Browns-Eagles joint practice: Joe Flacco continues to get majority of No. 1 reps at QB

New York Times

a day ago

PHILADELPHIA — Shedeur Sanders' momentum has been halted. Dillon Gabriel was back to full participation. Joe Flacco's hot streak in recent practices ran into quality competition in the defending Super Bowl champions.
Wednesday's first Cleveland Browns-Philadelphia Eagles joint session was an important evaluation day for both sides. It also marked another shift in the Browns' quarterback calendar, as Sanders suffered what the team is calling a strained oblique muscle early in practice. He did not throw in any competitive periods, and his week is likely done. The team is calling his availability day to day.
Gabriel, who had been held out of select periods over the previous week-plus due to hamstring tightness, took every snap with the No. 2 offense, both in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 work. He took a handful of snaps behind the No. 1 offensive line and with a mixed collection of pass catchers early in practice. With Sanders out and Kenny Pickett still limited to 7-on-7 and one-on-one work due to his hamstring injury, emergency backup Tyler Huntley got clean-up duty.
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The only one of the four quarterbacks who started camp with the Browns to not be at least limited by injury on multiple days is Flacco, who's 40 and preparing for his 18th NFL season. The quarterback itinerary has obviously been altered, and what's directly ahead remains uncertain, given that at least two injury situations are ongoing and that there's still no firm answer on whether Gabriel will be cleared to play in Saturday's preseason game.
But Flacco has been getting nearly all the reps with the No. 1 offense for three full weeks now, and it's neither a surprise nor a coincidence that his best practice days have come over the last two weeks with increased snaps.
Joe Flacco
Browns
All that's left unsettled about the impending quarterback announcement is the timing. Flacco will be the opening day starter, and we're still completely guessing on how the rest of the depth chart will shake out.
Pickett has thrown well in his recent 7-on-7 sessions, but with the fourth-year quarterback still receiving no full-team reps since the first week of camp, it's impossible to envision Pickett being the starter as Cleveland begins shifting out of training camp mode and, at least for the veterans and starters, into a full focus on the Sept. 7 season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Here on Wednesday, that focus was similar to what it's been in past Kevin Stefanski-scripted joint practices on Day 1. The No. 1 and No. 2 units got almost all of the snaps, and though there was some mixing and matching of offensive personnel, the Browns didn't go nearly as far down the depth chart with their rotations — or make those rotations as frequently — as they have in most sessions.
These are all unofficial counts, but at 27 snaps of 11-on-11 work through four different periods on Wednesday, that would mark Flacco's busiest day of camp. Just from watching and not doing any snap math until well after the practice field had cleared, it felt like the longest and most extensive practice of the summer.
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Flacco said in his post-practice news conference that the Browns got 'good work' that he felt like the team needed: a full day versus a quality opponent.
'Last week (in Carolina) it (moved fast),' Flacco said. 'This week, we came out and had a pretty traditional training camp practice where we were able to grind through stuff a little bit. And any time you have those practices where you're running (a bunch of) plays, you're going to have some ugly and you're going to have some good. That's why it's about the competition, and it's about finding out a little bit about what we are.
'Sometimes when you get in practices like this, I don't know if you can truly say, 'Oh, man, we won today,' or 'We lost today.' But you can find out about how tough guys are, the guys that stick it out, really stick their nose in there, step up to the occasion of playing against a good team, and they're not afraid to do it. You don't think that would happen at this level, where you get guys that get a little bit timid in certain situations, but, hey, there's human nature in some things. So, I think you get to find out a lot about the mental makeup of your team in these environments. I think that was good for us today.'
The Eagles' No. 1 defense bullied the Browns at times. Later in practice, Flacco seemed to find a little rhythm and twice hit Jerry Jeudy on what would have been significant gains.
Joe and Jerry 🤞@JoeFlacco | @jerryjeudy pic.twitter.com/LHGszeqBQ3
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 13, 2025
There was no full tackling, and quarterbacks are completely off-limits, so judging actual results on these plays is often left to the observer on the sideline and the officials' uncertain whistles. But it's hard to rule anything Cleveland's No. 1 offense did Wednesday as a true touchdown — even in designated red zone snaps — and there were multiple occasions on which the Philadelphia pass rush negated Flacco's top options, even if those plays didn't end in obvious simulated sacks.
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A Flacco floater to Diontae Johnson in a red zone period left two Eagles defensive backs openly arguing about who should have been covering the wideout, but the result of the play was a clear sack before the throw was released.
On the other side, the Browns' pass rush certainly won more than its fair share of snaps. Even as it's hard to judge what a player like the mobile Jalen Hurts might have been able to do in a true escape situation, there were at least two occasions during which Myles Garrett and Mason Graham had clear sacks of the Eagles quarterback — and even slowed up in hopes of avoiding any kind of awkward landing or collision in case Hurts tried to further extend the play.
In early-practice one-on-ones, Cleveland Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward's first rep ended in a leaping breakup of a Hurts pass intended for DeVonta Smith. On the next play, Browns second-year cornerback Myles Harden recorded an interception. In an early 7-on-7, Browns linebacker Devin Bush intercepted a Hurts pass by ripping it away from the stomach of tight end Dallas Goedert on an in route.
Denzel said 🚫@denzelward | #DawgPound pic.twitter.com/Yp40qgj2Ph
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 13, 2025
Gabriel was again erratic, but he twice found fellow rookie Kisean Johnson for significant gains. Gabriel also threw a touchdown to running back Trayveon Williams in a red zone period and had another to Gage Larvadain on a crossing route. But there was apparently a flag thrown on the offense as Gabriel released that pass.
One of Gabriel's best passes of the summer, a layered crossing route to Jamari Thrash during an early 11-on-11 session, was dropped.
After practice, Gabriel said, 'We will find out soon' when asked if his hamstring is 100 percent. Presumably, he was saying if he's able to move as well as he wants to and fully participate again in Thursday's practice without issue, then he'll consider himself fully ready to play in Saturday's preseason game.
But at this stage of the summer quarterback carousel, we'll be assuming nothing about the day or practice ahead until we know for certain.
Late in practice, we saw Larvadain, an undrafted rookie, mix in with the No. 1 offense for some reps, something we'd only seen once previously. Rookie tight end Harold Fannin Jr. continues to play a significant number of snaps with the No. 1 offense, and continues to line up at various spots across the formation both with the first-stringers and on his shrinking number of reps with the No. 2 unit.
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Flacco continues to most frequently target Jeudy and Thrash. Though Cedric Tillman had one catch from Flacco in one of Wednesday's early sessions, completions this summer to the third-year receiver and tight end David Njoku have been few.
Based on Stefanski's previous joint practice plans, expect a slightly shorter day on Thursday, which will focus on more situational work: red zone, two-minute drills and field goals in simulated end-of-half situations. It will probably be a day focused on the starters for both sides, with occasional substitutions, and both teams planning to play their rookies and backups extensively on Saturday.
As for when he expects an official announcement from Stefanski on the regular-season starter, Flacco had his answer ready.
'Kevin is Kevin, man,' Flacco said. 'He's the one in charge, and I'm not really looking into when he's going to do things and why he's going to do things. As I've said, I'm just kind of going out there and being myself and feel really confident about what I've been doing, so that's all I can do.'
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