The Cleveland Browns can’t afford to roll into this season with four quarterbacks on their 53-man roster.
They’re not likely to cut any of their rookies, so that leaves two veterans as the potential odd men out there.
With that in mind, NFL analyst Mike Clay believes that the Browns could choose to part ways with Kenny Pickett.
I looked over all 32 projected 53-man rosters from our NFL Nation team. A few notable projected cuts:
CLE QB Kenny Pickett
NO QB Jake Haener
LAR QB Stetson Bennett
PHI QB D. Thompson-RobinsonPIT RB Cordarrelle Patterson
MIA RB Alex Mattison
HOU RB Dameon Pierce
GB RB Emanuel…— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) July 24, 2025
Truth be told, that makes the most sense.
Trading for Pickett was a somewhat head-scratching decision to begin with, especially if they intended to take someone in the NFL Draft.
Joe Flacco is a proven veteran who’s been there and done that, and he’s familiar with Kevin Stefanski’s offense already.
He gives the team the best shot at winning games early in the season, even if he’s not a long-term solution.
Pickett will be a free agent in 2026, and he hasn’t done anything in his career to make people feel like he can legitimately lead a team to success as a starter.
He could be a solid backup for any team, even for the Browns, but there are just too many bodies at the same position.
He’s still young, and we’ve seen late bloomers break out once they get to the proper environment.
That might be the same for him at some point.
Still, the Browns have two younger prospects, one of whom they reportedly fell in love with, so it might make more sense to roll the dice on either of them than to just hope that Pickett figures things out.
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