Veteran Brock Osweiler will start under center when the Cleveland Browns open up the preseason against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday.
We really shouldn’t read too much into this. Starting a preseason opener is a much different ball game than being under center when Week 1 comes calling. Rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer has also shown himself well in Browns camp this summer (more on that here).
Though, it now looks like Osweiler surely has the inside track for the starting job.
“The job is Brock Osweiler’s to lose,” ESPN’s Pat McManamon reported on Wednesday. “If he goes out against the Saints on Thursday and leads the offense sufficiently, he’ll be the opening-day starter.”
Speculation had been ramping up that head coach Hue Jackson might have to go with Kizer as the team’s starter. It would be a way for Cleveland to see what it has in the rookie second-round pick.
If experience is the name of the game for a Browns team that won one game last season, Osweiler is surely the guy. The veteran has started 21 games throughout his career. That’s 13 more than every other quarterback on the Browns’ roster, including second-year player Cody Kessler.
Acquired from Houston in what amounted to as nothing less than a salary dump from the Texans, Osweiler is coming off a disastrous 2016 campaign that saw him put up 15 touchdowns compared to 16 interceptions.
If he’s the short-term solution, Kizer himself has to be considered the long-term option. When that might actually happen remains to be seen.