Time to read way too much into May snap orders.
With the Browns hosting a five-way quarterback competition — we’ll include the injured Deshaun Watson for now — football sleuths will try to dissect each morsel of information to see who will be under center for the AFC North squad in Week 1 against the Browns.
The team’s order for Wednesday’s organized team activities featured offseason trade acquisition Kenny Pickett leading off, 2025 third-round pick Dillon Gabriel going second, veteran Joe Flacco third and fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders bringing up the rear, according to Cleveland.com.
Watson is not participating while he recovers from a pair of Achilles surgeries that may sideline him for the entire 2025 season, with the outlet saying it would be “shocking” if he plays.
Sanders completed 7 of 9 passes with three touchdowns, while Pickett finished with a 9-for-16 line, Gabriel connected on 11 of 16 passes with two scores and one touchdown and Flacco added one touchdown with a 9-for-14 showing, according to data from ESPN Cleveland.
The Browns have one of the most wide-open quarterback competitions in the NFL and the presence of Sanders makes it all the more newsworthy.
Sanders has said he believes he will change the franchise like he did at Colorado and Jackson State, but he first will have to beat out the competition.
Cleveland.com has reported on multiple occasions that Pickett is the favorite to be the starter, which means Sanders and the others are fighting for the backup spot.
That Pickett took the first snaps seemingly carries a little bit more weight in light of that report, although Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski previously said not to read into the order during rookie minicamp when Gabriel’s snaps came before Sanders’.
“I wouldn’t look into anything,” Stefanski said earlier this month. “You’ll see the whole weekend, going through the spring, we don’t play too close attention to who’s in there first.”
Pickett said before the draft he aimed to win the starting job and that has not changed now that there are two rookies in the competition.
He downplayed any potential animosity.
“The outside world makes it out a lot bigger than it is,” Pickett said of the competition. “When you’re day-to-day and you’re in meetings with these guys, you’re at our practice, we spend so much time together, of course we’re competing but you become friends with everybody. We’re helping each other, there’s an open dialogue in the quarterback room to help each other grow.
“I think it’s a great media headline but when you get in the building in a quarterback room, at least all the ones I’ve been in, you become friends with these guys and we’re just pushing each other.”
Flacco, who both started and served as a backup for the Colts last year after leading the Browns to the playoffs in 2023, also had a positive outlook on competing with players almost half his age.
“I think it’s a lot of fun,” Flacco said. “I think just from experience, they tend to get a little bit of a kick out of me just because I am 40-years-old now and could be their fathers probably. And it’s fun for me too in the same kind of way. They’re young and have a lot of life and a lot of energy and a lot of new things that can keep me in the loops with my kids and all those things. It’s fun.”
The Browns will not be able to keep all four quarterbacks on their active roster, meaning the team may have to jettison one of the veterans or risk one of the rookies on the practice squad.
Former Giants offensive lineman and NFL analyst Geoff Schwartz believes there are two simultaneous battles happening.
“The (snaps) order will likely change often,” Schwartz said in a quote tweet above the initial posting of the snaps order. “I think there’s two QB races happening Pickett/Flacco for starter with the loser being released Gabriel/Sanders for QB2 I don’t see enough reps for the rookies to win the job out of camp.”