Just as sure as it rains in April and flowers bloom in the spring, the Cleveland Browns are looking for a new quarterback heading into the 2025 season. Since the Browns were reincarnated in 1999, they have tried just about everything to find a franchise signal caller but haven’t been able to find a long-term solution.
That includes their current situation. Deshaun Watson is currently sidelined after tearing his Achilles for the second time this offseason and many expect Cleveland to take a quarterback with the second overall pick in next month’s NFL Draft.
But while names such as Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward are at the top of the Browns list, a surprising name surfaced during the NFL Scouting Combine last week.
Carson Wentz Named Candidate to Sign With the Browns This Offseason
ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler laid out the Browns’ quarterback options in a combine notebook released on Sunday morning. While Graziano believes Cleveland is comfortable selecting Ward or Sanders with the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft, Fowler believes they could be in the market for a bridge quarterback with Carson Wentz being an option.
“The Browns will consider cost when it comes to the quarterback market, given they still owe injured Watson…$92 million over the next two years,” Fowler wrote. “People I’ve talked to expect Daniel Jones to be on their radar, along with Kirk Cousins if he becomes available (although, surprisingly, not every team official is buying that the Falcons will just cut him outright, despite the significant money owed to him). Another name to watch here is Carson Wentz.”
Of all the options the Browns could go with, Wentz is the most shocking. The Browns passed on Wentz the last time they had the No. 2 overall pick in the draft in 2016 and their trade with the Philadelphia Eagles looked disastrous as the North Dakota State product put together an MVP-caliber season before tearing his ACL in 2017.
Although Philadelphia won the Super Bowl with Nick Foles, Wentz never recovered, spending three more seasons as the Eagles’ starter before he was traded to Indianapolis in 2021. While he threw for 3,563 yards, 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions that season, the organization was frustrated at “a lack of leadership, resistance to hard coaching and a reckless style of play,” leading to a trade to the Washington Commanders.
Wentz has been in journeyman status since, playing for the Commanders in 2022, the Los Angeles Rams in 2023 and the Kansas City Chiefs last season but his days as a starting quarterback seem to be behind him. Then again, he could be exactly what Cleveland is looking for in their starting quarterback entering 2025.
Wentz’s recent history would make him affordable compared to some of the other names on the market and he could be more of a house of cards to topple for a rookie quarterback compared to Cousins or Russell Wilson. There’s also the chance that Kevin Stefanski could coach Wentz up in the same way he did Joe Flacco in 2023 and buy a year for whichever quarterback they draft to fully develop.
It’s not a name that Browns fans will be fond of if it happens, but Wentz could be in line to become the next player on Cleveland’s long list of starting quarterbacks.