How much different will the Cleveland Browns’ offense look with Dillon Gabriel at quarterback?

How much different will the Cleveland Browns’ offense look with Dillon Gabriel at quarterback?

We’re gonna preview game 3. We’ll do a full preview in a little bit, but we got to pivot over, talk about some of the other things going on in Cleveland, guys. The NFL season is back and honestly, there’s nothing better than being in the stadium surrounded by fans cheering on your team. But let’s be honest, getting tickets can be a hassle between waiting screens, logins, and prices jumping at checkout. It can be frustrating. That’s why I love Game time, the app that gives the advantage back to the fans. Game time is fast. Easy and backed by the game time guarantee. Plus you’ll always get 100% authentic tickets delivered on time with the best prices, plus all the fees are included, so the price you pay is the price you see. Download the Game time app, create an account and use promo code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply once again, promo code locked on NFL for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go, download game time today. All right guys, we got the news that Dylan Gabriel is taking over the starting quarterback role for the Cleveland Browns against the Minnesota Vikings this Sunday. We kind of touched on it a little bit yesterday, but wanted to dive into more of the X’s and O’s. Now that we’ve had a full day to digest this information, but. Gee, I want to start with you on this one. You talked about it on ultimate Browns earlier this week too. With the quarterback change, how much do you expect the offense to look from a schematic stand against Minnesota compared to what we saw the 1st 4 weeks with Joe Flacco? A lot, a whole lot different like, you know, like now, like I said before, man, the season actually starts, right? Before it is funny how things happen when you make changes, right? You know what I’m saying, we used to work in corporate America, people used to say when changes happen, we used to have, you have a merger or you have a new manager. Watch how everything ratchet up a little bit. Watch how the eyes get a little more focused. Watch how the fans watch the game a little more with, with a careful eye. They’re looking at everything and so now you Kevin Sofansky. For the first time, you are not playing with house money. For the first time, you feel a level of pressure to coach, to, to move this team, and to actually put a game plan together tailored towards your quarterback. Shaun King talked about it all the time, uh, uh. Great play caller accentuates the strengths of a of a quarterback. Your great play caller and a coach finds what you can do best and marries his game plan and his philosophy to the player. So if you’re going to take that same type of rationale. You’re definitely gonna run different things better as we see right here. How many rollouts is it? Just watching a film. Good job, Steve. Look at this. I don’t know if you picked it, you see it, they gonna work with the quick stuff. One thing that I noticed when I went to practice is that Dillon Gabriel throws a very nice out route. He throws a nice out route, he throws timing, he throws the ball with a, with a lot more velocity than it looks like he should be able to. He’s gonna move around now he’s not John Elway or or Steve uh Young. He’s not running around, but he got enough to move in a pocket, step up and do some things, and when you can do that, you can move the pocket a little bit. You can buy yourself some time. The thing that was so disappointing with Joe Flacco is he couldn’t even buy yourself another extra second to let the routes develop. If you got a shot play called and you know you got some pressure, then you know, hey, I got to buy me. Some time I got to figure it out like Bernie said, hey, give me a couple of extra seconds on this. I don’t care if you got a lightweight hold a little bit. I gotta hit my man over the top. So yeah, I, this, this offense is gonna look way, way different boo, and I think Kevin Saansky is going to be hopefully invigorated in in terms of his creativity because he knows he has to give his, his, his younger quarterback a better look, and easier looks early on. — So
— obviously you buying what G Bush is selling. Yeah, I think he hit it on the head. I think that uh he brings that mobility aspect. I think that you can move the pocket any time you got tackles that are struggling, you know, if your quarterback is a statue, he can’t move out of the way. At least when now that you have Dylan Gabriel back there, you can roll him out, make that guy have to run an extra mile or put an extra blocker to the side that you rolling to make that backside in, have to take the long road to get there. He gets the ball out in a pretty timely manner, uh, he been. Doing that since since college since he was in Oregon um last year so I’m not worried about him not getting the ball out and taking sacks. I think that him having that since he’s a computer, him being able to process everything so fast, he should be able to get the ball out in a timely manner. I’m interested to see who is the guy that he has the connection with because every young quarterback has a guy. It’s just one guy that they’re gonna go to. I know in the uh preseason when he was when he had those couple of games, it was, um. — Jabari Thrash
