Both Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel showed promise in training camp and preseason, but the Browns clearly prefer one of their rookie quarterbacks.

The Cleveland Browns did what no other NFL team was willing to do through four full rounds of April’s draft — they selected Shedeur Sanders. If Sanders was going to land in Cleveland, the expectation was that it would be in the first or second round.

This has probably always been the outcome since he was drafted, but Will Levis landing on the IR ended any chance of a quarterback competition, even if it has wound up just being a perfunctory competition. There will be one rookie quarterback starting to open the season and that player is Ward.

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski announced his his plan for the three quarterbacks in the preseason finale.

Despite all the hype surrounding Shedeur Sanders at Colorado, he fell to the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft. The Cleveland Browns ultimately took a chance on him with the 144th overall pick. During the pre-draft process,