After the Browns named Joe Flacco their Week 1 starter, Kevin Stefanski stepped up to the mic on Tuesday, August 19. The big question hung in the air: Did Flacco actually earn this job? Stefanski didn’t blink: “Yeah, he earned it,” he said. Clean. Simple. Confident. But here’s the thing: did he really? It’s about as shaky as betting on the Browns to have a flawless season. We’ll understand it bit by bit.

Earlier this offseason, Stefanski confirmed that the Browns’ quarterbacks would be battling it out in a four-way competition. But the offseason told a different story. Shedeur Sanders barely sniffed first-team reps. Dillon Gabriel looked like the early favorite between the two rookies. And most of the time, it felt like the real battle was just Flacco versus Kenny Pickett.

Finally, Flacco walked away with it in the end because Pickett was sidelined with a hamstring injury. Add Sanders’ oblique injury into the mix, which makes you wonder: Did Flacco earn the job, or did he happen to be the last man standing? Well, the Browns’ insider, Anthony Lima, added another layer to it and dubbed this decision unfair. “This was not a fair quarterback competition,” he said, addressing that Shedeur and Gabriel were far behind having a QB1 shot.

“That really wasn’t by the behavior, by what people were seeing at camp every day, by the beat reporters and what they’re telling you, and by some of the leaks that came out eventually which were, oh, these guys are miles behind like don’t don’t don’t ever confuse this as an actual chance to win a starting job. And it seems to have angered fans that Shedeur and Dillon Gabriel never really had a shot to start Week 1.” The logic tracks as well.

Throughout the training camp, the Browns’ reporters confirmed that Shedeur Sanders was barely getting the first-team reps. Day 1 of camp had Pickett taking the bulk of first-team 11-on-11 reps, with Sanders working mostly with the third unit. By Day 2, Flacco was back in the mix and started splitting first-team reps with Pickett while Sanders rotated between the two and three units. Then the injuries shuffled everything.

Pickett’s hamstring shelved him, Gabriel dealt with his own hamstring trouble, and Sanders hit the sidelines with an oblique issue. That left Flacco soaking up the majority of team reps, and by process of elimination, he became the de facto lead QB. The upshot? Flacco walked out of camp as the starter. The writing was on the wall: Stefanski claimed that it’d be a four-way quarterback competition, but the beat reporters reported a different narrative.

And Ken Carman just chimed in to add another layer to it. Adding to Lima’s comments, Carman noted that “The head coach himself came out and said it was a four-quarterback competition. If he would have said the competition to start is between Kenny and Joe, and then the competitions behind him were to be behind Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, I think it would have been a competition of who gets cut now.”

Well, at the end of the day, let’s just say the Browns just named Joe Flacco as the Week 1 starter only. If things don’t turn out well with the 40-year-old vet, expect Stefanski to start with Shedeur or Gabriel at some point during the regular season.

What does Joe Flacco as QB1 mean for Shedeur Sanders?

Kevin Stefanski and the Browns wrapped up the four-way quarterback competition after naming Flacco as the starter for Week 1. Which makes you wonder: what does this mean for the Colorado Buffaloes product? The thing is, Pickett is likely to serve as Flacco’s backup in Week 1, and the Browns have yet to announce the final 53-man roster.

Currently, they’ve a bunch of QBs on the roster. Plus, they also possess a pair of first-round picks in 2026, which they could use to draft another QB. A QB cut this year is possible. While the general manager, Andrew Berry, shrugged it off and claimed that keeping all four QBs on the 53-man roster is possible, Stefanski came up with a different answer.

“We’ll let it play out as we get closer to the cut down,” the HC said. “Those are all conversations that we are always having, but those are tough decisions. You know, I’d like to keep everybody, but not realistic.” Given that the Browns have two first-round picks in 2026, they’re expected to evaluate Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel sooner than expected. A reality that Jimmy Haslam himself confirmed.

“Absolutely, absolutely,” the owner said when asked if it’s important to see Sanders and Gabriel in action before the 2026 NFL draft. “Kevin is aware of that, he knows how important quarterback is, and he and Andrew talk about those kinds of things all the time. It’s a daily, ongoing conversation.” The writing is on the wall: if the rookies perform well whenever they get a chance, expect the Browns to keep them on the roster. If not? The decision could be otherwise, unless Stefanski decides to cut either of them before the regular season kicks off.