Marcus Spears calls out Browns for handling of QB competition, impact on Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel

ESPN’s Marcus Spears did not like the way the Cleveland Browns handled their QB competition, especially how it impacted Shedeur Sanders. Injuries caused a lot of shuffling around, when it came to reps in practice.

But with four quarterbacks vying for one job, Cleveland didn’t announce a starter until this week. Of course it was Joe Flacco, the long time veteran. That leaves Sanders, fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel and an injured Kenny Pickett competing for the No. 2 job.

Spears argued Flacco should’ve been the guy from the get-go. At that point, you have three guys compete for the No. 2 job to eventually take over, maybe even this season.

“This should have never been a competition … Like the plan was, Joe Flacco starts (at quarterback) right,” Spears said on Get Up. “And let these three duke it out to figure out who’s going to be our starter eventually … I don’t know the rep count in practice. I don’t know how many looks they had against the number one defense. I know Myles Garrett rushing is completely different than the other guys that are in there, but that’s what I said after a performance. I said that performance (from Shedeur Sanders) should have bought him more reps of good on good in practice to compete for who was going to be the number two guy to eventually be the number one.” 

Sanders got the start against the Carolina Panthers this preseason. He went 14-of-23 passing for 138 yards and two touchdowns while Tyler Huntley played out the rest of the game. 

Against the Philadelphia Eagles, Sanders was injured and held out while Gabriel got the start. He went 13-of-18 passing for 143 yards and one interception.

“The one thing that worries me, and we talked about this last night, is if you’re if you’re getting to this point with Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, and you’re saying we’re two weeks away from the season now we go start treating one of you guys like a backup, and something bad happens to Joe Flacco, both are set up for failure,” Spears said. “And that’s the part that bothers me. 

“I’m saying if you didn’t have Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, because Kenny Pickett has been dealing with the injury, obviously, if you didn’t have them getting second team reps, at times getting reps with the ones. And now you going into this point saying, ‘Hey, Dillon you the two.’ Or ‘Shedeur, you the two.’ Well, bro, I’m so far behind of what it’s like to be out there with David Njoku, I’m so far behind game-like scenarios that Joe Flacco has been through a million times.”