The Athletic has live coverage of Saturday’s NFL Preseason action.
BEREA, Ohio — Most of the Cleveland Browns’ starters will play in Saturday’s preseason finale against the Los Angeles Rams. After starting quarterback Joe Flacco is removed, both rookies — Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders — will play.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said Thursday that he plans to play most of his healthy starters 20 to 25 snaps. Because the Browns held joint practice sessions ahead of their first two preseason games, most of the team’s regulars have not seen any preseason game action.
It’s unlikely that All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett or Pro Bowl guard Joel Bitonio will play, but Stefanski said cases will be handled on an individual basis. He named Flacco the starting quarterback earlier this week, so expect most of the No. 1 offense to get two series.
Stefanski said the quarterback order will be Flacco, then Gabriel, then Sanders. Gabriel sat out the preseason opener but played well in Philadelphia. After Sanders threw two touchdown passes against the Carolina Panthers, he was sidelined last week by a strained oblique.
Sanders participated in practice on Wednesday and Thursday and said he’s healthy enough to play this weekend.
Kenny Pickett, who’s No. 2 on the team’s unofficial depth chart, will not play. He has not been healthy enough to complete a full practice since the first week of camp, and Pickett’s lingering hamstring injury adds another layer of uncertainty to the quarterback situation ahead of Tuesday’s roster cutdown to the regular-season size of 53.
Stefanski has repeatedly said he’s not sharing his thoughts on the makeup of the rest of the depth chart behind Flacco. There’s probably some uncertainty there, given Pickett’s injury and the fact that Sanders was inactive for a week before returning to work, but Sanders said he’s focused mostly on improvement and not what his role might be in the coming weeks.
“Do I feel like I have things to prove? Of course,” Sanders said. “I’m playing for happiness, I’m playing for the fans, the family, for everybody, for this organization that drafted me. So, (there are) a lot of things I’m playing for.
“(The depth chart), I really don’t look into that. I don’t care. Whenever it’s time for me to get out there and play, I’m gonna play. Whenever it’s time for the lights to come on, I’m gonna do my thing. I’m not concerned about when it is. I’m not concerned about … how many reps I’m getting at this point, it is what it is, because I know when the lights come on, when everything’s going, when the pressure’s on, you know who I am and I’ll always be that way.”
The Browns will host the Rams at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday.
(Photo: Ken Blaze / Imagn Images)