National reporter updates if Shedeur Sanders has 'path' to be Browns' Week 1 starting QB

Multiple Cleveland Browns insiders have said throughout the spring that the club plans to start either veteran quarterback Joe Flacco or 2022 first-round draft choice Kenny Pickett over rookies Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel in September. 

According to national NFL reporter Kimberley A. Martin of ESPN, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski hasn't yet closed the door on the possibility of Sanders winning the four-way competition for the club's starting job this summer. 

"Listen, in that building, there are people who believe that Shedeur can 100 percent be the starter of this football team," Martin said about the Browns during a Wednesday appearance on the ESPN "Get Up" program, as shared by Doric Sam of Bleacher Report. "You said it's incumbent upon the Browns to put him in the situation. It's also incumbent upon Shedeur to do the work, which, talking to people in that building, they've said he is soaking up everything like a sponge."

Per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk, Stefanski recently insisted that Sanders and Gabriel "are doing great" and have been "sponges in the meeting room." Nevertheless, FanDuel Sportsbook continued to list Flacco as a +116 betting favorite to win the starting job over Pickett (+200) as of Wednesday morning. At that same time, FanDuel had Sanders at +430 odds, while Gabriel was a +870 underdog. 

During the latest edition of the "Orange and Brown Talk Podcast," team reporter Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer explained that the Browns "probably don’t want to start a rookie right away," in part because neither Sanders nor Gabriel is viewed as a "day one starter." Martin indicated that's not necessarily the case. 

"Gabriel’s a guy who was drafted in the third (round)," Martin continued during the segment. "One source said to me, 'He is everything you want in a quarterback, he’s just small.' If he were a little taller, a lot of people would be looking at Dillon Gabriel a little differently, at least that's how they feel in their building. So they have a very interesting quarterback situation, and Shedeur has a path (to win the job)."

Gabriel measured in at 5-foot-11 at the NFL Scouting Combine. 

The Browns' mandatory minicamp is scheduled to run from June 10-12, but the real quarterback competition won't get underway until Cleveland begins training-camp sessions in late July. It certainly sounds like some within the Browns want it known that either Sanders or Gabriel could end the preseason atop the depth chart, regardless of what was previously said about the situation this spring.