NFL draft: Could another team’s misfortune unravel the Browns QB plan?

The Cleveland Browns made news on Friday morning by announcing they had reached an agreement with quarterback Joe Flacco. The veteran has plenty of support among the fanbase and some believe that he will be given an opportunity to start next season.

Flacco now joins Kenny Pickett in the QB room as the only two healthy quarterbacks on the roster. Momentum has been building for the Browns to take Travis Hunter with the number two overall pick after months of speculation about Shedeur Sanders being the pick.

That doesn’t mean that Cleveland won’t be drafting a rookie, and most still expect them to take one pretty early. Todd McShay of The Ringer had the Browns trading back into the first round with Atlanta to reunite Sanders with Hunter in his latest mock draft release.

Unexpected news broke later in the day when it was reported that quarterback Derek Carr has a shoulder injury that could put his availability for this season in doubt.

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Carr’s future with the New Orleans Saints was already questionable as he was rumored to be a possible post-June 1st cut. Some even wondered if this news caused the Browns to take action to sign Flacco, including our own Jared Mueller.

The Saints could now be more desperate for a solution and many analysts are pointing to Sanders or Jaxson Dart as a possible pick at number nine overall. That could throw a wrench in the Browns plan if they were hoping to land either of them a little later. We could also see Jalen Milroe and Tyler Shough, the presumed fourth and fifth quarterbacks in this draft, be selected higher than expected as a ripple effect.

It will be interesting to see how this all of this plays out with the draft less than two weeks away, but you can count on more mock drafts with the Saints taking a QB in the meantime.

Vambo