Browns wide receiver Diontae Johnson predicts Kenny Pickett will get first shot as team's starting QB
The Cleveland Browns have a four-pronged quarterback competition this offseason, complete with a pair of rookies, the backup quarterback of last season's Super Bowl champs and a 40-year-old veteran who already temporarily rescued the franchise once as NFL Comeback Player of the Year in 2023.
With Deshaun Watson still recovering from the Achilles tear he suffered this past January, the spotlight is on Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders, Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco.
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Wide receiver Diontae Johnson, a one-time Pro Bowler who signed with the Browns this spring, has a prediction for which quarterback will come out on top this summer.
"I think they are going to roll with Kenny for right now," Johnson said while appearing on the "Sports and Suits" podcast earlier this month.
"I've been seeing Kenny going like right now with the ones. Then Joe will come in," Johnson said. "I think they are probably going to roll with [Kenny] just to see like he's coming off a season with Philly and having a Super Bowl. So, I think they are going to stick with him through the preseason. Then you know they can live with Joe and what he brings to the table."
Johnson is hoping to turn the page after a 2024 campaign that was memorable for all the wrong reasons. He split time with three teams: the Carolina Panthers, the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans. He made headlines in his second stop when the Ravens suspended him one game for refusing to enter a Week 13 game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Johnson's best days came in Pittsburgh, where he spent 2019-23.
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Johnson and Pickett were Steelers teammates for two seasons from 2022-23. During that span, Pickett went 14-10 as the starter, and Johnson caught a total of 137 passes for 1,599 yards and five touchdowns.
The Steelers drafted Pickett out of University of Pittsburgh with the No. 20 overall pick in the 2022 draft. Pickett got the first chance to succeed a newly-retired Ben Roethlisberger but, despite his winning record, posted a meager 13:13 touchdown-to-interception ratio in his two seasons as QB1.
Pittsburgh moved on from Pickett ahead of the 2024 season, trading him to the Philadelphia Eagles that offseason. The Steelers, meanwhile, entered last season with both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields in their quarterback room, neither of whom are still with the team.
Pickett backed up Eagles star Jalen Hurts, appearing in five games during a Super Bowl season. He completed 25-of-42 passes (59.5%) while recording 291 yards through the air, two touchdowns and one interception. He won his only start of the season, a 41-7 drubbing of the NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys.
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Pickett even got to take the field in the Super Bowl, stepping in for garbage time snaps during the Eagles' blowout victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
He took his ring with him to Cleveland in March when the Browns traded for him in exchange for quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and the 2025 fifth-round pick Cleveland had acquired from Detroit.
Pickett is only 27 years old. He could be next in an increasingly-long line of former first-round quarterbacks finding success in the second and third acts of their NFL careers.
But in order for Johnson's summer prediction to come true, Pickett will have to beat out a still-strong-armed Flacco, plus a 2024 Heisman Trophy finalist in Gabriel as well as Sanders, last year's Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.
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