— bang and who’s been a guy who’s been a ghost — we might see
— a bang. Maybe we can get it in the playbooks. Jabarish? No, no, no, that’s a bond route. What a bang he ain’t catching. No, it’s a Jerry Judy route. He just got to get. You just better make sure when you catch it, there is a chance that you’re going to get your head knocked off. So just make sure you catch it. Michael Irvin said that he caught that ball because he didn’t want to go back to the hood. If he didn’t catch his his life depended on catching that slant, that bang gate. So whoever’s running that route, if they run a bang, I might cry. I ain’t gonna lie to y’all. I might cry. I’ve been begging for it for like two weeks. What’s going on? But I do think that, you know, Dillon Gabriel, it’s crazy because I’ve been I’ve been trying to figure out why haven’t we been under center a lot. Like what’s going on? The old Kevin Steansky had everybody working from operating from under center. Why is that not the case? And I thought about it. Tommy Reese is here now, so Tommy Reese must have put the spin on it that obviously he’s from college, Alabama and Notre Dame and all those places they operated out of the spread. So did Oregon. Oregon was out of the spread majority of the time as well, so maybe, you know, that comfortability for Dillon Gabriel, maybe he can operate out of the shotgun and still be effective, but I still wanna see some play action, some under center stuff, you know, G, you said um. What did you say the Brown, Kevin Svancy’s not playing with house money anymore. So, let’s think about the quarterbacks since Kevin Savancy’s been here. Baker Mayfield was drafted before he got here. He wasn’t his guy. There you go. Deshaun Watson was a unique circumstance, a trade. He didn’t really fit what Kevin Svansky wanted to do, right? Every other quarterback they’ve had in the last — few years
— are journeymen and backup guys, right? Flacco, uh, VCR was a 5th round bald guy. What’s the bald guy? What’s his name the guy. So those have all been like these, these are guys who are backups and journeys. Now we may all think that Dylan Gabriel is gonna be a backup and journeyman too. But the Browns don’t think that because if they thought that and they drafted him in the 3rd round, well, they’re even dumber than I think they are. And the one thing I don’t think about Andrew Berry and Kevin Savansky, I don’t think they’re dumb. Um, they may have other flaws, but dumb I don’t think is what is it. So they must believe in my mind. That Dylan Gabriel has at least a chance to be a solid starter in the NFL. Otherwise, why would you draft him in the 3rd round? — It doesn’t make
— any sense. What is it about the size the only thing about that people dislike? It’s, it’s, — I think that’s the
— biggest thing was the num you read any scouting reports and I went back and read a lot of the Gabriel scouting reports coming out of the draft. The number one knock, the first thing whether it was the major thing or not, the first thing was the height, and here’s the thing, but it’s I just think it’s interesting because I’m not saying that this guy’s a successful quarterback, but he makes plays and granted, he’s a little more athletic, but Kyler Murray runs the exact same offense that Kevin Sofasky and it works for them. But Kyler Murray has That’s why I’m, yeah, as far as the running goes, but he still, so, but he still delivers the ball and they do a great job of moving the pocket. But let’s be fair about it, and maybe this is what Dillon Gabriel is going to be. I think we’d signed for this right now. Kyle Murray is just a mid-tier quarterback. Like he’s a starter. I just said that he’s not a, I’m not saying he’s leading. No, no, you’re right. I’m just saying he runs the offense and he’s short and that’s it. — Still work
— and the thing is with the Browns’ defense, they, if they got Kyler Murray level quarterback play like they’d be pretty good, probably they’d be a competitive team. I don’t know you win a Super Bowl that way, but they go to the playoffs, especially this year’s AFC. Right now the Bengals are like the 5 seed in the AFC. They stink, but catch the ball, yeah, but yeah, that’s true. That’s part of it, but they would, they would be a playoff team, yeah, — I
— think, and so. Again, who knows what Dillon Gabriel’s gonna be, but, um, I, I think for the first time, OK, Kevin, let’s see what this guy’s got because you obviously liked him and part of the reason, you know, you talk about the height, part of the reason nobody likes him. Let’s face it, we’re all swayed by mock drafts, — and nobody had this guy being drafted
— this. But see, the problem, the difference between me, — I watched him and I had to cover up but
— you know the I know the dude actually is a baller, but I just, — is it
