![\"Cleveland](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2245872443-e1775426617588.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Cleveland Browns quarterback Dillon Gabriel.<\/p>\n
Everyone has moved on from Dillon Gabriel, but there\u2019s reason to believe he could still be a factor in the Cleveland Browns<\/a> quarterback competition alongside Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson.<\/p>\n On a recent episode of the Orange and Brown Talk podcast<\/a>, Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot made the case that\u00a0 Gabriel remains a legitimate factor in the Browns\u2019 quarterback competition.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s possible because he\u2019s extremely smart and has great, great processing speed,\u201d Cabot said. \u201cHe was thrown into some difficult situations when he was starting for this football team.\u201d<\/p>\n Gabriel made six starts as a rookie in 2025<\/a>, going 1-5 while throwing for 937 yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions. The offense around him was a mess from the start and remained that way during the team\u2019s 5-12 campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cJust like Joe Flacco before him, he didn\u2019t have all that much to work with,\u201d Cabot said. \u201cThere were issues at the offensive line, issues at receiver. Jerry Jeudy was not himself last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns look at last year\u2019s offense, I don\u2019t think they were overly impressed with what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n A Better Cast Could Unlock Gabriel\u2019s Potential<\/p>\n The Browns have aggressively overhauled their offensive line this offseason<\/a>, adding Tytus Howard via trade and signing Zion Johnson and Elgton Jenkins in free agency. That kind of infrastructure upgrade is exactly what Gabriel<\/a> \u2014 or whoever wins the quarterback job \u2014 needs.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you give him a better supporting cast and call a different offense for him, then I think he can excel and shine,\u201d Cabot said.<\/p>\n Cabot also pointed to the hunger factor. Gabriel hasn\u2019t been the subject of much buzz this spring<\/a>, with most of the attention going to Watson and Sanders.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s hungry and he\u2019s got something to prove and everybody has written him off in this competition,\u201d Cabot said. \u201cDillon is a competitive guy. He\u2019s very competitive, so I know he hasn\u2019t ruled himself out of this year and the Browns haven\u2019t ruled him out. He\u2019s going to come in here and press both of these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n General manager Andrew Berry noted that Gabriel is not \u201cforgotten\u201d in Cleveland<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe may be forgotten externally, but he\u2019s not forgotten to us,\u201d<\/a> Berry said. \u201cDillon\u2019s a guy that has a bright future in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n Browns May Add Another Quarterback to Mix<\/p>\n Cabot also addressed the likelihood of Cleveland adding a fourth quarterback to the mix before camp opens<\/a>. It\u2019s something the organization has done consistently in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cThere probably will be a fourth quarterback to this mix,\u201d Cabot said. \u201cThey always have four quarterbacks here. It shouldn\u2019t surprise us if they add another quarterback on draft weekend or in free agency. They always go to camp with four.\u201d<\/p>\n The Browns hold picks No. 6 and No. 24 in the first round of the\u00a0NFL<\/a> Draft, and nine picks overall. Berry acknowledged at the owners meetings that adding a younger player to the quarterback room \u2014 likely through the draft \u2014 remains an option.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJ.R. DeGroote<\/a> JR DeGroote is a staff writer for Heavy.com, where he has covered the NFL, NBA, and trending sports stories since 2019. His work focuses on some of the most passionate fanbases in sports, including reporting on the Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Lakers. More about J.R. DeGroote<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Browns\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Cleveland Browns quarterback Dillon Gabriel. Everyone has moved on from Dillon Gabriel, but there\u2019s reason to believe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-855850","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-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116354405320753988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855850","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=855850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}