BEREA, Ohio — When the Cleveland Browns began their second-to-last practice of minicamp in June, Joe Flacco prepared for another day on the sideline.

The 40-year-old veteran quarterback didn’t love the inactivity.

Even so, spectators watching Kenny Pickett, and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders were tempted to ask: What did this rep allocation say about the Browns’ depth chart?

“Oftentimes, the thought in the NFL is like, ‘OK, well, your starter gets 70% of the reps, your backup gets 25% of the reps and your third guy gets 5% of the reps, and the job of the backups is to be ready to play with no reps,” general manager Andrew Berry told Yahoo Sports during a sitdown interview June 11. “It doesn’t have to be that way — especially in the spring, when we have some flexibility because we’re not necessarily preparing for games.”

So, the Browns did not allocate reps in correlation with their expected depth chart. They instead tilted offseason practices toward getting their two rookie quarterbacks up to speed their first time awash in professional football and toward getting their offseason acquisition in Pickett up to speed on a playbook with which he was not yet familiar.

They ran “two-spot” practices with simultaneous fields allowing the veterans to work more complex play calls ripe with shifts and motions, while the rookies were tasked with playing fast and achieving success even if on more simple assignments.

As Gabriel and Sanders reported Friday with the Browns rookies, followed by Flacco and Pickett on Tuesday with the veterans, what can NFL fans expect from the rookie quarterback competition?

Dillon Gabriel, The Computer Mind

Browns brass raves about Gabriel’s learning speed and processing strength, Berry describing Gabriel as “basically like a veteran” after his six college seasons. “You don’t ever really need to correct him twice,” offensive coordinator Tommy Rees told Yahoo Sports. “He won’t make the same mistake.”

Gabriel played 64 college games at three schools, throwing for 18,722 yards, 155 touchdowns and 32 interceptions across UCF, Oklahoma and Oregon. He will have an adjustment period in the NFL. But the Browns allowed him to begin working with more veteran concepts during minicamp because of the rate at which he was progressing.

“In this profession, I think there’s a bunch of progression and regression,” Gabriel said during minicamp. “Just your ability to manage that as fast as possible, I think that allows you to create improvement at a faster pace.”

Consider Gabriel a darkhorse option for Week 1 starter and realistic option to take further reins later in the season.

Shedeur Sanders, The High-Upside Draft Surprise

The Browns stunned the NFL world selecting Sanders in the fifth round after taking Gabriel in the third. But they didn’t necessarily veer from their principles in the selection.

“We will take backslide even when we have [someone at that position] if we think there’s a player that’s the appropriate value or undervalued relative,” Berry said. “We didn’t anticipate Shedeur being around in the fifth round. I imagine most of the league didn’t either.”

Sanders arrived in Cleveland after completing 70.1% of passes for 14,347 yards, 134 touchdowns and 27 interceptions in four total seasons across Jackson State and Colorado. His college experience is deep also, but there is belief among many in the NFL that its volume and diversity trails what Gabriel learned in six years. Browns coaches did not ask Sanders to integrate the same volume of playbook during minicamp as his counterparts, reflected when he did not take firstteam snaps as the other three did. Sanders’ arm strength and playmaking impressed on the concepts he did run.

“I view things as, I got time,” Sanders said at minicamp. “I got time to be able to grow and mature and be able to understand the ins and outs of the defenses and be able to get good insight from the vets in the room.

“My goal is to be the best teammate and to be as polished as I can be in every aspect.”

Now what?

Early training camp practices often focus on reiterating offensive installations after the long break. But meeting rooms, practices and preseason games will give the Browns more data points off which to determine their depth chart and starter roles. A seemingly four-way quarterback competition to outsiders feels more like a pair of two-way competitions on the ground in Berea. But the Browns won’t count out surprises in the next six weeks.

Stefanski will continue assessing each of his quarterbacks’ strengths in order to tailor his offense accordingly — or more precisely, in his words, decide which concepts from his broadenough- to-fit-each-guy playbook he should most emphasize to accentuate the quarterback in the game.

“I think if you’re in any position room and you’re worried about a guy that’s taken or signed that’s out of your control, then you probably don’t have the mental wiring to be as competitive as you need to be for that spot,” Berry said. “The reality of it is, everybody’s got to compete.

“Everybody’s got to earn their keep, so to speak.”

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