BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns have trimmed their crowded quarterback room and named a backup.
After trading Kenny Pickett to the Las Vegas Raiders and releasing Tyler Huntley, the Browns will enter the regular season with three quarterbacks — starter Joe Flacco and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said Tuesday that Gabriel, who was selected in the third round of the draft, would enter the season as Flacco’s backup.
Former starting quarterback Deshaun Watson was placed on the reserve/physically unable to perform list. He will miss the first four games of the season as he continues to rehab an Achilles injury that the team expects to sideline him for most of the season.
Cleveland looked poised to keep all four of the quarterbacks who were vying for the starting quarterback job until it traded Pickett on Monday for a 2026 fifth-round pick.
Sanders, a 2025 fifth-round pick who spent the entirety of training camp as the fourth quarterback on the depth chart, looks set to be the team’s third-string QB.
