REPORT: Dillion Gabriel was the Cleveland Browns #2 QB in the draft behind ONLY Cam Ward

REPORT: Dillion Gabriel was the Cleveland Browns #2 QB in the draft behind ONLY Cam Ward

You know, with menu RX they’re trying to help people not just lose weight but for some people it’s about just uh toning and getting in better shape when you deal with menu, see if you deal, you know those big box uh diet plans like they have a diet plan and whether you’re a man or a woman, whether you’re 20 or 40, whether you’re uh uh 100 pounds overweight or 10 pounds overweight, they put you on the same plan, basically. Uh, that makes no sense if you think about it. A man’s gonna lose weight differently than a woman. A person 100 pounds is gonna lose weight differently than a person 1010 pounds overweight. Uh, at MeURX you’re actually working with experts, scientists, nutritionists, people that study weight loss and nutrition for a living. That’s why I’m dealing with them. It’s been a struggle for me my whole life. If you’re obese or if you’re just someone who needs to get back in shape. Contact the folks at Me URX, my buddy Doctor Jake May today. Uh, it doesn’t matter if you’re chasing peak performance, trying to build your dream body, seeking optimal longevity, trying to lose weight. MenuRX will help you reach your goals. Go to menu-RX.com to get your consultation today. That’s menu-Rx.com. All right guys, we made it an hour without talking any football. We’re gonna spend some time in the second half talking some football, talk some guardians in a second. But the other day, Nathan Zaggua, Tybes’s co-worker with the Cleveland Browns. Was on the Zach Gelb show. And Zach Gelb asked Nathan Ze about the Browns’ thought process in the draft. I gotta give, let me, let me give a shout out to Zach Gelb. I know him a little bit. Oh, yeah, — he does a good
— job. He used to work at the Fan in New York. His dad was a longtime producer on The Fan and Zach’s a, uh, a hustler, man. He, he is always hustling. He, considering he does, I don’t know what time his show is on CBS Radio now. I think he’s got a better time slot, but like when he was first on CBS Sports Radio, or whatever they’re calling that now, Infinity Radio, I used to be on there. He was doing overnights and he was getting good guests all the time because that kid hus I shouldn’t call him a kid. He’s not a kid anymore, but, uh, he’s, he’s a hustler and he, he like, he’ll like whenever he has a good Cleveland-based guest, I’ll get a text from him, Hey, you know, so so and so was on my show today if you want to talk about it. So kudos to him, but he had Zagaron. He had Zagar on and they were talking about the Browns quarterbacks and the whole thought process behind drafting Gabriel, how it impacted the Shadoor pick, and Nathan said something very interesting in the interview. About how the Browns looked at Dylan Gabriel in the draft. This is Nathan Segarra on the Zach Gelb show. I think when they brought Joe Flacco in, they thought they were going in this draft with Kenny Pickett, Flacco, and they were going to draft Dylan Gabriel. That was basically the Browns’ target in this draft once they knew they couldn’t get Cam Ward. That was the guy they wanted and that’s why they took him. They took him obviously a little earlier than I think most people thought he would have gone. But one thing people need to remember is when they made the trade with Jacksonville, they traded down about. spots in the fourth round as a part of that deal. And I think if they had 94 and 105, then they’re probably, maybe they take somebody at 94 and they get Dylan Gabriel at 105. But once they dropped all the way down to 126, they thought, let’s, let’s not wait 32 picks. We really like Dylan Gabriel, let’s take him. So they get Dylan Gabriel there. So my pre-draft rankings, I loved Cam Ward. 1, I had Shadoor Sanders 2, then 3rd, I had Jalen Milro. I actually put Dylan Gabriel 4th and then Jackson Dart 5, and I got a lot of blowback and pushback. Oh, how could you put Dylan Gabriel as 4? Um, so I’m someone that’s pro-Dylan Gabriel. What do you think or what’s your understanding of why the Browns loved him so much where you were saying after Cam Ward, he was their 2nd quarterback on their board. Yeah, he was the target, you know, he wins the way that Kevin Steansky, at least in my understanding of them, wants a quarterback to win. Great decision maker, accurate from the pocket, can throw on the move in both directions. He’s very tough. They love his pocket movement. And one of the things that Kevin’s fancy told me was, you know, we kept watching the tape, we kept being like, where does the height show up? Because that’s a knock on, right? If Dylan Gabriel is 63, he probably is the number 2 pick in this draft, to be perfectly honest with you, everything else being the same. You know, he started more games than anybody in college football history, 63. In 3 different programs, he’s had seasons where he’s thrown for 30 touchdowns with 6 or fewer interceptions. He’s thrown more touchdowns than anybody in the history of the FBS. He’s played a lot of football. He’s very mature. And while a lot of people talk about the pre-draft process of Sanders, you can ask a lot of people around the league, and I’ve heard this from quarterback coaches on other teams as well. He had the best pre-draft process of anybody. Just mature, gets it so good on the whiteboard, completely understands the concepts, understands the playbook, understands what he is being asked to do in the offense. And so they saw a guy that they thought could be a very efficient ball distributor and operator of their operation and of their offense and think that what he. that is what this system requires a quarterback to excel at. I was talking about Dylan Gabriel before the draft a lot? Nobody was. Well, well, I don’t understand because he’s talking about him like he’s the next great. I mean, you think he, he, uh, — he married the guy
