He’s still No. 2. Coming into the Cleveland Browns‘ big Week 8 game against the Steelers in Pittsburgh, with supremacy in the AFC North on the line, there were significant questions about how the Browns’ quarterback depth chart would shape up behind starter Deshaun Watson. There were rumblings that the Browns had been giving a long look at Dillon Gabriel, now off the injured reserve, as the No. 2 quarterback on the team’s list, supplanting Shedeur Sanders. That would have been a remarkable turn of events for a Browns team that has played Sanders only one NFL snap this season.
But on Sunday, not long before kickoff in Pittsburgh, the team made its final announcement: Yes, Sanders is still No. 2, with Gabriel registering as inactive, but the emergency No.3 quarterback and Taylen Green inactive altogether.
Tytus Howard, the starting right tackle, officially cleared protocol.
As Zac Jackson of The Athletic reports: “Howard clearing concussion protocol was the biggest pregame status news. Gabriel the emergency QB in his first game on the active roster.”
Throughout the week coming into this game, the Browns had questions in their quarterback room. Watson has obviously secured his status as the starter in Cleveland, but there was remaining confusion about what the team would do with the rest of its QB crew. Reports persisted that Sanders would remain the QB2, but eyebrows were raised, certainly, when coach Todd Monken appeared to be uncertain of his depth chart himself.
Asked last Monday about how Gabriel coming off the injured reserve–he’d been stashed on IR for the first seven weeks with a back injury–would affect the QB room, Monken said, “I haven’t gotten there yet.”
Browns Make Shedeur Sanders Announcement Before Steelers Game