When the 2025 season starts, the Browns will have a 12th different starting quarterback in 88 games with Kevin Stefanski as coach. It just might be Kenny Pickett. (TheLandOnDemand)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
PALM BEACH, FL
Kevin Stefanski is still rolling with the punches.
Always dealt a bad hand when it comes to quarterbacks, Stefanski is guaranteed to employ his 12th different starting quarterback in 88 games as Browns coach when the season starts.
And there’s an increasingly good chance that that quarterback will be -- don't kill the messenger -- Kenny Pickett, the Pittsburgh Steelers cast-off and Jalen Hurts backup whom GM Andrew Berry acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Yes, the Browns will draft a quarterback. They’re as consumed as ever with scouting one this year and have even enlisted Stefanski -- for the first time in six years -- in the pursuit.
But even owner Jimmy Haslam conceded in an interview Monday afternoon at the NFL annual meeting that the Browns “will not force” a quarterback with the No. 2 overall pick in the draft. And if they don’t find their future franchise hopeful this year “we’ll figure it out for a year or two until we get the right person.”
That’s where Pickett comes in.
Acquired for a fifth-round pick and third-year developmental QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Pickett was wrongly viewed as merely a QB3 candidate by the general populace.
It’s become clear here this week, however, that Berry and Stefanski have a higher opinion of Pickett than their fan base. If the Browns are unable to miraculously steal Cam Ward away from the Tennessee Titans, any drafted quarterback will compete against Pickett for the starting job opening the 2025 season.
High-priced Kirk Cousins, a Stefanski favorite, is not going to be hand-delivered to them by the Atlanta Falcons, and Joe Flacco, another Stefanski preference, apparently is persona non grata.
That leaves Pickett.
Berry said on Sunday that he liked Pickett coming out of the 2022 draft and that he actually considered trading with the arch-rival Steelers when Pickett talked his way out of Pittsburgh last spring. After Pickett apprenticed under Hurts in Philadelphia’s Super Bowl championship season in 2024, Berry initiated the trade with Eagles GM Howie Roseman.
So it was Berry driving this Browns QB acquisition, as usual, with Stefanski given the mandate to win with him.
“[I’m] very excited about Kenny,” Stefanski said Monday. “We've had him in our building and just the brief time talking to him, understanding what he knows about this game and how he's been coached. I caught up with some of his former coaches in Philly and they filled me in on the type of person, type of player. So excited for Kenny and the opportunity, see what he's capable of and he's got the right makeup for it.”
On Sunday, Berry said, “We think that his relative strengths are something that fit well with the offense that we're putting into place for this upcoming year.”
Stefanski, naturally, concurred.
“Yeah, I think he's a very intelligent, accurate passer,” the coach said. “But he's somebody that -- you've seen it from him -- he's made plays in games, he’s won football games with great decision-making. He's a plus athlete. I've seen him make all the throws, so I really think he fits in whatever you're planning on doing. [He’s a] talented overall player.”
Coming into the league, Pickett was ridiculed for under-sized hands. They measured 8.5 in. at the NFL Combine, much below the 9 in. threshold that NFL scouts and coaches prefer.
That metric becomes even more important for a quarterback running so much play-action faking, which is an essential fundamental of Stefanski’s offense.
“Yeah, he does a nice job [play-faking],” Stefanski said. “I think all those guys, you're always coaching them hard in that area because if you are running play-action from under center, from the gun, there are a lot of nuances to those that you want to be able to master.”
In 24 games as Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback after being drafted 20th overall, Pickett had a 14-10 record. He completed 62.6% of his passes for 4,474 yards. He tossed 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions and achieved a passer rating of 78.8.
Nevertheless, Stefanski doubled-down on Pickett when asked how he feels that Pickett is the only healthy quarterback under contract at present.
“I mean, I feel good,” the coach said. “Obviously it's March 31st, so there's still a draft to be had. It's not August 1st. So I will say this: Kenny Pickett's a guy that I believe in, that we believe in. So we'll see how it all shakes out.”
Pickett turns 27 in June and has only three years NFL experience. So I asked Stefanski if there is a need in the quarterback room for a plus-30 veteran quarterback to serve as mentor to the drafted rookie.
“I think we'll see how it all shakes out, see how that quarterback room shakes out over the course of the next month and after the draft,” Stefanski said. “But I do feel good about Kenny.”
Brownie bits
Stefanski confirmed he will take his team to one joint practice with the Carolina Panthers prior to preseason Game 1 in Charlotte, NC, and then will have two joint practices with the Eagles prior to preseason Game 2 in Philadelphia this summer …
Stefanski said that offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave ran the private workouts of Jalen Milroe, Cam Ward and Jaxson Dart last week, and probably will run the workout of Shedeur Sanders on Thursday in Boulder, CO. Stefanski observes on the field from behind the QB. “I'm as close as you can be without getting in the way of the quarterback,” he said …
Stefanski declined to say the Browns will return to “his” offense in 2025 after they tried to tailor everything to Deshaun Watson in 2024. “I think I don't get caught up in the name of our offense and what it is and that type of thing,” he said. “I believe in our system, I believe in our coaches that are going to implement this system. We just want to be multiple, we want to be versatile. We want to be able to run the ball, throw the ball and really make sure that the most important players on our team are impacting the game.”
In a rare (for him) public stance, Stefanski came out in favor of NOT banning the tush push play popularized by the Eagles. He said the quarterback sneak is “the most effective play” in football and said new offensive line coach Mike Bloomgren “is excited about coaching the technique, and then we’ll see how we got out from these meetings, what’s allowed and what’s not.” Owners will vote on a proposal to ban the tush push on Tuesday.