— just the height? So do you think he could possibly be a starter in the I never said he couldn’t. I’m asking you now though. Yeah, I think he, I think, I think there’s a really good chance he could be really. Do you think the best is it fair to say that the best case scenario for Dilan Gabriel is what Kyler Murray is now? — Like maybe not the
— exact same player athleticism, — but that
— level of play. I mean Kyler Murder threw for some yards in the league now. I can sling the peel. At first I thought it was like maybe outside of the height, I was like maybe he just don’t got the arm strength. But then I watched some plays from. From Oregon last year, he was he was hitting people deep on the fades in the to me honestly, the only thing that the only knock there’s ever been that anybody’s ever disliked about him is the height, and it’s kind of funny to me because it’s like Baker’s throwing for 4000 yards and he probably like what an inch taller than him. Baker’s like 6, 6’1, right? — What is
— he? Is he like 50? 511. I didn’t see him. I seen him too. Baker Mayfield is way taller than this. I mean, it is striking how short he is. I’m with you. We went out to practice you went to the combines the combine had him listed at 511. You can’t cheat cheat that’s what I’m saying, but in person, we were there. What was the combine listing. Baker. Hold on, I’ll pull it up. — You
— can’t cheat the Cowine. They rolling you back on your heels and looking at your feet. You ain’t Baker at the combine was 6 and 5, right, when I, here’s the thing too, so, so Tyvis, so you gotta, you gotta, you gotta bring Tyvis and say, OK. When, when Ohio State played Oregon that 2nd game. It wasn’t even close. The boys had him when you got defensive linemen, and when you got got dudes up front and they game planning for you, what they do, boo, is they obstruct your vision. They’re like, uh uh, with that rolling stuff, hey, Ross Tucker said it yesterday, they know they want to get the ball out, right, don’t they? We all know that. We know that they wanna get it out quick and Flores is gonna say, yeah. We’re gonna disguise and we’re gonna make him throw the football deep. If he don’t, we sitting on every other thing underneath and if you constrict the pocket. Your goal with dealing Gabriel is not to, to, to run up field and sack him so he steps up. Your, your job is to encircle him with a bunch of 6′ 5 monsters and, and hands with people 2 to 3 yards away from the line of scrimmage and and say if you can make that short throw 5000 times this game in a row and we don’t get hands on the football and you can put it in, in a, in a window that small, we’ll shake your hand. — But
— this is the thing, you saying this as if This is his first year ever playing football. What do you think they did in college? That’s true. — What I’m saying this
— man was like 5th in the Heisman last year. — This man threw for a bunch of yards last year and
— he had the exact same thing. But how many defensive linemen that he played against in the NFL now? I mean, it’s it’s not like, it ain’t like. He was in the Mac or something like that. He played in the Big 10. A lot of those kids go on at least make some type of Ohio, Penn State, — but I mean I mean
— Ohio State and the defensive line — going to the NFL
— George Karl was a first round pick. No, let’s not get this w. We’re not saying, and I’m not sitting up here because I wanna be very clear about it. I’m excited to see Dylan, uh, Gabriel play because like I said, I ain’t no hater. Like I may not think that you as all, all this cracked up to be, but I believe in, in, in, in, in the, in the judiciousness of the football field. What happens between them white lines? Any football player that’s ever played says this. I may not like, I might not even see eye to eye with you. I might even think you’re that good, but if you balling, I have no chance to say it. I’m not, if he come out and throw it for 300, I’m not gonna be sitting around combing through the film talking about look at this one player over here, he didn’t make nah, I, I got to say he’s balling. If he throws for 300 with this cast of characters, you gotta, you gotta get that that’s the part that really bothers me about the whole thing is that I, I don’t know about the cast of characters. It’s not good enough. That’s my point. Well, — that’s what I’m
— saying. If he shows any upside at all, that’s pretty impressive because he’s got nothing around him. He is like, OK, so we talk about getting the ball out quick, right? We want to get the, we don’t want him to hold the ball a quick process and all that. Well, in order to get the ball out quick, those receivers must be winning pretty quickly, right? So let me ask that happening? If you tune in to the 5 pack of stats, the receivers winning those words don’t go to the same sentence unless. OK, it’s always a problem, so let me, so let me get this. So, so they need to make a trade. No, no, no, no, we want to go back to two steps. Now every week, every year, Tyvis, we talk about this. GBush says as we, we need another receiver and the and the and the, the, the chat is flooded. No, we got Donovan people don’t. Who said that? These people are in the workforce now. We, we like our receiver room. You can’t have it both ways. If you love your receiver room and every single year we get to this point in the season and we say we have no receivers. What game is we on? It’s the 5th game. — It’s the
