Joe Flacco will face the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday as the Cleveland Browns look to banish the demons of a 3-14 season.
The city caught Flacco Fever in 2023 as the Super Bowl champion won Comeback Player of the Year having taken over in the wake of Deshaun Watson‘s injury.
This time, it could be the 40-year-old who makes way midseason as general manager Andrew Berry looks to the future.
Rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders are both waiting in the wings and ESPN NFL insider Dan Graziano believes head coach Kevin Stefanski is secure enough in his position to experiment.
“[He’s a] Two-time coach of the year just got extended recently,” Graziano exclusively told talkSPORT’S Brian T. Smith. “Look, I think he’s solid.
“Sometimes the year goes so poorly that ownership decides to make changes for the sake of making changes, but, I think they’re in a situation where they’re obviously in a transition phase at quarterback.
“They have two first-round picks next year. I think the organization is thinking long-term with Kevin Stefanski and the GM Andrew Berry.
“You never obviously know, we can never predict what the billionaire will ultimately do when it comes time to decide these things. But, similar to what I said with Mike McDaniel, I’ve never heard any dissatisfaction with Kevin Stefanski in that building. And again, , two-time coach of the Year.”
Flacco is first up and could well get off to a winning start as the Bengals have a reputation for losing early in the season.
But with the Baltimore Ravens, Green Bay Packers — now featuring Micah Parsons, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, and Pittsburgh Steelers up next, the Browns’ schedule is a gauntlet.
There are many who feel that Sanders should be given the keys to the offense, but Graziano thinks draft capital will see Cleveland stick to its depth chart should Flacco make way.
“At quarterback right now he’s going with Joe Flacco, and then the two rookies are behind him on the depth chart,” he explained. “We saw Shedeur Sanders look very good in the first preseason game that he played. We saw him look very overwhelmed in the second preseason game he played.
Shedeur is busy learning his craft as a proGetty Stefanski (right) and Berry are expected to build for the futureGetty“I think that’s all fair. He is a rookie. He’s a work in progress. The Browns are happy with the progress that he’s making, but they don’t feel it’s to the point where they can put him in a game as a starter.
“Might that come down the road? Of course. Dillon Gabriel was taken two rounds earlier and and my sense of it would be that if Flacco were to get injured or to falter, that Gabriel would get the first crack at it ahead of Sanders based on, again, they obviously thought more highly of him, they took him two rounds earlier.
“They both have a lot to work on as they showed in their preseason action. But the Browns do enter the season with that as their depth chart.
“So if something were to happen to Flacco against the Bengals on Sunday, one of those guys is going to have to play.
“Again, my sense of it is they would, they would assess Dillon Gabriel as more ready to go right now in that situation, but things do change quickly with these rookies.”
How did the Browns pick their starting QB?
Assistant GM, Catherine Hickman, has come under fire from fans after revealing that the team used data to form a depth chart.
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“That’s what makes our job fun and hard,” she said Monday. “I’d say, I just go back to like the plan that we have in place for these guys when it comes to developing, is acquiring as many valuable data points as we can. Now we know these things take time.
“So, what is that going to look like at the end of the year? I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you, and I don’t do well with hypothetical, but I will say that every opportunity we will have to evaluate them we will take.
“None of them are going to take, you know, a back seat in how we plan and program for them with the reps that we have.
“And then from there we’ll see what the spring brings, and we’ll evaluate all possibilities like we always do.”
NFL teams are increasingly using analytics to make decisions and, while many fans won’t like it, that is not going to change.
With two picks at the top of a QB class that is expected to surpass April’s group, the Browns have plenty of firepower should they decide to take another shot — or two.
Before then, Gabriel and Sanders will likely both have an audition.
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