Dan GrazianoJul 28, 2025, 06:30 AM ETCloseDan Graziano is a senior NFL national reporter for ESPN, covering the entire league and breaking news. Dan also contributes to Get Up, NFL Live, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio, Sunday NFL Countdown and Fantasy Football Now. He is a New Jersey native who joined ESPN in 2011, and he is also the author of two published novels.Follow on X
Dan GrazianoJul 28, 2025, 06:30 AM ET
CloseDan Graziano is a senior NFL national reporter for ESPN, covering the entire league and breaking news.
Dan also contributes to Get Up, NFL Live, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio, Sunday NFL Countdown and Fantasy Football Now. He is a New Jersey native who joined ESPN in 2011, and he is also the author of two published novels.Follow on X
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Th 2025 NFLtraining camp seasonis a little light on truequarterback battles, but the four we can clearly identify are fascinating.
The Saints have a rookietrying to beat out veteranswho’ve been there — but haven’t done much. The Giants have a rookie and a pair of veterans who alsojust got there.
The Colts have their own former first-round pick and the Giants’ former first-round pick, both of whom could be ontheir last chance. And the Browns… well, the Browns have aQB competitionthe likes of which we’ve never seen before.
So after spending the past couple weeks calling around and asking league sources what they know and who they think will win these four camp QB battles, I wanted to give you a rundown of where things stand with just under six weeks until the start of the season.
We couldn’t start anywhere but Cleveland:
Jump to a QB battle:Browns|Colts|Giants|Saints
Candidates:Joe Flacco,Kenny Pickett,Dillon Gabriel,Shedeur Sanders
Flacco and Pickett are both former first-round picks, though not by Cleveland. Gabriel and Sanders are rookies who were drafted in the third and fifth round in April, respectively. Let’s tackle them in order of seniority.
Flacco, who was theSuper Bowl XLVII MVPfor the Ravens13 seasons ago, is 40 years old and entering his 18th NFL season.
He started five games for the Browns at the end of the 2023 regular season and won four, helping lift Clevelandinto the playoffsin a season that saw them start five different quarterbacks. (The Browns lost to Houston in thewild-card round, with Flacco throwingtwo pick-sixes.) Last season he started six games for the Colts and posted a QBR of 53.4 — the first time he has put up a QBR over 50 since 2020 when he played four games for the Jets. In the past six seasons since leaving Baltimore, he has thrown 46 touchdown passes and 28 interceptions while making 29 starts and winning nine of them.
Pickett was thefirst-round pickof the division rivalSteelersjust three years ago, but hewashed outof Pittsburgh quickly and spent last season backing upJalen Hurtsfor the Super Bowl champion Eagles.
This offseason, the BrownstradedquarterbackDorian Thompson-Robinsonand a fifth-round pick for Pickett, who has thrown 15 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions in 30 games across three NFL seasons.
Then came the draft, where the Browns passed on Sanders multiple times, drafted Gabriel on Day 2 and then finally moved up on Day 3 to get Sanders after all. Gabriel played for three different college programs over six years, but his best season was 2024 withOregon, when he threw for 3,857 yards with 30 touchdowns to lead the Ducks to an undefeated regular season andBig Ten titlebefore losing toeventual champion Ohio Statein the playoff quarterfinal in the Rose Bowl. Sanders played for his father, Pro Football Hall of FamerDeion Sanders, for two years atJackson Stateand two years atColorado.
He threw for 4,134 yards with 37 touchdowns and 10 picks last season and was projected by many to be afirst-round pickin the weeks leading up to the draft.
Source: Espnnfl