— if he was 63, — he’d be the
— first of all, I keep hearing people say that. Who gives a shit? He’s not 6’3. That’s such a stupid thing to bring up. I’ve heard some people, but if he was, that’s not true because if he was, uh. I think first of all, let me say Dylan Gabriel is a really good football player. — Like he was the fact
— that — he’s
— the all-time FBS touchdown thrower is meaningless. You know what he was great with with Oregon. He was great with Oklahoma and all these things, so I, I have nothing but respect for Dylan. He’s a really good football player, but The height thing, if this to say if he was 63, he’d be that’s not true because Kyler Murray went number one in the draft and he’s about the same height. So I don’t really want Baker Mayfield went number one. Yeah, Baker Mayfield, so the height thing kind of missed me with that. That’s that’s just the mediocre. Drew Brees was what the 35th pick in the draft, something like that. With all that, with all that being said, I think that you know he was right with a lot of stuff that he said as far as the decision making and he’s smart with the football. He’s a smart football player. If you get to talk to him, he’s a very humble guy. I tell you all the time about his NILD. He had the Chrysler uh van and that was the greatest thing in the world to him, so he’s not this flashy guy. However, people wonder, you know, the thing about Shadour and Jayle Mro because you was I said they were high on Jalero, and the thing about those two is that they had, I think out of all the quarterbacks, maybe even Cam Ward too out of those three quarterbacks, they got probably more information than anybody else in the, in the NFL because of the connections that they have. Obviously Tommy Reese’s worked with, with Jalen Milro, um, I think Glenn Cook. Something with Miami, so he knows that yeah, went to Miami, so he knows everything about Cam Ward and then Pat Shermer and Kevin, you know, with Shadoor and all those other things. So you know when you get that type of information you can make better decisions and I think for them, obviously they didn’t like the things that the feedback that they got about those guys, not Cam works, they wasn’t getting Cam War, but the other two guys. Well, but how do we know they wouldn’t. How do we know they would he David Deer said they were that he Gabriel was second on the board, but we don’t know that. Yeah, I don’t know they might have gone for that. Maybe when did Jalen Milro get picked? Not that Gabriel, yeah, like, do we know, do we think they might have taken Jalen Milro if he was still there? We’ll never know. Maybe the reason they took Dylan Gabriel there is because they liked Milro and Gabriel, and Milro already went, so they got panicky. There’s a lot of, I, I. I think Nathan made a good point in the Jacksonville trade and dropping down 25 spots, uh, so just take your guy. The one of the things I said during the entire pre-draft process was, I want you to stand on the table and tell me who you want and take that guy. If it’s Shador, if you believe in Shaddoor, then run to the podium and take him at 2. I don’t care what anybody else thinks. I’m paying you. For your evaluation, it doesn’t matter what the Broncos think about them, what the Vikings think, what the Raiders, none of that matters. I’m paying you for your expert opinion, so tell me who you want, and that’s who we’re gonna take. And that’s what they did with Dylan Gabriel. So fine, is it higher than we thought? Yeah, but so what? So they clearly stood on the table and said this is who we want and they went out and took him. So if, if, if he really was second on the board, then great, because you had no shot at getting the guy at #1 realistically. So they got the other quarterback that they felt best about if, if, and I have no reason, you know, to doubt what Nathan’s saying if that was #2 on their board, they’ll bring him in and see what he’s. I agree. It’s funny. I just looked it up because I saw lying. No, I know. — I might have bad
— information. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the, the all-time touchdown thing is funny. I do think the 63 or whatever starts. I think that matters. It’s a ton of experience that matters. But it also, it also might lead you to believe that he’s a finished product at this point, that maybe there’s not as much room for growth. Some of it might, — but
