Sheduer Sanders may have gained ground in Browns QB competition without playing

An unfortunate injury in practice this week kept former Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders sidelined for the Cleveland Browns' second preseason game on Saturday. It was an unfortunate break for Sanders, who was looking to build off a strong performance in his preseason debut. As a rookie fifth-round pick who has consistently been listed as the QB4 on the Browns' depth chart, Sanders can't really afford to miss valuable reps.

The good news is that the other rookie QB for the Browns did play, and he made a couple of catastrophic mistakes that Sanders was able to avoid during his preseason debut.

Dillon Gabriel's stat line wasn't terrible on the surface. He completed 13-of-18 passing for 143 yards. But he made two bad mistakes that were costly for Cleveland. The first was an atrocious pick-six early in the second quarter. The second was a fumble on a hand-off to a RB, which was credited to Gabriel due to a poor exchange.

The pick-six is about as bad as it gets:

Shedeur Sanders has consistently been the better of the two rookie QBs

One game sample sizes don't always tell the tale, but they can certainly confirm what has been obvious. And it's been obvious during Training Camp - despite the fact that he was mystifyingly drafted two rounds later - that Shedeur Sanders is the better QB prospect and deserves to be prioritized over Dillon Gabriel.

As much as Cleveland has marketed this as a "four-way" QB battle, it never has been that. The QB battle has been between veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett, and with Pickett's injury issues, Flacco's path to the starting job is almost secure.

Cleveland won't carry four quarterbacks, so if they want to hang on to Pickett, whom they traded for this offseason after he looked good backing up Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia last season, then they may be forced to make a decision between Sanders and Gabriel.

Who knows which way the team might be leaning, but it seems obvious now - and really it was obvious to every NFL Draft expert before the draft - that Sanders is the better quarterback. He deserves to be prioritized in development. If the Browns aren't going to do that, then they should trade him to someone who will.