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The Cleveland Browns are one of the more intriguing teams this season based on what the quarterback room looks like as the season begins. Kenny Pickett, Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, and Joe Flacco headline a crowded quarterback room that includes Deshaun Watson, but he is still injured. Fall camp just started for the Browns, and Kenny Pickett will already miss time due to a hamstring injury.
Pickett injured his hamstring at practice on Saturday. After the injury, ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter said he would be reevaluated later in the week. On Monday, Pickett was missing from practice, and head coach Kevin Stefanski addressed what happened with Pickett but would not get too specific other than mentioning that he “felt something.”
“Felt something, so we’ll just treat it,” Stefanski said Monday before training camp practice. “For any player, you’re disappointed when you can’t be out there with any injury, but he’ll be fine. He’ll rehab, he’ll get back out very quickly.”
Kevin Stefanski didn’t have a timeline for when Pickett would be available.
“With something like this, we’ll see how it goes,” Stefanski said. “But his mindset, my mindset, we’ll just go day to day.
“He’s going to do everything he can to get back ASAP.”
The injury is an early setback for Kenny Pickett, but Stefanski made clear that he remains a viable candidate to be the Cleveland Browns quarterback by Week 1.
“I’m confident Kenny’s going to attack his rehab,” Stefanski said. “The evaluation on these guys is all-encompassing. It goes back through the spring. It goes to what they’ve put on tape already as football players. So I know he wants to be out there, but he’s still very involved.”
Joe Flacco was splitting first-team reps with Pickett before the injury. Still, with Pickett out, all eyes turn to Cleveland's rookie quarterbacks, with either Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel getting even more reps with the first team.
Stefanksi directly addressed how the reps would be split up because now each of them will get more.
“It depends on the period and what we’re trying to accomplish in there,” he said. “But Joe would get the majority of them.”
Gabriel, a third-round pick, has gotten very few snaps with the starters, while Sanders, a fifth-round pick, hasn’t gotten any and has worked mainly with the third- and fourth-teamers. With that already set, Gabriel figures to see more time with the starters than Sanders.
Flacco is still the leader in the clubhouse to start by the time we get to Week 1, but with Pickett's setback, it opens the door for either Gabriel or Sanders to make a big jump.
