Cleveland Browns: Veteran QB schooled rookies on substance over style

The Cleveland Browns quarterback room in 2025 was a story even Hollywood’s best writers would have had trouble turning into a believable one.

Starting in the offseason and continuing through training camp, the preseason, and into the fall, fans and media members alike believed at one time or another that:

• Kenny Pickett was actually going to start a regular-season game for the Browns.
• Deshaun Watson would see the field during the regular season despite still recovering from a twice-torn Achilles tendon.
• Joe Flacco could re-create his brief but magical run from 2023.
• Dillon Gabriel was the quarterback equivalent of former head coach Hue Jackson.

Shedeur Sanders was conspired against in the NFL Draft, intentionally sabotaged by head coach Kevin Stefanski, and posted a heroic season, despite being statistically one of the worst rookie quarterbacks of the past 25 years.

While Hollywood would never buy such a story, Netflix had no such concerns, as Flacco is one of the four quarterbacks profiled in Season 3 of the Quarterback docuseries.

It was during episode two that Flacco shined, as the veteran teasingly pointed out to Sanders and Gabriel that substance is more important than style in the NFL.

Flacco is on the practice field in Berea when he spots Sanders wearing a mirrored visor over his helmet. From there, Flacco first mentions it to a nearby coach before explaining why it is a poor choice to the rookies (quotes via The Beacon Journal):

“Yeah, but if you wear a visor, it’s for looks. You think you look sweet. It’s that era. I don’t want my kids to wear visors either. They all want visors. I’m like, ‘Guys, they’re just annoying. They’re gonna fog up.’

“They (expletive) suck, dude. It’s all about look. When I was a kid I wanted a visor too, and then I’m like, ‘The visors suck. They don’t make sense.’

“I would let (my kids) wear it, but I would tell them, ‘You’re a quarterback, bro, you’re (expletive) wearing a visor? You look like a (expletive) idiot. If you’re a quarterback, you can tell (when) you’re trying to look too sweet.”

The exchange was all in good fun, but it was also a good lesson for Sanders and Gabriel to learn what is important and what is not if you have aspirations of being a quarterback in the NFL.