Stefanski likely to reveal Browns' starting QB for opener this week

CLEVELAND — Coach Kevin Stefanski is expected to announce this week the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback for the Sept. 7 opener against the Cincinnati Bengals.

“I want to get through the next couple days. But certainly that’s something that we’re going to do here sooner than later,” Stefanski said on Sunday about announcing his starter. “I need to get the football team in here, talk to the players, those type of things.”

The Browns were off on Sunday after their 22-13 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. They return to work on Monday with practices leading up to Saturday’s preseason finale over the Los Angeles Rams mostly being geared like a normal game week.

“We’ll give the guys a normal game plan as you would get ready for the game,” Stefanski said. “We will do more competitive periods than we would say in the regular season, so we’ll do plenty of Browns versus Browns in practice, as well as introducing carded periods where we’ll be simulating the Rams offense and defense.”

Joe Flacco has not played in either preseason game, but has seen most of the first-team snaps throughout camp as well as getting plenty of work in joint practices against Carolina and Philadelphia. The 40-year old Flacco is the only one of Cleveland’s quarterbacks in the four-way competition that has not been sidelined because of an injury during training camp.

Kenny Pickett has been mostly limited the past couple of weeks after suffering a hamstring injury on July 26. Shedeur Sanders missed the second day of joint practices against the Eagles and did not play in the game after suffering an oblique injury last Wednesday.

Stefanski was optimistic that Pickett or Sanders could possibly return to practice sometime this week. Sanders got the start against Carolina and completed 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards and two TD passes.

Dillon Gabriel, who did not play in the preseason opener at Carolina on Aug. 8 because of a hamstring strain, played the first half against the Eagles. In five series, he completed 13 of 18 passes for 143 yards. Three of the drives resulted in points while the other two ended with turnovers, including a 75-yard, pick-6 by Eagles safety Andrew Mukuba.

What pleased Stefanski the most about Dillon was that he completed all six of his passes on third down. The Browns were 6 of 8 on third down in the first half.

“Protection was good. We were able to find completions. But those third down conversions were huge,” Stefanski said.