Preseason in Cleveland isn’t about easing into the year. It’s about sorting through another quarterback shuffle, and this time the stakes feel heavier. Just a week ago, Jimmy Haslam went on record to insist he didn’t strong-arm his front office into taking Shedeur Sanders. “If you would’ve told me Friday night, driving home, y’all are going to pick Shedeur, I would have said, ‘That’s not happening,’” Haslam told reporters. In his words, it was GM Andrew Berry pulling the trigger. Yet the pick still landed like a curveball. Especially after the Browns had already spent a third rounder on Dillon Gabriel and doubled down with veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett.

That chaos isn’t new. Since trading Baker Mayfield in 2022… ahem, for a $230 million disaster… The Browns have rolled out 10 different starting quarterbacks. Joe Flacco sits tied for fifth on that list with five starts in 2023. He went 4-1 and led Cleveland to just its third playoff berth since returning to the league in 1999. “We felt like it got to a point where he was probably mispriced relative to the draft,” Berry explained, defending Sanders as a bargain Day 3 steal. Mispriced or not, one thing’s clear. The Browns now have a logjam under center and a fan base exhausted by constant resets. And while Haslam swears this one was Berry’s call, history suggests the owner rarely stays in the passenger seat when it comes to quarterbacks.

The patience may already be running thin inside the building. So, Browns owner wants answers, fans want gameplay, and Kevin Stefanski is caught in the middle, holding a deck of quarterbacks that feels more like a gamble than a plan. Former NFL QB Chris Simms captured that looming tug-of-war as he said, “Between the clamoring of the fans, people like you and me, and the owner himself, at some point they’re all going to sit there and go, ‘Hey, let’s see what one of these young guys got.’” The question isn’t if that pressure will boil over… It’s when.

And Simms didn’t stop there. He painted the scenario Stefanski might soon be forced into if 2024 turns south: “If we get the type of Cleveland Browns year that I expect… Where they’re a below-average football team, not winning the AFC North… Then it’s really just about where it goes from there.” That “where” seems to point toward Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel. Two rookies who’ve already flashed both promise and pitfalls in limited action. Gabriel’s arm “pops,” Simms insisted, explosive enough to jump off the screen despite his mistakes.

Shedeur, on the other hand, still feels like a long-term investment, raw but magnetic in his debut. The Browns’ front office may preach patience. Stefanski calls this an “installation phase,” emphasizing development and reps. But how long can you hide behind buzzwords when ownership is staring at the table for change?

Kevin Stefanski is facing a quarterback trade storm

Kevin Stefanski doesn’t just have a quarterback room. He literally has a vault. Four arms, each carrying a different price tag, stacked like poker chips waiting to be cashed. Mike Florio framed it perfectly: “When you’ve got that many quarterbacks and you view your quarterbacks as assets…” That’s when the game shifts from football to finance. What if a team that nearly pulled the trigger on Shedeur Sanders in the second or third round suddenly sees his preseason flashes and says, ‘Wait a minute. We were wrong?’

And let’s not pretend this is far-fetched. Florio spelled it out like a broker explaining the market: “We get him for 144 this year. We flip him for a top-60 pick next year.” That’s buy-low, sell-high in its purest form. Shedeur’s debut wasn’t just a stat line. It was a stock spike. 2.2 million people tuned in, watching Deion’s son carve Carolina for two touchdowns and a passer rating north of 113. Those numbers matter. They don’t just sit on a box score. They creep into trade calls.

But here’s where the heart collides with the ledger. Sanders is grinding like a future starter. Early mornings, late nights, completing nearly 77% of his OTA throws… And he has even earned praise from LeSean McCoy, who called him the “best player at rookie minicamp.” He’s a fifth-round pick fighting like a first, a rookie playing like he belongs in prime time. And yet, Kevin Stefanski already admitted, “We have four guys. That won’t be the case come Week 1.” Which means someone’s getting moved. The Browns will soon have to decide. The clock’s ticking.