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Cleveland’s four-man quarterback competition will be reduced to three for an undetermined amount of time.
Kenny Pickett suffered a mild hamstring injury over the weekend, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported on Monday. Pickett was able to finish practice on Saturday after the injury.
The news deals a blow to Pickett’s best chance of earning a starting job since his days in Pittsburgh. The former first-round pick entered camp as the slight favorite to win the job in what promised to be one of the more fascinating competitions in any NFL camp this summer, but time missed will reduce opportunities to separate himself from the pack.
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In Pickett’s absence, the quarterback quartet will shrink to three: veteran Joe Flacco and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, turning a multilayered situation into more of a Master Splinter and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dynamic, at least in terms of age differences and NFL wisdom.
If anything, Pickett’s absence might open the door for a rookie-versus-rookie showdown. Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski already knows what he has in Flacco, given the time they shared during their run to the playoffs in 2023. Stefanski cannot say the same about Sanders and Gabriel, providing the coach with a chance to rotate their reps and compare the two directly.
It is unknown how long Pickett will be out. Hamstring injuries tend to be treated with more caution — especially during training camp — but with the starting job up for grabs, Pickett will have incentive to try to return quickly.