Browns Trade Pitch Moves Shedeur Sanders to Contender to Backup MVP

The Cleveland Browns have five quarterbacks on their roster when Deshaun Watson is healthy. The expectation is for Watson to return sometime during the 2025-26 season, but it remains uncertain if the Browns plan to play him. It’ll likely come down to how the team is playing, as the Browns are expected to struggle a bit. However, because they’re still paying Watson, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them give him another chance to see how he performs after recovering from an Achilles injury at that point.

The bigger question for the Browns that all fans want to know is who will be the starting quarterback in Week 1. As of now, it seems very unlikely that Shedeur Sanders will get a chance to start. 

Because of that, some believe the Browns should look to trade him. 

When recently looking at potential landing spots, Dawg Pound Daily came up with an intriguing one with the Buffalo Bills. Sanders wouldn’t have a chance to play much for the Bills unless Josh Allen went down, as he’d be backing up arguably the best quarterback in the NFL. 

“Josh Allen is locked in as the starter, and Mitchell Trubisky is back as the veteran backup. But behind them, there’s room for a developmental quarterback. Sanders would be a low-risk, high-upside addition who could sit behind Allen, learn in a structured offense, and grow without pressure. Buffalo’s staff could work on refining his timing and decision-making while giving him a stable environment to develop in the background,” they wrote.

Browns Quarterback Room Outlook

Whenever the Cleveland Browns make their quarterback decision, it’ll have to be sometime in the near future. 

Training camp is here for the Browns, and given that there are questions at the position, it likely isn’t something the coaching staff and front office want to have lingering for much of the summer. 

When looking at what could happen, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated recently reported that Joe Flacco will be in the running, and so will Kenny Pickett. He also added that Dillon Gabriel showed some promising signs and that Sanders was behind the pack early on.

“To that end, you’ll probably be able to see where things stand early on. Flacco will be in the running. Pickett almost certainly will be, too. Gabriel showed an ability to process and great feel for the position, and looked improved in how fast he was playing early on—plus adds some athletic ability. How often his size shows up in 11-on-11 will be key. And Sanders was behind the pack to start, but worked to catch up and will have to continue earning his reps,” he wrote.

Who Will Win Cleveland’s Quarterback Battle?

Timing will be important for the Cleveland Browns.

According to Breer, the expectation for Kevin Stefanski and his staff is to figure things out rather soon. The last thing the Browns want to do is have four quarterbacks potentially competing for a job, unless all four of them play well. 

However, that is typically not how things work out, regardless of how they perform. 

“I’d guess Stefanski and Rees will want to narrow the competition early on, just to get the other guys on offense more work with quarterbacks who are truly in the running to lead the team as it navigates that brutal early schedule. There’s also the matter of what type of offense they’ll play—Pickett and Gabriel, for example, would have more elements keying on their athleticism than Flacco or Sanders would—that needs to be figured out,” he noted.

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