The Cleveland Browns find themselves in a unique situation that no other NFL team is currently facing. With five quarterbacks on the roster — Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco, and injured Deshaun Watson — the franchise must determine who will start and who will make the 53-man roster.
Quarterback uncertainty is nothing new in Cleveland. Since the turn of the century, the Browns have struggled to find stability at the position. To make matters worse, Watson has not lived up to his massive contract and seems poised to miss the entire 2025 season with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
While there’s growing excitement around young prospects like Sanders and Gabriel, one legendary figure within the franchise believes neither should start Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Bernie Kosar Thinks Starting a Rookie QB Is a Bad Idea
While appearing on the “Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show,” former Super Bowl champion and Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar discussed why Cleveland shouldn’t start either Gabriel or Sanders to begin the season.
“The rookies, I think it’s absolutely best, even if you’re God, to not play right away, especially on a rough team. We haven’t developed a quarterback since 1999, since the team’s comeback,” Kosar said.
“It’s not that they’re all busts — they play too early on teams that aren’t ready to accept them and mesh together. Sitting out the whole year, I’m not in favor of. But sitting out a portion of it to let the offense get more acclimated? It helped me with the speed of the game, and I believe it’ll help those guys have a better chance at success.”
When it comes to which rookie should get a chance first — Sanders or Gabriel — Kosar didn’t plant his flag on either prospect.
“And then which one it is, time will tell,” Kosar said. “It’s Memorial Weekend coming up, so there’s no need to cast hard lines in the sand.
Not one to mince his words, he finished his thought by adding: “But it doesn’t look like this is going to be the Super Bowl champion team this year.”
It will be interesting to see which quarterback the Browns roll with in Week 1 and beyond, but Kosar makes some good points about the benefits of sitting a rookie early in his NFL career.
Kosar was a Pro Bowl quarterback who won a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys after leaving Cleveland. Throughout his NFL career, he threw for 23,301 yards, 124 touchdowns, and 87 interceptions on a 59.3% completion percentage, while also rushing for five scores.
His best season came in 1987 with Cleveland when he threw for 3,033 yards, 22 TDs, and nine INTs to earn Pro Bowl honors. In 2001, the team inducted Kosar into the Cleveland Browns Legends Program.
Where is Bernie Kosar Now?
Since retiring, Kosar has invested in a number of sports franchises. At one point, he was part-owner of the Florida Panthers in the NHL and had a minority stake in the Cleveland Gladiators in the Arena Football League (while also serving as the team’s president and CEO).
He has also worked as a consultant for the Browns over the years. He has also dabbled in media, hosting the Browns-themed “The Bernie Kosar Show.”
To Kosar’s point, throwing a rookie under center in Week 1 comes with some unique challenges. The fact that Cleveland also added Flacco and Pickett this offseason means that Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has two veteran options if he wants Sanders and Gabriel to start the season holding a clipboard.
While all four quarterbacks will compete fiercely for the starting job, the team seems to be moving away from Watson entirely. Earlier this offseason, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was brutally honest about the $230,000,000 gamble for Watson not paying off.
“We took a big swing and miss with Deshaun,” Haslam said. “We thought we had the quarterback, we didn’t, and we gave up a lot of draft picks to get him. So we’ve got to dig ourselves out of that hole. … [The trade] was an entire organization decision, and it ends with Dee and I, so hold us accountable.”
Once training camp gets underway, all eyes will be on the Browns’ QBs to see who wins the battle and which rookie stands out.
These writers these days are all about click bait. It’s not a BOLD message it’s Bernie’s opinion. Then they go into Bernie’s history which has nothing to do with the QB situation in Cleveland. Ugh! I’m mad that I fell for this article 🤦
This I’d bad advice from someone they call a legend. Why wouldn’t you start a new qb with a new team and let them acclimate together, even if they are rookies? They will be acclimating all spring training to October.
They don’t open against Pittsburgh nitwit. Get your facts straight!
No way Pickett will play all year. Sanders is the Browns future and will see action. Gabriel makes a decent backup.
Pickett will start succeed and play 1 allseason.
He’ll get an equal chance as the other QBs, but if someone offers them a 5th round pick or better today, he’s gone. They wouldn’t have taken 2 QBs in the draft had they thought Pickett was the answer. They obviously think the guys they drafted have more potential… Pickett had chances in Pittsburgh and frankly he stunk…