CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 Everyone is so locked in on Deshaun Watson versus Shedeur Sanders that they\u2019re completely sleeping on Dillon Gabriel. And that might be a mistake.<\/p>\n
Orange and Brown Talk podcast<\/a> host Dan Labbe posed the question, and it\u2019s one worth taking seriously: \u201cIs there a chance that Dillon Gabriel could get in that building on April 7th and, over the course of these two months, impress this coaching staff enough that he could put himself into this competition?\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Browns<\/a> beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot\u2019s answer? Absolutely.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s hungry. He\u2019s got something to prove. Everybody\u2019s written him off already in this competition, and he\u2019s a competitive guy,\u201d Cabot said, breaking down why Gabriel shouldn\u2019t be dismissed so easily.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the thing about Gabriel: he\u2019s wired differently than most quarterbacks. When the Browns drafted him, the biggest selling point wasn\u2019t his arm or his mobility, it was his brain. Gabriel is a film junkie with elite processing speed, the kind of guy who thrives in meeting rooms and on whiteboards before he ever steps onto the field.<\/p>\n And guess what the first two weeks of Cleveland\u2019s offseason program consist of? Meetings. Film study. Classroom work. Lifting.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n That\u2019s Gabriel\u2019s playground. If there\u2019s ever a time for him to make an impression on Todd Monken and this coaching staff, it\u2019s right now, when the competition is more mental than physical. By the time OTAs roll around and they start actually throwing the ball, Gabriel could have a head start on the playbook that neither Watson nor Sanders can match.<\/p>\n Cabot made another crucial point that often gets overlooked when evaluating Gabriel\u2019s brief stint as Cleveland\u2019s starter last year: he had almost nothing to work with. The offensive line was a mess. Jerry Jeudy wasn\u2019t himself. The play-calling was stale. Andrew Berry has repeatedly referenced getting his quarterbacks into \u201can operational offense,\u201d a not-so-subtle dig at how dysfunctional things were in 2025.<\/p>\n Gabriel, like Joe Flacco before him and Shedeur Sanders after, was thrown into a bad situation and expected to make magic happen. That\u2019s not a fair evaluation of what he can actually do.<\/p>\n Now imagine Gabriel in a competent offense, with better protection, better weapons and a coordinator who actually knows how to maximize his skill set. The evaluation changes completely.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n And let\u2019s not forget: Gabriel is competitive as hell. He\u2019s not walking into that building thinking he\u2019s the third guy. He\u2019s walking in thinking he can win this thing. That kind of mentality pushes everyone, including Watson and Sanders.<\/p>\n The Browns have been very deliberate about including Gabriel whenever they talk about the quarterback competition. Andrew Berry has repeatedly said that anyone on the roster has a chance to compete for a starting job. Monken has mentioned Gabriel multiple times. This isn\u2019t lip service. Cleveland genuinely hasn\u2019t ruled him out.<\/p>\n Could the Browns still draft another quarterback and trade Gabriel on draft weekend? Sure. But until that happens, he\u2019s in the mix. And anyone who thinks they know how this competition is going to shake out is kidding themselves.<\/p>\n Dillon Gabriel is the quiet guy. The one nobody\u2019s talking about. The one everyone has already written off.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n And those are always the most dangerous guys in the room.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the latest podcast:<\/p>\n Listen and subscribe to the Orange and Brown Talk podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a> and Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n More Cleveland Browns coverage<\/p>\n Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial<\/a> of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com’s Browns reporters.<\/p>\n Read the original article on cleveland.com<\/a>. Add cleveland.com<\/a> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 Everyone is so locked in on Deshaun Watson versus Shedeur Sanders that they\u2019re completely sleeping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[2007,86,85,54,2337,563,1033,7,2827,562,8934,6,116697,17,582,23813],"class_list":{"0":"post-853927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-andrew-berry","9":"tag-browns","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-browns","12":"tag-clevelandbrowns","13":"tag-deshaun-watson","14":"tag-dillon-gabriel","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-jerry-jeudy","17":"tag-joe-flacco","18":"tag-mary-kay-cabot","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-orange-and-brown","21":"tag-shedeur-sanders","22":"tag-the-browns","23":"tag-todd-monken"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116348481957242692","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853927","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=853927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}