{"id":193902,"date":"2025-07-09T16:09:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T16:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/193902\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T16:09:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T16:09:15","slug":"former-oregon-ducks-football-star-dillon-gabriel-being-drafted-by-browns-in-third-round-questioned-as-conspiracy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/193902\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Oregon Ducks football star Dillon Gabriel being drafted by Browns in third round questioned as conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since being taken in the third round of the 2025 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns<\/a>, former Oregon Ducks football star Dillon Gabriel has outplayed Shedeur Sanders during OTAs and rookie minicamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, some are pushing conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of Gabriel being drafted despite Sanders being linked to the Browns more often leading up to the draft.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Former Division III rags-to-riches NFL story Cecil Shorts called into question the legitimacy of Gabriel\u2019s selection.<\/p>\n

Shorts believes Sanders is \u201cway better\u201d than Gabriel.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet them battle it out, choose one and ride with them and see what they can do. And I’m not big on switching quarterbacks… I hate that. Let the rookie battle all 17 games; if he’s healthy, battle all 17 games. Let him develop. Let him get better,\u201d Shorts said on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, talent-wise like you mentioned, Shedeur is way better than Dillon. Dillon wasn’t on anybody’s list. Let’s call a spade of spade. Nobody was thinking about Dillon Gabriel being drafted in the first three rounds. Nobody. Wasn’t on anybody’s list. Nobody was talking about him on TV at all. Come on, let’s be real here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Sanders may have looked more impressive against Big 12 defenses last year in a Colorado Buffaloes offense tailored to him specifically, but Gabriel has proven himself in Berea. That\u2019s the only thing that matters now.<\/p>\n

Not Sanders\u2019 notoriety, or anyone\u2019s labeling of Gabriel as a \u201cprofessional backup.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Shorts may not be onto something here. Sanders can change that, but the results Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has seen this offseason matter more than anything else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since being taken in the third round of the 2025 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns, former Oregon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41854,54,59,41855,1033,7,6,15,1381,3243,17,582],"class_list":{"0":"post-193902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-cecil-shorts","9":"tag-cleveland-browns","10":"tag-colorado-buffaloes","11":"tag-conspiracy-theories","12":"tag-dillon-gabriel","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-draft","16":"tag-oregon-ducks-football","17":"tag-rookie-minicamp","18":"tag-shedeur-sanders","19":"tag-the-browns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114824149059717595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}