What's next for Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders in the Browns quarterback competition?

When Joe Flacco made his first start for Baltimore Ravens in 2008, Dillon Gabriel was seven years old.

He turned eight that December. Flacco is now 40 and Gabriel is 24. They're in a four-way competition to be the starter for the Browns, a last-place team in the AFC North that won just three games last season.

Forty is ancient for an NFL quarterback, and 24 is old for an NFL rookie. They're battling not only time but also Kenny Pickett, 27, and Shedeur Sanders, 23, the Browns' 5th-round draft pick.

They're also battling the reality that Cleveland has two first-round draft picks in 2026, both likely to be high. The second one they got in a trade with the Jaguars, another struggling AFC franchise.

Unless Pickett, Gabriel or Sanders show real promise this season, one of those picks might go to pick up Arch Manning, Drew Allar, Carson Beck, Cade Klubnik or Sam Leavitt.

This being the Browns, they might just draft two more next year. The team has made the playoffs just three times since Gabriel was born, and they haven't been to an AFC Championship Game since 1989 when Bernie Kosar was there.

Since then, they've cycled through dozens of QBs, most lasting no more than a season or two as the starter. They've started 40 quarterbacks since 1999, including draft busts like Tim Couch, Johnny Manziel and Brady Quinn.

Baker Mayfield lasted four seasons, and Flacco and DeShaun Watson got them to the divisional round in 2023, but that's it.

Veteran mini-camp looms on June 10-12, another look at this year's cast in helmets and shorts.

“We need to see at least one of these guys get a chance because again, those two first-round picks are looming,” explained Dan Labbe on the Orange and Brown Talk podcast.

“So you’ve got to know, OK, are we using one of these picks or both of these picks to go get a quarterback or do we have a guy that we like and we’re going to build and we’re going to use those picks on a receiver and an edge rusher or something like that?”

Because there's a Sanders involved every workout, quote and rep of OTAs (organized team activities) has been analyzed and dissected by fans and media. In truth, not much clarity can be taken from workouts without pads or a pass rush.

Some websites even posted stats from the two workouts that were open to the media, which is ridiculous given that reps in a camp workout have the barest relation to live football. Sanders in particular looks way better with no pressure.

The competition will go into July and August. Flacco, the veteran who got them into the playoffs two seasons ago and got invited to the Pro Bowl, is far and away the likely starter.

But as Labbe says, the team has to get a live look at Pickett, Gabriel and Sanders in live action, to see if they've got something.

That's when Gabriel's poise and leadership can best show itself, stepping into a huddle in a real football game.

One of the four will be released by the end of August. No one carries four quarterbacks in the NFL.

The Browns open the 2025 season at home against Cincinnati, followed by a road game at Baltimore, home versus the Packers, at Detroit, host the Vikings, then travel to division rival Pittsburgh.

Unless a miracle happens the team will be somewhere around 2-4 or worse, and talk will turn to the backups. If Pickett, Gabriel or Sanders give the team a spark, Browns fans, long hope-starved, will be quick to embrace them.

Hope is a good thing, but sometimes it barely has a pulse.

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