It is truly not hyperbole to say the Cleveland Browns added one of the greatest athletes, pound-for-pound, that the NFL has ever seen when they drafted quarterback Taylen Green in the sixth round of April's draft. At nearly 6'6" and 227 pounds, Green's NFL Combine exploits caused jaws to drop nationwide as he dazzled in the 40-yard dash, vertical jump, and broad jump, making history in the process.
His 9.99 Relative Athletic Score ranked second among 1,128 quarterback prospects since 1987. Perhaps a few comparisons at other positions help put those numbers into perspective. This is a prospect whose official 40-yard dash (4.36) bested Terrelle Pryor's unofficial Pro Day 40-time (4.38–4.41 depending on who you ask). He also outleaped Josh Gordon vertically by a whopping seven-and-a-half inches and Joe Haden in the broad jump by nine inches.
In a league where the best athletes typically play wide receiver and defensive back, Taylen Green makes plenty of them seem like "average Joes." Naturally, with all that athletic ability, you can imagine the shock a Browns fan might've felt when Bleacher Report's "realistic expectations" for him in 2026 read thusly:
“While GM Andrew Berry wants to keep four quarterbacks now that he's added Green to a group that includes Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel, he's also admitted that Green still needs to “polish” his craft. Expect the rookie to be little more than a QB4 for the club in 2026. Realistic expectation: Practice squad QB4.”
Even if the Browns opt for only three quarterbacks, it's hard to believe Taylen Green would be the odd man out
Andrew Berry has done this song and dance so many times it's become an annual spectacle. In 2024, the conversation was about keeping Tyler Huntley, who had an impressive preseason, as a fourth QB behind Deshaun Watson, Jameis Winston, and Dorian Thompson-Robinson. In 2025, it centered around keeping Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Shedeur Sanders, and Dillon Gabriel. This year, it's about whether the Browns will roster the four QBs they currently have: Watson, Sanders, Gabriel, and Green.
Last year, we looked back at the initial 53-man rosters for all 32 teams over the previous five years to see how many QBs each team kept per year. Only one of 160 teams kept four quarterbacks, and it was the aforementioned 2024 Browns with Tyler Huntley. When a trade predictably didn't materialize, they cut bait before the season opener.
We expanded our data set to include 2025, and the Browns were joined by one other brave franchise that entered the season with four quarterbacks under contract: the 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers. We quickly found out that it was a phony four, as Skylar Thompson was only kept on board through the cutdown date to be shuffled to the injury list without having to miss the full season.
So, effectively, no team in the last six years has kept four quarterbacks on the active roster for a season. But Andrew Berry will keep telling us he wouldn't mind. As a Browns fan, that's exactly what you should want. As much as folks might not believe it, Berry is trying to preserve trade value for the likeliest departure, Dillon Gabriel.
If another franchise, such as the Kevin Stefanski-led Atlanta Falcons, is keen on Gabriel, they could just wait for the Browns to release him in a month and get him for free. Berry is trying to preserve value. He's also batting .500 on the proposition, striking out with Tyler Huntley in 2024 but somehow recouping his initial fifth-round pick investment from the Raiders for Kenny Pickett last year. It's hard to argue when it's worked at least once.
Moreover, Andrew Berry has proven very unwilling to release a draft pick before at least one season. Not counting the newest crop of rookies, Berry has drafted 44 players. Only three of them, or 6.8 percent, failed to make the team's initial roster.
What makes the Bleacher Report take particularly confounding is the idea of moving Green to the practice squad. A player has full agency once he is released, and he is eligible to sign anywhere else — including other teams' practice squads — if he so chooses. Nothing is stopping Taylen Green from heading to Baltimore and learning from the GOAT athletic quarterback in Lamar Jackson if he were to be cut. That's surely something the Browns wouldn't want to see.
All of that is to say, regardless of whether this is a redshirt year for Taylen Green or not in terms of on-field action, under no circumstances should the Browns release him to try to stash him on their practice squad. Fans can rest easy that Andrew Berry is probably thinking the same way.
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