Joe Flacco is now a Cincinnati Bengal, and the Browns have parted ways with two of the QBs that they began the offseason with. After Flacco’s departure, they had to decide on a backup, and head coach Kevin Stefanski made his choice.
Cleveland Makes Shedeur Sanders QB2
Sheduer Sanders has won the Browns’ backup job over Bailey Zappe. Sanders, who was QB4 to start the offseason, has worked his way up the depth chart.
Zappe was on the practice squad, but still had a chance to become Dillon Gabriel’s backup.
Shedeur will be our backup quarterback on Sunday pic.twitter.com/DIwHGjDW2s
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) October 10, 2025
Sanders will finally be active on gameday. This is a huge step after a wild summer of craziness with his draft slide, lack of practice opportunities, and being buried at the bottom of the depth chart.
The Browns currently have the league’s third-worst offense based on PFSN’s Offense Impact metric. The team has struggled out of the gate in 2025, which is nothing new to Browns fans. But they’ve put their trust in Gabriel to get the offense going.
The Browns need to find an answer on offense if they want to win more games in 2025. Their defense has kept them in a few games, including their only win against the Packers, where they held Green Bay to just 10 points. They have the 6th-ranked defense in PFSN’s Defense Impact score with a grade of 81.1. The defense has played its part, but the offense hasn’t, as they sit at 1-4.
Gabriel started his first game of the year in Week 5 against the Minnesota Vikings. The Browns’ offense wasn’t particularly impressive, but the rookie played well and Cleveland suffered a close loss. Gabriel has shown that he deserves to get a chance as the starter for the foreseeable future.
Sanders will now be waiting for his opportunity behind Gabriel. It’s taken a lot to get here. Sanders was the only quarterback in training camp who didn’t get a chance to get reps in practice with the starters. But now, he has shown enough to Cleveland to warrant his rise up the depth chart and is looking ahead to potentially seeing his first NFL action.
The Browns have a tough matchup in Week 6 with their division rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers are 3-1 and well-rested coming off a bye week. It’s a big game for Sanders, as he will be active for the first time in his brief NFL career. The former Colorado star is working his way up and can finally see an avenue to playing time in the pros.