Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Shedeur Sanders As QB1? Stats Through 9 Practices Suggest So!

Shedeur Sanders on track to snatch the starting QB role in Cleveland!

Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Browns have a unique situation with regard to the battle for the starting quarterback role. They have as many as five signal callers on the roster, and even though Deshaun Watson’s 2025 season is all but over after re-rupturing his Achilles tendon, there is still a 4-way battle currently in the works.

Cleveland’s most experienced quarterback right now is the veteran Joe Flacco, who led the team to a 4-1 record in the 2023 season. The 40-year-old has been the number one choice following the debacle with Watson, but he is still locked in a battle with Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, and Shedeur Sanders.

.@ShedeurSanders and @g1baller been on the same page since rookie minicamp 🔥 pic.twitter.com/QddAqrFYvO
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) July 28, 2025

Is Sanders the Frontrunner for the Starting QB Role?

Following the entire draft saga in which Sanders plummeted down the order all the way to the fifth round, Shedeur Sanders had been last on the Browns’ depth chart.

With Flacco regarded as the starter, Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel came second and third in line, but the way things have been proceeding at training camp, there is a good possibility that Sanders is climbing the ladder and could potentially find himself knocking on Flacco’s door.

ESPN Cleveland has reported the data through nine training camp practices, which shows that Sanders has been the pick of the lot thus far. Pickett has missed team drills since last week due to a hamstring issue, and Sanders missed one practice session due to soreness in the arm.

The Browns are off tomorrow. Here’s how all 4 QBs have performed through 9 training camp practices.

Kenny Pickett has not done team drills since last week due to a hamstring. Shedeur Sanders missed one practice of team reps with arm soreness. pic.twitter.com/4AezmRgJQV
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) August 2, 2025

The interesting thing to note is that Dillon Gabriel, who was drafted by the Browns ahead of Sanders, has struggled the most so far. In fact, he has the worst completion percentage as well as the worst TD-INT ratio among the four signal callers. Sanders leads the pack with a completion percentage of 70%, followed by Pickett with 67.7%, then comes Flacco in third with 58.7%, and Gabriel in last place with 54.9%.

Had Sanders not missed a session due to arm soreness, he may have been able to pull ahead even further from the pack. In any case, a final verdict on who wins the starting role under center in Cleveland will be determined by the Browns’ coaching staff, and we still have an entire preseason for that.

But, if Sanders continues to progress at this rate while the others continue to play catch-up, Sanders could very well be the starter for the Browns heading into week 1 of the 2025 NFL season.

Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

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Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!