There has been plenty of debate regarding who should begin the year as the starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns. Many have campaigned for who they believe should get the nod to start Week 1, but there is one choice that stands above the rest as the correct answer.
It may not be a popular choice for a large portion of the fanbase, but once the factors at play are thoroughly acknowledged, even those who were completely against this possibility may change their mind, or at least be a little more open to it.
Early season schedule is going to be tough for the Cleveland Browns
Over the first eight weeks of the 2025 season, the Cleveland Browns will face teams that combined to have an 83-53 record last season. Cleveland will face only one team with double-digit losses last season, that being the 4-13 New England Patriots in Week 8 before the bye week. It should also be mentioned that the first time the Browns will face a team with a below .500 record last season is one week prior, when Cleveland takes on the 8-9 Miami Dolphins.
Facing five teams that made the playoffs last season in the first six weeks of the season puts the Browns in a position where they are unlikely to have multiple wins, much less a single win, by the time they face Miami in Week 7. It's pretty clear that the gauntlet Cleveland will have to navigate over the first half of the season is something that should be factored into their decision-making process.
The Cleveland Browns need to look competent on offense from the start
If there is one thing that this team has lacked for far too long on offense, it is a unit that looks competent. The Cleveland Browns have experienced far too many issues stemming from the quarterback position, and that makes it extremely difficult to accurately evaluate the players on the field.
It becomes difficult to genuinely assess what a team does on offense every week if the quarterback is playing out of time and he cannot operate the offense at a certain level. That has been a major problem for the Browns in the past, and if Cleveland is going to have a clear idea of what they have in other players on the roster, they will need a certain caliber of quarterback to execute the offense in the most effective manner possible.
Read More: Browns starting linebacker named team's most underrated player
There's a second part to this as well, as having the appearance of a working offense will help establish some level of legitimacy in what the Browns front office and coaching staff are doing. This is a team that has been incredibly inconsistent on a year-over-year basis, and a lot of that has to do with incompetent quarterback play. Having someone capable of putting up at least average numbers would do wonders in the legitimacy-establishing department.
Let's face it, there have been plenty of questions about the job security of Cleveland's coaching and front office staff. This team will need to show some redeeming qualities from an offensive standpoint to prove why across-the-board changes should not be made, and there is only one quarterback on this roster who can do that.
Who should start Week 1 for the Cleveland Browns? The answer is obvious
There is one player and one player only on this team that can do what the Browns need to help them get through their difficult schedule and can perform at the level required to provide answers, and that player is Joe Flacco. In a quarterback room filled with two rookies in Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, and a former first-round pick in Kenny Pickett, it is Flacco who makes the most sense to begin the year as Cleveland's starter.
Some have argued that this team is not going to be good anyway, so why not have Gabriel, Sanders, or Pickett take the bulk of the snaps and let Flacco go? Well, as mentioned above, this is a team that needs to show they have a genuine plan that will, at some point, get them back to being a winning team.
Having an inexperienced rookie quarterback who would get destroyed by some of the elite defenses they face early on and possibly ruin them between the eardrums would be of zero benefit to anyone. Going with Pickett over Flacco would be a mind-boggling decision that would basically tell every other team in the league that, on top of being a bad team, they are going to be unwatchable also.
What this all comes down to is laying the groundwork for the future rather than right now. Will the Browns lose and lose a lot with Flacco this season if he gets the nod? Sure, but focusing on wins and losses for a team that is far away from being average and even further away from being a playoff team is not the right way to go about things at this time.
It's about looking at the situation in Cleveland from a broad perspective, in addition to looking at the entire season and what their plans may be moving forward after the year is up. Playing a rookie quarterback to start the year for the sake of a rookie getting the most in-game action is a non-sensical and wrong approach to take when factoring everything that is on the line into the equation here.
Jobs could very well be on the line in Cleveland, and if they are going to avoid ending up in the proverbial unemployment line, they must take an approach that should result in their employment feeling the most secure. Begin the year with Flacco, make a bye week change to one of the rookies (Gabriel or Sanders, preferably Gabriel), and never under any circumstances allow Pickett to see the field.