What is the Browns plan at QB?

Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer believes it will be a veteran QB and rookie QB on the roster come the summer. But which ones?

Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry began the process of rebuilding the team’s quarterback room this week.

On Wednesday, the club began its top 30 visits with draft prospects by hosting Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, along with Penn State defensive end Abdul Carter. Miami quarterback Cam Ward is also on the invite list for a sit-down at team headquarters in Berea.

Related: NFL draft profiles for prospects the Browns could select in 2025

On Thursday, Berry once again restructured the contract of quarterback Deshaun Watson to free up $36 million in cap space for this year and move one step closer to the franchise finally being done with their former starting quarterback.

Those maneuvers are all part of the equation for the Browns to once again attempt to fix the quarterback problem that has vexed the franchise since the early 1990s.

So what exactly is the plan for the quarterback position?

That is a question that Rich Eisen posed to Albert Breer earlier today on The Rich Eisen Show and Breer said that he believes the plan has changed in the past few months:

“I think it is important to start back a couple of months ago … before (Deshaun Watson’s) second Achilles tear. The plan was to add a lot of competition to the quarterback room, which is different from the way they approached it the last couple of years with Deshaun, where what they were putting in the room before was what they felt was support for Deshaun, not competition.

“That changed after the way Watson played and then he tears his Achilles. Now it is time to get better production … so that’s the baseline (even though) it is not related to the second injury. I think their approach now is to look at the draft and turn over every rock on every player because they know they have a high pick and are going to attack the veteran market, too.”

So what does that plan look like, according to Breer, especially with the Browns still on the hook for $92 million in guarantees to Watson?

Well, that all depends on a combination of how the Browns, who hold the No. 2 overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft, evaluate the upcoming draft class and who they find to their liking in free agency, according to Breer:

“They have to get a little creative on the veteran market, (which is) why most people have said Kirk Cousins would be the perfect guy because you get him for the veteran minimum and still draft (a quarterback). The problem is you don’t control (if or when) Cousins becomes available.

“That is why they are having visits with quarterbacks (Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders) this week so they know what they are going to be dealing with in the draft and if there is really what they view as an answer. That way they know if they need to go heavier on the veteran option if they don’t deem one of those guys worth a top-two pick.

“Either way they are going to come out of this with a new veteran and a new rookie on the roster.”

It has been clear ever since the Browns suffered through some of the worst quarterback play in NFL history last season that there was little to no chance that the quarterback room going forward was going to include Watson (even before he re-injured his Achilles) and Jameis Winston, who is a free agent.

So Breer is not off the mark in his assessment of the situation, it just comes down to what combination of a veteran and a rookie QB take the field this summer when the Browns open training camp.

---

What do you say Browns fans? Who do you think would be the best veteran/rookie combination at quarterback for the team?