On Sunday afternoon, Kevin Stefanski shared with the media that he would name the Week 1 regular-season starter in the upcoming week. Little did we know, it would be about 24 hours later when that decision would be made.
Browns schedule to start the season:
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 18, 2025
🏈Week 1: Bengals
🏈Week 2: @ Ravens
🏈Week 3: Packers
🏈Week 4: @ Lions
🏈Week 5: Vikings (in London)
🏈Week 6: @ Steelers https://t.co/eAj9DnsYG3
On Monday afternoon, Adam Schefter shared on Twitter that the veteran Joe Flacco would be the Week 1 starter for the Browns. Even with the two rookies, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, playing well in their first preseason games, Flacco always felt like the answer with the injury to Kenny Pickett, which has significantly limited his participation in the last two weeks.
In the first two preseason games, the Browns have been a pleasant surprise on offense and defense, but their first six weeks of the regular season is an absolute monster with six teams that had winning records a year ago, and three divisional games with two on the road.
Slow starts are nearly impossible to come back from in the NFL, but if the Browns can squeak away two or three wins and be competitive in the first six, you’d have to take that as a win.
The next week and a half will be interesting with this announcement as well. With Flacco officially the starter and strong outings for Sanders and Gabriel, will the team trade Pickett? Not that he has played badly, but keeping four quarterbacks on the roster is going to limit you somewhere else, and Pickett would have some value to a quarterback-needy team, which certainly exists at the moment.