PHILADELPHIA >> So much has transpired since Dillon Gabriel was first here six years ago lighting it up as Central Florida\u2019s freshman quarterback.<\/p>\n
Even he admits how far he\u2019s come since the night he threw for 218 yards and three touchdowns to lead UCF\u2019s 63-21 romp past Temple at Lincoln Financial Field. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean it\u2019s surreal,\u201d said Gabriel following Wednesday\u2019s joint practice between the teams just down the road from the stadium. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the moment, like I want to be in the present, you don\u2019t necessarily think about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you do take a second to reflect you think about the growth you\u2019ve made, the process and all the work put in. Instead of looking at growth in a two-week window, you\u2019ve seen this six-year time period.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it\u2019s all building up to this point, but you only want to take a second to reflect so you can focus on where you\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where he\u2019s 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\u2019 win over Carolina.<\/p>\n
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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\u2019s been steadily improving ever since, which makes it likely he\u2019ll get the nod Saturday. Meanwhile Sanders suffered an oblique injury during Wednesday\u2019s practice, didn\u2019t work out Wednesday and isn\u2019t expected to play Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day it\u2019s getting better,\u201d said Gabriel, who actually did return here with UCF during the 2021 season, but didn\u2019t play due to an injury. \u201cI was getting a little extra reps in while running and just tweaked it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my third time here. There\u2019s a lot of familiarity with the locker room, the area and the hotels. So it\u2019s funny how you can reminisce and remember. \u2018I was here so many years ago.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
From there it was onto Oregon, where the Ducks held the nation\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t deter him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s used to that,\u201d 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. \u201cHe\u2019s kind of been that way since he\u2019s been playing football, so I think he\u2019s adapted to that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing is just calming yourself, getting yourself to the point where you\u2019re 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\u2019t have to think about.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Dillon\u2019s a great kid. He\u2019s eager to learn and coming out here doing a good job everyday, working hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
And looking at this whole situation as a great opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think an emotionally healthy mind to me looks at everything as an opportunity,\u201d explained Gabriel, whose father, Garrett, was a standout playing for the Hawaii Rainbows in the 1980s. \u201cI think many people view situations as a threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI view everything as opportunity. In this lifestyle we live it\u2019ll eat you alive if you don\u2019t have an emotional healthy mind.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how I approach it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In terms of Browns\u2019 crowded quarterback room, he welcomes the competition. After all, he\u2019s used to it. \u201cI had it at UCF my freshman year,\u201d recalled Gabriel, who doesn\u2019t believe being left-handed makes much of a difference. \u201cAt Oklahoma my first and second year, then at Oregon this past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompetition is part of the game we play and it\u2019s a competitive sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all professional about the way we go about our business. We respect one another and know we\u2019ve got to go out and perform every single day. That in turn pushes one another to be at their best.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for any kind of perceived rivalry with Shedeur\u2026 \u201cI don\u2019t see it as that,\u201d he countered. \u201cI see it as two guys chasing their dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just so happens we both were drafted by the Cleveland Browns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another example of that emotional healthy mind comes from the path he\u2019s taken. \u201cI think it just started at a young age,\u201d said Gabriel. \u201cI had to grow up quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you learn from those experiences. Two people can take the same experience and go in a completely different way.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what should he and the folks back home expect if No. 5 takes his first NFL snaps here Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this world I expect the unexpected,\u201d said Gabriel, who\u2019s become quite the philosopher at 24. \u201cThat\u2019s been my focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m an unfinished product and I hope to always be that, because you\u2019re never a finished product.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It won\u2019t keep him from looking forward to the next opportunity even more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA >> So much has transpired since Dillon Gabriel was first here six years ago lighting it up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,35159,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-289944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-editors","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115032518000016874","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289944","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=289944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}