Browns New Rookie QB’s: A step in the right direction

Photo via Imagn Images

There hasn’t been a lot to cheer about when it comes to the quarterback play of the Cleveland Browns over the last several seasons. So it’s been very refreshing to see two rookie quarterbacks out there during this past weekend’s rookie camp, swinging the ball around and at least acting and talking like they love the game of football and want to be part of this Browns team. 

Cleveland recently drafted Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. Sanders was expected to be drafted early, but he ended up falling dramatically in this year’s draft to the fifth round. Gabriel on the other hand, wasn’t expected to be drafted until the later rounds but was taken by the Browns in the third round.

Sanders is the more popular and polarizing figure in part because his father is Deion Sanders, a Hall of Famer and current coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. Sanders had been the quarterback at Colorado during his collegiate years. 

There had been an outpouring of local and national media at the Browns rookie camp in Berea this weekend. Some of the media were still trying to create controversy between the two young rookies, but both quarterbacks handled the situation extremely well.

Both talked about competition a little bit differently, but both were excited to be playing alongside one another as teammates and looking to make the Browns a better football team long-term

I am a proponent of both guys, especially Sanders, and think that it’s only a matter of time before Sanders is the starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns and potentially the future franchise quarterback.

It’s been frustrating as a fan of the team and someone who writes on the team that there are so many other fans and analysts out there who are already trying to predict who the Browns are going to draft in next year‘s draft at quarterback because they don’t feel like either one of these quarterbacks will do the trick. This is an absolutely ridiculous line of thinking. 

Analysts and fans of the team need to stay in the present and focus on what they see in front of them, which are too young quarterbacks, who are vying for a starting job as the next Cleveland quarterback.

The Browns brought in aging wonder 40-year-old Joe Flacco and former first-round pick Kenny Pickett to help bridge the gap until one of these rookies locks up the job.

It’s more likely at this point that either Flacco or Pickett will start the season as the Cleveland starter, but Gabriel and Sanders are certainly lurking in the shadows, ready to take the starting role.

At this weekend’s rookie camp, Gabriel talked in his presser that the competition between Sanders is not really as much about their duel, but rather more about the competition of improving and competing against himself every day

Sanders talked about not trying to prove people wrong but rather trying to prove himself right.

The messages are simple, but it was refreshing to hear from the rookies this weekend and give fans some real hope that the Browns are making some good steps in the right direction.