Cleveland Browns Rookie Quarterback Dillon Gabriel With An Uneven Preseason Debut
Well, well, well. Here we are again, dissecting another Cleveland Browns quarterback performance like we’re trying to solve world hunger. This time, it was Dillon Gabriel getting his first taste of NFL preseason action, and he served up a mixed bag that would make a grocery store deli proud.
Gabriel Steps Into the Spotlight
Gabriel walked into Saturday’s game against Philadelphia carrying more pressure than a college freshman during finals week. With Shedeur Sanders sitting out due to an oblique injury, all eyes were on the Oregon product to show he deserved that third-round draft pick.
And you know what? For about 15 minutes, Gabriel looked like he belonged in the NFL. He completed 13 of 18 passes for 143 yards in just one half of work. It was respectable enough to keep Browns fans from diving headfirst into Lake Erie. Gabriel’s competitive fire was on full display during a sideline interview where he declared, “There’s entertainers and competitors and I totally understand that. But my job is to compete.”
The Good: Gabriel Shows Promise Early
His first quarter was genuinely impressive. Gabriel completed eight of nine passes while looking poised and confident. His opening drive was a thing of beauty: a methodical 13-play, 63-yard march that ended in a touchdown. He converted three third downs through the air, including a gorgeous throw to Jamari Thrash on an out route that had defensive coordinators probably scribbling furiously on their notepads.
He showed off all the traits that made Cleveland spend valuable draft capital on him: quick processing, pinpoint accuracy, and a solid understanding of the offensive system. For those first 15 minutes, he looked like he could be the answer to Cleveland’s eternal quarterback riddle.
The Ugly: When Things Go Horribly Wrong
But then, because this is Cleveland and we can’t have nice things, Gabriel decided to remind everyone that he’s still a rookie learning the ropes of professional football. And boy, did he learn some hard lessons.
The nightmare began just one play into the second quarter. The rookie faked a handoff, rolled left, and found himself staring at what can only be described as a traffic jam of receivers all bunched together like they were waiting for the subway. Instead of doing the smart thing and throwing the ball into the stands, Gabriel decided to play hero ball and force a pass to Diontae Johnson.
Andrew Mukuba, probably still pinching himself about being in the right place at the right time, jumped the route and took it 75 yards to the house. It was the kind of pick-six that makes coaches develop stress-induced eye twitches and fans start looking up the team’s draft position for next year. The rookie QB should have thrown that ball away faster than a bad first date, but instead, he gifted Philadelphia six points on a silver platter.
The Rookie Competition Heats Up
Gabriel’s performance inevitably gets compared to Sanders‘ impressive debut last week, where the Colorado product threw two touchdown passes and looked like he had been playing in the NFL for years. While Gabriel showed flashes of brilliance, Sanders’ debut was cleaner, more polished, and didn’t include any catastrophic turnovers that made highlight reels for all the wrong reasons. Fair or not, that is the reality Gabriel has to live with as he fights for positioning on Cleveland’s depth chart.
The Browns love Gabriel, but Sanders has been turning heads throughout training camp with more consistent play, and his preseason debut was the kind of performance that makes general managers feel smart about their draft decisions.
Looking Ahead: What This Means for Cleveland
Let’s pump the brakes on any dramatic overreactions here. His debut was far from perfect, but it wasn’t exactly a disaster either. He moved the offense effectively, showed composure under pressure, and demonstrated the skills that made him attractive to NFL scouts in the first place.
Sure, that pick-six was uglier than a gas station hot dog, and the fumbled handoff that followed didn’t help his cause. On the positive side, he also led three scoring drives and completed passes with the kind of touch and timing that can’t be taught.
Joe Flacco might have the Week 1 starting job locked up, but the real battle is for the backup position and future franchise quarterback status. Both Gabriel and Sanders have shown they can run an NFL offense, which puts Kenny Pickett in an increasingly awkward position.
The Browns’ quarterback situation remains more complicated than a Christopher Nolan movie, but at least Gabriel proved he belongs on an NFL roster. Now he just needs to clean up those rookie mistakes and show he can handle the pressure of professional football.
