Shedeur Sanders isn't a lock to be the Week 1 starter for the Cleveland Browns, but he's definitely going to generate the most buzz in their quarterback room.
Cleveland's quarterback room is quite crowded at the moment. Not only did the Browns draft Sanders with the 144th overall pick, they took a chance on former Oregon gunslinger Dillon Gabriel in the third round.
Gabriel and Sanders will try their best to dethrone Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett on the depth chart. That won't be easy though, especially since Flacco has experience running Kevin Stefanski's offense. In 2023, he completed 60.3 percent of his passes for 1,616 yards with 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
In theory, Flacco could help Gabriel and Sanders get up to speed with Stefanski's offensive system. However, he's not required to do that.
While at OTAs this week, Flacco was asked if he's willing to be a mentor to Sanders and the rest of the quarterback room. Let's just say his response was refreshing to hear.
Flacco said his job isn't to mentor other players, but he's more than willing to offer advice based on his experiences.
"It's a good question to bait somebody into answering and no matter how they answer it, it kind of makes the guy that's answering it look bad," Flacco told reporters. "If I say, 'I don't want to be a mentor,' I look bad. If I say, 'I do want to be a mentor,' then I look like an idiot that doesn't care about being good and playing football. So it's one of those questions that no matter what I say, you guys can write what you want to write about it. And there's a lot of questions like that. That's why you end up having to try to avoid them.
"I tend to try to be honest, and I've said, 'I'm not a mentor. I play football.' And in a quarterback room, there's a lot of times — already, there's been already a ton of times — where there's learning experiences and I have a lot of experience, and I can talk on things, and hopefully they listen. But it's not necessarily my job to make sure they listen to me. Hey, hopefully you have a really good relationship with the guys that are in the room, and you naturally want to do that."
So there you have it. If Sanders is willing to listen to Flacco, he may learn some valuable lessons.
