Browns' Shedeur Sanders, Kenny Pickett Injury Updates Before Preseason Game vs. Rams

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski offered injury updates on both Shedeur Sanders and Kenny Pickett on Tuesday.

Sanders will be limited and won't practice, though he will throw, per multiple reports, as he continues to recover from an oblique strain. Pickett, meanwhile, will get his first 11-on-11 work in on Tuesday since injuring his hamstring back on July 26.

It remains to be seen if the Browns will be keeping the four quarterbacks they currently have on the roster, let alone how the depth chart will shake out behind Joe Flacco, who was named the starter on Monday.

"He earned it," Stefanski told reporters regarding Flacco, dismissing the notion that injuries to the other quarterbacks played a major part in the decision. "And I understand with the injuries how that may look. That's really not the case here. Joe performed really well both in practice, in the joint practices, in the meeting room—you name it—in the walk-through. Just what he's able to bring to the football team, he's earned that role."

Pickett and the pair of 2025 rookies, Dillon Gabriel and Sanders, battled for the starting gig this summer, though it always felt likely that Flacco would earn the nod. It's hard to imagine the Browns putting either Gabriel or Sanders on the practice squad, which would allow any other team to sign them, while Pickett offers Cleveland more experience in a backup role.

So it's very possible that the Browns will carry four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, an extremely rare occurrence in the modern NFL. General manager Andrew Berry said in July that the Browns could go that route, though Stefanski suggested on Sunday that doing so may not be realistic.

"I think we'll let it play out as we get closer to the cut down," he told reporters. "Those are all conversations that we are always having, but those are tough decisions. You know, I'd like to keep everybody, but not realistic."

If there was a player most likely to get released, it feels like it would be Pickett. He wasn't able to win the starting job in the short term, and the Browns probably see Gabriel or Sanders as the long-term options. Keeping Pickett would essentially be a move to ensure having a veteran backup on the roster, but whether that's worth sacrificing a roster spot at another position remains to be seen. It would not be surprising to see Pickett either traded or outright released before the final roster cuts.