Let’s, for now, make this about Dillon Gabriel.
Plenty of heads were scratched after the Browns took the Oregon star in the third round with the 94th pick—in part because he wasn’t on a lot of fans’ radars as an NFL prospect, and in part because of who else was still available. However, in NFL circles, where people’s jobs actually depend on correctly evaluating draft prospects, especially quarterbacks, there was noticeably a lot less surprise.
In fact, the morning of the third day of the draft, another team that liked Gabriel jokingly called the Browns to ask if they could trade for him. That team was among a handful that would’ve considered taking him in the fourth round. So, if Gabriel was actually over-drafted, and if you’re going by what NFL teams actually think, rather than what some website says, it wasn’t by a lot.
Part of that was due to his outsized production in college. He started an FBS-record 63 games over six seasons, made all-conference in three different leagues, and threw for 18,722 yards and 155 touchdowns—numbers that rank second and first, respectively, in major college football history. Other programs and different systems didn’t matter. Gabriel produced and produced and produced and, oh by the way, won 46 of those 63 starts.
Another part of it was that he absolutely crushed the predraft process. He demonstrated himself to be bright and detailed in the meeting room, flashed the ability to throw downfield accurately in workouts, and was able to explain his play in a way that brought to life why he was such a good decision-maker on tape. So, over the course of time, there were teams that gained conviction that his arm talent, mobility and polish would be plenty to supersede his size (5’ 11", 205 pounds) and set him up for a long career in the NFL, even if it weren’t to be as a starter.
“Everything came as advertised,” said one NFL exec, who met extensively with him through the process. “Everyone who’d been around him, coaches, players, said the same stuff. And then you’d sit and meet with him; he’s smart, humble and a good teammate. It all checked out.”
“He’s a 5’ 10" Tua [Tagovailoa],” an offensive coordinator told me in April.
And then there’s what he’s done since landing in Cleveland. Throughout the spring, the Browns arranged their quarterback competition to essentially give Joe Flacco a first-round bye to the summer, while holding two spot practices (with two offensive units running simultaneously) to maximize reps and gather as much information as possible on Gabriel, veteran acquisition Kenny Pickett and fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders as possible.
Through that process, Gabriel’s experience and football aptitude clearly separated him from Sanders. It brought him limited reps with starters once training camp started, with most going to Flacco and Pickett. However, injuries hit, and Gabriel got more reps and kept checking boxes. By mid-summer, the Browns reached a comfort level where they’d be O.K. putting him in a regular-season game, and felt like he could start a game by midseason—with the hope, of course, being that Flacco and the team would play well enough to make that unnecessary.
By summer’s end, that comfort level rose to the point where they felt good enough to trade Pickett and make Gabriel the backup, putting him one snap away from having to play.
And that should be the story here.
What about Shedeur Sanders?
By now, you know I’m burying the lede. Because, well, it shouldn’t be the lede.
However, less than two hours after the Browns announced Gabriel will start against the Vikings on Sunday in London, and less than 10 minutes into the show, ESPN’s all-caps chyron on First Take read: WILL SHEDEUR SANDERS SEE THE FIELD THIS SEASON? In small type underneath, there was the subhed, “Browns benching Joe Flacco to start rookie Dillon Gabriel.” Gabriel hadn’t even taken a practice rep as the team’s starter yet, or even addressed the media to discuss it. Didn’t matter. The world had already moved on.
This, of course, serves no one.
The idea that Sanders is more capable of being Cleveland’s long-term starter—and he may be, but no one knows that yet—is born of mere perception. It’s because he showed up in a bunch of mock drafts as a first-rounder through the 2024 calendar year, and few experts bothered to adjust their take on his potential after finding out how the NFL saw him. It’s also because his dad is one of the most famous and iconic athletes of all time, and because talking about him, clearly, is good for business in my particular line of work.
It’s about fame, not football.
Never mind that Gabriel was a more accomplished college player. Or that he did much better with teams in the predraft process than Sanders. Upon analysis, the one tangible thing Sanders had over Gabriel was two inches of height.
And this isn’t to kill Sanders, who was a good college player in his own right. It’s to put where he was going into the draft, and where he’s been coming out of it—as a prospect, who has a long way to go, especially when juxtaposed against someone as seasoned as Gabriel—in proper perspective.
If Sanders’s last name were Smith, he never would’ve been projected as a first-round pick, and likely would be able to develop the talent he does bring to the table in the shadows now. Meanwhile, the Browns could allow Gabriel to have ups and downs and grow through the season, and then decide where they stand at the position going into 2026 (for the record, I don’t believe the Browns’ 2026 quarterback is currently on their roster).
Instead, at the first sign that Gabriel doesn’t seem to have enough arm strength, mobility or size to make it, people will be screaming for Sanders. Not because of what Sanders is, but because of what they’ve been led to believe he can be.
Never mind whether any of that was actually accurate.
Evidently, we’re way past the point of that mattering.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Browns’ Decision Is About Dillon Gabriel’s Reality, Not Shedeur Sanders’s Perception.
