BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns selected Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green in the sixth round (No. 182) of the NFL draft Saturday, becoming the first team in 15 years to take three signal-callers in a two-draft span.
Green joins a quarterback room that is currently holding an open competition between Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson and Dillon Gabriel. Sanders and Gabriel were both drafted last year.
General manager Andrew Berry, who throughout the offseason had said Cleveland would look into the quarterback market, said he intends to move forward with that four-person QB room.
“Very mature young man, really strong makeup and he has rare physical gifts,” Berry said of Green. “He has size. He has elite speed. He has a big arm. He’s going to need some polish with his game, but he has the work ethic and he has the acumen to do so.”
The 6-foot-5, 227-pound Green had a record-breaking performance for a quarterback at the NFL scouting combine in February. He ran a 4.36-second 40-yard dash, the fastest by a QB since 2003, and also posted position-best marks in the vertical jump (43½ inches) and broad jump (11 feet, 2 inches).
Green accounted for 7,247 total yards in two seasons at Arkansas, the second most in the SEC since 2024 and trailing only former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia. Green transferred to Arkansas in 2024 after starting his college career at Boise State, where he redshirted in 2021 and then went 15-7 as a starter over the next two seasons. He was named the 2022 Mountain West Freshman of the Year.
“My size, my athletic ability, my arm strength and just my versatility, I believe I bring it to the quarterback room,” Green said on a conference call. “It’s a deep quarterback room, and I’m just excited to compete and get out there and learn.”
At the Browns’ first and lone voluntary veteran minicamp practice that was open to media last week, Sanders and Watson split all of the first-team reps, though first-year coach Todd Monken said he would not label the competition a two-man race.
Asked Saturday about dividing the QB reps going forward, Monken added: “Every player that’s going to be a part of a roster is going to be competing … that doesn’t mean equal reps. There has to be some form of a depth chart.”
Sanders, a fifth-round pick, started the final seven games of the season for the Browns and went 3-4 as a starter. Gabriel, a third-round pick, started six games before sustaining a concussion that paved the way for Sanders to make his first NFL start. Watson did not play in 2025 as he rehabbed an Achilles tear he originally suffered in October 2024.
The Browns in 2025 used at least three starting quarterbacks — Sanders, Gabriel and Joe Flacco — for the fourth time in the last five seasons. Flacco signed a free-agent deal with the Cincinnati Bengals earlier this offseason.
The Carolina Panthers were the last team to take three QBs in a two-draft span, selecting Jimmy Clausen and Tony Pike in 2010 and then Cam Newton in ’11.
