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Big-picture quarterback dance continues to be very Browns

BEREA, Ohio -- The Cleveland Browns continue to do the cha-cha at the most important position in the NFL.

In the small picture, the team has a young veteran who has won games (Brock Osweiler) and a rookie with promise (DeShone Kizer) competing to start the season opener against Pittsburgh.

That's not such a bad picture.

But in the big picture, the cycle of change continues.

Now that it appears Cody Kessler has dropped out of the running to be the opening-day starter, meaning the Browns will have still another new starting quarterback when the season begins Sept. 10 against the Steelers.

That makes No. 27 since 1999, the 10th since the 2013 season.

It also marks the fifth year in a row the Browns will have a new opening-day starter. Since 2013, Brandon Weeden, Brian Hoyer, Josh McCown and Robert Griffin III have started Cleveland's opening game. Hoyer was the only one with a winning record in those seasons, and the Browns still yanked him late in the year for Johnny Manziel. Which, of course, didn't go well.

The Browns also have a chance to continue another streak of misery. In each of the last four seasons, they have used three starters at quarterback.

In 2013, it was Weeden, Hoyer and Jason Campbell. In 2014, it was Hoyer, Manziel and Connor Shaw. In 2015, it was McCown, Manziel and Austin Davis. And last season it was Griffin, McCown and Kessler.

It now appears likely they are going to start a guy they acquired as a throw-in in a trade that brought the Browns a 2018 second-round draft pick.

Good for Osweiler for winning the job, and good for the Browns for giving him a chance and not just writing him off.

But discovering the opening-day quarterback this way, well, in the short term it really is pretty Browns.

Even if in the long run things could change with good play from Osweiler and/or Kizer.