The Browns may not want to say it out loud, but Dillon Gabriel has become a real question mark in Cleveland.
Inside the building, the support for the 2025 third-round pick is easy to find. The 5-foot-11 lefty out of Oregon has plenty of people speaking highly of him. Still, with a four-man quarterback room and only two preseason games left, general manager Andrew Berry has a short runway to decide what Gabriel really is.
Gabriel is not in the race for the starting job. That battle is between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders.
But he has spent much of camp with the second-string offense, which has reinforced the Browns’ view of him as a potential long-term backup. It’s also the second offensive staff that has taken a strong liking to him, with Gabriel earning praise as a smart player who presents well.
The case for drafting him was never hard to understand. After Cleveland took heat for selecting an undersized quarterback, the Browns could point to Gabriel’s experience: 63 starts over six seasons at three different college programs. For a rookie, that kind of mileage was supposed to make the transition smoother.
The idea was simple enough. If Gabriel turned into a dependable backup for a decade, a third-round pick would be a worthwhile investment.
But the more he’s played, the more that theory has been tested. His physical limitations have shown up on the field, and he has looked overmatched in every game. His interception in Cleveland’s preseason opener only added to that concern and undercut the “super computer” label he got a year ago.
That matters because Cleveland’s quarterback room could still get even messier. In a scenario where the Browns field trade calls for Sanders if Watson wins the starting job, banking on Gabriel would be a major gamble. Right now, the 25-year-old hasn’t done much to suggest he can keep the offense afloat as a backup.
The Browns have 19 games left to sort this out - two preseason games and 17 regular-season contests - before they have to decide whether quarterback is a draft priority in April. And the odds are they’ll need one.
If Cleveland reaches 2027 with a premium first-round quarterback, the next move would likely be to add an established veteran in free agency. That’s the formula successful teams tend to follow, and it would leave Gabriel without a clear path.
So if there’s a chance for the Browns to move on from the Gabriel experiment, they should consider it. If another team offers a pick or a swap, it could help untangle the quarterback situation and give Berry a cleaner path forward. And if Gabriel’s future in Cleveland is only limited, keeping him around doesn’t really do him any favors.
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