— 5th game we only got 18. yards. — Jerry Judy is not even 800
— yards. That’s like 1 1313 receptions this. Come on. Come on. And guess what? The scary thing is scary thing is this is the scary part about it. If you, if you take the quarterback, right? If you say you want the quarterback next year. That means one or two things is not happening. You ain’t getting no tackle or you ain’t getting no receiver. — Talk to
— him. Talk to me nice. Either you’re not. And then when you do get the quarterback, what they gonna say? Well, — how do we know if this guy is good
— because we want to give a rat’s ass. You could tell when a guy’s good, even if the talents around him is not that good. Well, — I would be he’s not going to be as
— good a minute and wait a minute, are you telling me next year we might have to have a decision between tackle and receiver? Yes, give me the receiver. Give me the receiver. Joe Burrow did it with Jamar Chase. — Give me the
— receiver. Yes. Now listen, you passed on the receiver this year. Don’t you come in here passing on. I’m just letting y’all know cause we can’t have the same conversation you’re, you’re out. Well, we ain’t got past sketchers, but then you don’t go get any bull. Yeah, I mean, listen, in theory they could draft a quarterback, take a wide receiver with their other first round pick, and then draft, a tackle with the first pick in the 2nd round or one of, you know, a high 2nd round pick. We, they used two high 2nd round picks this year and got two really good players. They could do the same thing with an O. I mean, you might go quarterback receiver first round and then take offensive line the rest of the draft. I would have no opposition. I don’t think nobody would say anything to that. — I don’t even like
— tackle. You actually do we got 1 2nd round pick or two? I think. The only thing that will come up is the corner position if you’re not resigning the G. — You have to address
— it. I think they might resign him after, you know, I don’t know. I agree, but you never know. I’m just saying if they don’t resign, I know Martin Emerson coming off Achilles is tricky. — You’re gonna
— have to ask but in general, we are excited to see it because I want to see the evaluation. I want to see what Dilan Gabriel got. Show me what you got. One other thing, Mike, real quick, uh, because you mentioned corner reminded me that I don’t even think we talked about it yesterday that, uh. The Browns cut, uh Cam Mitchell, Cam Mitchell, yeah, he couldn’t play. uh yeah, real quick. He couldn’t play. The guy went from like he thought he was going to — be the starter in the beginning of the year
— scratch. — I
— feel bad. He, they need to go ahead and keep cleaning up the closet. — But
— you know that’s his new job cleaning up close. Well, get, get your boy Zach Zinner together too. That’s his job. I heard Cam Mitchell and Zach Zinner are starting a business together, cleaning up closets. — Two
— men in the truck. Zach Zinner was uh was uh active last week. Good for him.

The Cleveland Browns are stepping into a brand-new chapter with Dillon Gabriel now under center, and the offense will absolutely look different with him at quarterback. Gabriel brings a mobility and quick release that Joe Flacco simply didn’t, and that opens up more of Kevin Stefanski’s playbook. Expect to see more RPOs, more bootlegs, and a faster tempo designed to take advantage of Gabriel’s athleticism and ability to keep defenses honest with his legs. That alone changes the dynamic of how the Browns can attack, especially against aggressive fronts.

One of the biggest shifts will be in how receivers like Jerry Jeudy and Amari Cooper get used. Gabriel has shown a willingness to take shots downfield, but he’s also comfortable hitting those quick slants and crossers, which fits perfectly with what Jeudy does best. The Browns can also lean into play-action and motion concepts to create open windows, knowing Gabriel has the arm talent to push it deep or the instincts to tuck it and run. And with Quinshon Judkins in the backfield, defenses will have to respect the run game just as much as Gabriel’s ability to extend plays.

At the end of the day, this offense should feel more balanced and less predictable. Gabriel won’t just stand in the pocket and take punishment—he’s going to move, improvise, and keep defenses on their heels. That means Cleveland has a chance to turn what was a stagnant unit into something more versatile and explosive. The question now is whether Gabriel can handle the pressure of being the guy week in and week out, but one thing is clear: the Browns’ offense will no longer look the same with him steering the ship.

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