Following the trade of Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski was unsure on Wednesday if rookie Shedeur Sanders or practice squad quarterback Bailey Zappe would be the team’s backup quarterback.
The only quarterbacks left on the roster are Sanders and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel after Cleveland traded Flacco and a 2026 sixth-round pick to Cincinnati on Tuesday in exchange for a 2026 fifth-round pick. When questioned about the QB2 position, Stefanski responded that he would “let the week play out [and] make a decision later.”
Stefanski stated: “All roster type of things, I always have to be mindful of our players and our players’ development,”
“And I want to make sure that I’m always doing what’s best for our players and, of course, our team. But with young players, I’m always thinking about — last week, making the change to Dillon, you have to think long and hard about that, because these are young players that you are so invested in their development. So, I’ll let the week play out [and] make a decision later.”
In order to have one of the backups be the inactive emergency quarterback, Stefanski would also not specify whether the team will sign Zappe to the active roster before to Sunday’s game.
Stefanski verified last week that throughout the regular season, Gabriel was used as a backup and got reps with the starting offense. Stefanski responded as follows when asked if Sanders and Zappe would share some first-team reps this week: “Need to work through it all. Again, really like the guys we have. We just got to work through all it.”