— I, he’s, I think he’s probably NFL more NFL ready than than some of the other guys. But here’s the list of names at the top of the, uh, NCAA from Hawaii, right? Dylan Gabriel, Case Keenum, Kellen Moore, Graham Harrell, Sam Hartman, Colt Brennan, Rakeem Cato, Baker, Landry Jones, Ty Detmer, Aaron Murray, Luke Faulk, Timmy Chang. That’s the top 15 or 16 or whatever. Baker’s the best of the best and the rest of them like I said, to me it comes off to me as they miss Baker and they went and got a guy that’s similar to Baker. Do you know I do I don’t care what nobody said and then I’m curious your thoughts on the whole thing. How much time do we spend the age of Tyler? Shh. How much time we spend talking about his age? Quite a bit, quite a bit. Gabriel’s one year younger. Yeah, right. Tyler’s 25. Gabriel turns 25 during the season. The difference, the one thing I didn’t like about Chuck is the injuries. Well, no, yeah, obviously that, but I said like. A 26 year old going back to college should dominate those guys. Dylan Gabriel did. Dylan Gabriel was an elite quarterback, — but he and he had better talent around him than
— Chuck. OK, fine. But still, like if you’re a talented quarterback and you’re 25 years old playing against dudes, — you should
— dominate. — He also elite talent around him at UCF when they were really good and
— that’s fair. That’s not fair to say that he had elite talent at Oregon. None of those offensive guys. I said he had better talent than Chuck did, didn’t he? I don’t even know who Chuck, yeah, off the top of the head, yes, — because I don’t know who’s
— the answer yes, you’re right. Yeah. What you take Nathan’s whole, I mean. The height thing, yeah, I mean, I, I, I thought Nathan was a little over the top on the you’re going on and on about a guy that he he and nobody else had ever talked about before the draft. He made it seem like it’s a no brainer, but I mean, obviously Nathan is plugged in. I mean, the Browns want Nathan going out before the draft and going on and on and on and on, — but
— Gabriel, but Nathangura was whispering to people and, and he never whispered. About Dylan Gabriel, I’ll just say that for a reason. — I
— would say, — I would say so you’re saying his
— whispers were lies. No, no, no, I’m either they didn’t tell him or they didn’t want him spreading it. He’s a team employee. Yeah, that’s true. So either, either it’s one or two, they didn’t tell him and now that it’s over, and now they can open the vault and let it all out. That’s probably what happened or they didn’t want it if that’s really the guy that’s #2, and obviously. You can get Dylan Gabriel anytime you want. He’s not going number one overall. — Then they don’t want
— that out there. They probably didn’t tell him. Do you think they would have taken Milro if he had been there? You’re probably right. They probably didn’t tell him. They didn’t tell him because there’s trust, but yeah, there’s well they didn’t tell anybody. Nobody knew like me being in the nobody knew. Or maybe it’s because he wasn’t maybe part of that was he wasn’t their second guy. The second guy was Milro and They lost out on we’ll never know. Now, it doesn’t matter in the end, you know, Kevin’s fancy, he said yesterday, it doesn’t matter where you’re drafted at this point. He’s right, you know, like, yes, I mean, it matters to some degree. Dillon Gabriel, not even if he sucks in training camp, he’s not getting cut. He’s a 3rd round pick. 2016, it was the guy that got drafted by the. The Kansas City Chiefs, he played corner. I cannot think of his last name. He from Notre Dame. — That boy got cut and
— I said because I was in Seattle. I said, oh, if he got cut, then I ain’t got a chance. I was drafted. I ain’t got a chance. That is rare. But in terms of like the Browns quarterback situation. I, I think it’s irrelevant that Gabriel got drafted higher than Shadoor Sanders. If, if Sanders outplays Dylan Gabriel in the offseason, he’s gonna be higher up the depth chart when the season starts. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, I, I told the story before, but I remember Kyle Shanahan saying when they walked off the field of practice, saying the 7th round guy is the best quarterback we’ve got. So Kevin’s right. Once you’re on the field, man, now you do have more rope as a 1st round pick, especially at that position. But you don’t have that situation here. You got a free agent, a dude you traded a 5th round pick for, a guy you picked in the 3rd round, and a guy you picked in the 5th round. There is no extra rope. There’s no no high pick capital, and there’s no money capital either any of those 4 guys, which is pretty unusual.

In the shadow of Shedeur Sanders’ spotlight burns a quieter flame – one that might ultimately prove more sustainable in the pressure cooker of NFL quarterbacking.

Dillon Gabriel, selected by the Cleveland Browns in the third round (two rounds ahead of Sanders), finds himself in the unusual position of a higher draft pick receiving significantly less attention. While Sanders dominates headlines with jersey number controversies and celebrity connections, Gabriel prepares for his NFL career largely unbothered by external noise. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2025/05/the-overlooked-quarterback-why-dillon-gabriel-might-be-winning-by-flying-under-the-radar.html

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