PHILADELPHIA >> So much has transpired since Dillon Gabriel was first here six years ago lighting it up as Central Florida’s freshman quarterback.

Even he admits how far he’s come since the night he threw for 218 yards and three touchdowns to lead UCF’s 63-21 romp past Temple at Lincoln Financial Field. That’s the same Linc where the kid from Mililani High is expected to make his NFL debut Saturday for his Cleveland Browns vs. the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.

“I mean it’s surreal,” said Gabriel following Wednesday’s joint practice between the teams just down the road from the stadium. “When you’re in the moment, like I want to be in the present, you don’t necessarily think about it.

“But when you do take a second to reflect you think about the growth you’ve made, the process and all the work put in. Instead of looking at growth in a two-week window, you’ve seen this six-year time period.

“For me it’s all building up to this point, but you only want to take a second to reflect so you can focus on where you’re at.”

Where he’s at is open to interpretation after the Browns selected him in the third round, two rounds before they doubled back to snatch controversial Shedeur Sanders. Last week Sanders made a smash debut, throwing for 138 yards and two touchdowns in the Browns’ win over Carolina.

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Gabriel sat out that game with a hamstring injury he said occurred from trying to log a few extra miles in his workout routine. But it’s been steadily improving ever since, which makes it likely he’ll get the nod Saturday. Meanwhile Sanders suffered an oblique injury during Wednesday’s practice, didn’t work out Wednesday and isn’t expected to play Saturday.

“Every day it’s getting better,” said Gabriel, who actually did return here with UCF during the 2021 season, but didn’t play due to an injury. “I was getting a little extra reps in while running and just tweaked it.

“This is my third time here. There’s a lot of familiarity with the locker room, the area and the hotels. So it’s funny how you can reminisce and remember. ‘I was here so many years ago.’ ”

That was when he was just getting started, following another Mililani star, McKenzie Milton, to Orlando, taking over the reins after Milton was sidelined with a 2018 leg injury. After two-plus seasons Dillon eventually left UCF for a bigger football name, Oklahoma, guiding the Sooners to a combined 18-8 mark while throwing for 55 touchdowns over two seasons.

From there it was onto Oregon, where the Ducks held the nation’s No. 1 ranking most of the season, before falling in the playoffs to eventual champion Ohio State. That was in large part thanks to Gabriel throwing for a career high 3,857 yards and 30 scores while rushing for seven more in a season in which he became a Heisman Trophy finalist.

Despite his combined college numbers: 18,722 yards, 155 touchdowns passing, 33 rushing and 65.2% completions, being a 5-foot-11 quarterback undoubtedly knocked him down a few pegs in the NFL Draft. But Browns veteran QB Joe Flacco says that shouldn’t deter him.

“I think he’s used to that,” said the 40-year-old Flacco, who ran the first team offense here and is expected to get the nod to open the regular season. “He’s kind of been that way since he’s been playing football, so I think he’s adapted to that.

“The biggest thing is just calming yourself, getting yourself to the point where you’re so well-prepared to be as confident as you as you want to be. Then you can go out do some of the things you don’t have to think about.

“But Dillon’s a great kid. He’s eager to learn and coming out here doing a good job everyday, working hard.”

And looking at this whole situation as a great opportunity.

“I think an emotionally healthy mind to me looks at everything as an opportunity,” explained Gabriel, whose father, Garrett, was a standout playing for the Hawaii Rainbows in the 1980s. “I think many people view situations as a threat.

“I view everything as opportunity. In this lifestyle we live it’ll eat you alive if you don’t have an emotional healthy mind.

That’s how I approach it.”

In terms of Browns’ crowded quarterback room, he welcomes the competition. After all, he’s used to it. “I had it at UCF my freshman year,” recalled Gabriel, who doesn’t believe being left-handed makes much of a difference. “At Oklahoma my first and second year, then at Oregon this past year.

“Competition is part of the game we play and it’s a competitive sport.

“We’re all professional about the way we go about our business. We respect one another and know we’ve got to go out and perform every single day. That in turn pushes one another to be at their best.”

As for any kind of perceived rivalry with Shedeur… “I don’t see it as that,” he countered. “I see it as two guys chasing their dream.

“It just so happens we both were drafted by the Cleveland Browns.”

Another example of that emotional healthy mind comes from the path he’s taken. “I think it just started at a young age,” said Gabriel. “I had to grow up quick.”

“I’ve been far from home. Been a starter as a freshman in high school and college. In life you experience a lot of things. Wins. Losses. Everything in between.

“And you learn from those experiences. Two people can take the same experience and go in a completely different way.”

So what should he and the folks back home expect if No. 5 takes his first NFL snaps here Saturday.

“In this world I expect the unexpected,” said Gabriel, who’s become quite the philosopher at 24. “That’s been my focus.

“I’m an unfinished product and I hope to always be that, because you’re never a finished product.”

Around breakfast time Saturday (kickoff is 7 a.m. on the NFL Network) unfinished product Dillon Gabriel will take his next step back at the same site where he took some of his earliest. No matter what happens, good or bad, you can be sure of one thing.

It won’t keep him from looking forward to the next opportunity even more.