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The Cleveland Browns may choose to shuffle their quarterbacks once again for their season finale. But this time, it will be by choice and not due to injury.
The Browns head into a Week 18 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals with nothing at stake. Cleveland has locked up the No. 5 seed in the AFC and will play the AFC South champion. The Bengals have been eliminated from playoff contention.
It’s a rare position for the Browns to be in, but it gives the team a chance to rest some of their key players. That includes 38-year-old quarterback Joe Flacco. He’s passed for more than 300 yards in four consecutive games and has shaken off any rust he may have had from sitting on his couch for the first few months of the season.
If Flacco does not suit up, they’d start either PJ Walker or recently signed veteran Jeff Driskel. The Browns lost $230 million franchise quarterback Deshaun Watson to a season-ending shoulder injury in November. Rookie QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson is also done for the year with a hip injury.
“Working through all those things,” Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said on January 1. “[Driskel] is a guy that we felt good about bringing in. [Alex Van Pelt] has been with him before when he was in Arizona. So, there’s a lot of carryover from what we do and what they do in terms of terminology. With Dorian’s injury, getting a guy in here that we felt good about, but we’ll see on all that.”
If Driskel starts, it would give the Browns an opportunity to win games with five different starting quarterbacks. Cleveland is already the first team in NFL history to win at least 10 games in a season with four different quarterbacks earning at least one win.