CHICAGO -- Browns head of football operations Sashi Brown revealed Thursday night that the Browns might only keep two quarterbacks, which means that all three backups will have to be looking over their shoulder as rosters are trimmed from 90 to 53 on Saturday afternoon.

"We've had some discussions about that,'' Brown said before the Browns' preseason finale against the Bears "As this roster really evolves over the next couple days we'll make those final decisions. We may keep three, may keep 2.''

Keeping only two means that one of the quarterbacks who had a chance to win the starting job this season -- Cody Kessler and Brock Osweiler -- could be gone. And if the Browns trade or cut Osweiler, Kevin Hogan is also in the mix for the backup job behind DeShone Kizer.

Asked about a recent remark that he's be "surprised if Osweiler is not on the roster at the start of the season,'' Brown revised that statement.

"Brock's done a nice job and all four of the quarterbacks have done a nice job,'' said Brown. "We're looking to evaluate them. I'm not going to get into cutting the roster tonight. I probably shouldn't have said that the first time, but Brock has been a good professional, and he's been a good presence in that room which is very young.''

If the Browns decide to keep three, they can put Hogan back on the practice squad.

Brown also left open the possibility of adding another quarterback as the weekend unfolds.

"I would never rule out anything,'' he said. "You never know what's going to happen. I've been around long enough to know that. It's nothing that we're necessarily aiming at or looking for, we just want to look at every opportunity that becomes available.''

Asked if he'd judge Colin Kaepernick on just football or his national anthem protests, he said, "It would be on the merits of him as a quarterback. Period.''

He didn't say whether or not he'd be interested in adding him.

Brown noted that Thursday night's game was not a make or break situation for Kessler, who was outplayed in the third preseason game. Kessler played the first half against the Bears, and threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Ranell Hall. He went 6-for-7 for 85 yards on the drive, including a 20-yard strike to tight end David Njoku. A drive earlier, he completed an 18-yard pass to Jordan Leslie, who made a sensational, leaping one-handed grab.

"It's hard not to like what these guys have done in stints,'' said Brown. "Cody had the big night against New York and a couple big throws, Kevin had the big comeback last week, did some nice things not only with his arm but with his legs. So for all the guys on the roster at this point, all these opportunities are important for them. But we're not going to make a decision just based on this one game.''

Brown was also thrilled that Kizer, who rested Thursday night, was able to win the job out of camp.



"It's exciting for the team,'' said Brown. "People can see he's done a nice job on the field, in the classroom and in the locker room. He's an exciting young player, that's why we took him. We'll support him. It's important we understand he's a rookie and it's incumbent upon the other 10 guys out there to make plays for him and support him.''

As far as those playmakers are concerned, Brown acknowledged that he'll scour the transaction wire and other team's roster to improve the team over the next few days.

"We're looking across the league at every position,'' he said. "We really do feel like for us there's never an opportunity that's available to us that we don't want to explore. We've been very active, so we'll look. Obviously the claims will come out here in a couple of days and there will be a massive amount of players that are available to us. We'll be prepared for those. And we'll also explore as we have been exploring a lot of other opportunities to acquire players.''

He said he'd be willing to spend some of his 13 draft picks in 2018 to enhance the roster this year.



"Yeah, if the right opportunity comes, I think we've proven we'll use picks in ways that maybe others won't,'' he said. "We do want to acquire them but we'll go out and, whether it's trading up in the draft or getting a guy at the trade deadline, we'll go out and use picks where an opportunity presents itself.''