BEREA, Ohio — As the Cleveland Browns trickled toward the field to stretch for their second of three minicamp practices, Andrew Berry sat at the conference room table of his office overlooking the field.
Ninety-one players were heading out to stretch.
But the general manager knew the four orange-jerseyed roster members, rather than the dozens in brown, were most captivating the national media narrative.
Welcome to the 2025 Browns quarterback battle.
There’s fan nostalgia toward 40-year-old Joe Flacco, who led the Browns to the playoffs coming off the couch during the 2023 season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2022 first-round draft pick, Kenny Pickett, is now in Cleveland learning the system and terminology of his once-division rival.
And then there are not one, but two, drafted rookie quarterbacks. Cleveland selected Dillon Gabriel in the third round before shocking the NFL to double back and select Shedeur Sanders in the fifth.
Taking two quarterbacks in 51 picks? Berry fielded the questions: Did he worry that drafting the high-profile Sanders so soon after Gabriel would undermine his third-round pick?
No,” said Berry, sporting a Browns scouting department polo that hinted at his more than 16 years of experience evaluating NFL talent. “The reality of it is everybody’s got to compete. Everybody’s got to earn their keep, so to speak.
“If you’re in any position room and you’re worried about a guy that’s taken or signed that’s out of your control, then you probably don’t have the mental wiring to be as competitive as you need to be for that spot.”
The Browns do not worry that Gabriel, Flacco or Pickett are worrying about Sanders’ arrival.
They don’t worry either that Sanders’ draft slot has distracted the Colorado product from his own work, offensive coordinator Tommy Rees telling Yahoo Sports that despite “all the nonsense that people can talk about, he’s put his head down and done everything we’ve asked him to do.”
Shedeur Sanders says “he’s always hungry” so while he’s happy with work he put in at Browns minicamp, he sees a lot of room for his improvement:
— Jori Epstein June 10, 2025
Speculation, conversation and projection will rage on in response to both 2025 political and societal trends that have little to do with Sanders and the Hall of Fame family pedigree that has much to do with him.
Deion Sanders excelled in the NFL and embraced the flash during his playing days. He has continued to sparkle as the coach who oversaw his son’s four college years across Jackson State and Colorado.