets as well?
Well I guess if you take enough of them sooner or later one should work out eventually. Signed- The Law of Averages.
Been trying since the 80’s. The football Gods must truly hate them.
They had one. Their problem was he wasn’t as good as the other two guys drafted in the first round, one in his draft. However, they could have won with Baker Mayfield if they just stuck with him. Their real problem is ownership.
It has to be the organization. They’ve had waaay too many guys go elsewhere and be successful. Or at least more successful.
Taking a quarterback next year would make sense. They’ll have a very high first and another first that could be pretty high, so they could beat anyone in a move up bidding war if they need to.
But taking TWO quarterbacks next year would be an amazing commitment to the bit.
At this point, I don’t think we can rule out the possibility that Cleveland enticed Myles Garrett to sign the extension by promising him he’d get some reps at QB. I see no evidence of the FO officially denying it.
I think taking a quarterback high in the draft next year was always the plan.
I personally think Gabriel was overdrafted, but Stefanski likes him and they needed depth in that quarterback room since DTR was playing extended stretches of snaps at one point. And Shedeur is definitely polarizing but at some point the upside became worth it to them. I can definitely understand the logic in taking either of them in a vacuum; it’s the combination of both that seemed confusing.
But neither of those guys (or Pickett) are standing in the way of a possible franchise quarterback next year if they evaluate someone as being that guy. They very well could have just wasted two picks this year (in addition to the pick they traded for Pickett), but I can squint and see the logic behind throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks.
This is what I was thinking. I thought it was pretty obvious when they traded out of 2 AND passed on QBs until round 3, knowing what next years QB class looked like. A 3rd round dart in Gabriel was a little confusing but not something that stops the plan, and then Shadeur just fell in their lap, so why not? If you strike gold then cool, but none of these guys stand in the way if you have a chance at a franchise QB in 2026, even if you have to move up some to get them.
C’mon, this is Tony Rossi we’re talking about. He’s on par with Mary Kay Cabot.
I believe they will address their OL with both high picks next draft. Age and injuries have made that a necessity now, especially at LT.
If they end up with the 1st overall pick, it’s very likely that neither of Gabriel or Sanders showed very much promise, in which case they should absolutely take whichever QB prospect separates themselves from the pack–and they probably will.
Great, they are going to kill another young promising QBs career
This is an example of the media directing group think. Manning isn’t going to be in next years class, so I have no idea why this widespread belief is out there that next year’s QB draft is going to be any better. They keep bringing up guys like Nussmeier who sucks and Drew Aller who has all the tools but isn’t a very good QB. Clubnik simply is not an NFL player. Sellars is basically a similar prospect to Milro next year, and Carson Beck sucked when you thought he’d be in this class, and he’s still going to suck after his tenth year of college. But let these pundits tell it, thus let the general public parrot it, next year’s class is elite.
I like Nussmeier, but I agree on everything else. There is no way Manning will be in the draft next year.
I like Nussmeier too, and Sellers will need to make a huge leap as a passer to be a more surefire prospect as a franchise QB. He developed very quickly between the season’s beginning and its end, so there’s hope on that front, but S.C. lost a TON of experience on the defensive side that will make wins harder to come by. Nussmeier can be a star, but he often tried too hard when his team started falling off in games and did a bit too much-that is, tried to overextend his capabilities at times. Still, I think that he could be good if he has consistent coaching to let him trust in his gameplan, which hurt LSU at some inopportune times last year.
Miller Moss gave me if the same thoughts at Southern Cal last year, but minus Manning (who has yet to show us an extended look to act on his hype), we don’t have anybody that I can see who seems surefire. That doesn’t mean that one won’t emerge, but I can’t look at anybody right now and identify that player as ”the guy” who’s worth tanking for.
Well you can draft QBs every year if you like but it never occurs to teams like the Browns, Bears and Jets that it’s a pointless exercise if you haven’t got people on the coaching staff that actually have experience successfully developing these young kids.
It wouldn’t be a smart way to use so many draft picks on qbs. Think about how many picks they used to get Watson and Pickett and then they draft 2 guys this year and possibly another next. complete inefficiency but you have to keep drafting them til you get 1 legit starter. At this point they have zero starting qbs. Browns are the Browns.
Sanders or gabriel will be their backup to whoever they pick n then trade the other guy. If it wasn’t Cleveland it would be a decent strategy