After missing the first preseason game due to a minor hamstring injury, Dillon Gabriel has had a pretty solid camp and showed why the Browns were interested in making him a third-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Gabriel had a strong start in his professional debut, but the offense committed two turnovers on a broken play and a mishandled handoff.
Gabriel followed Week 1 starter Joe Flacco in the team's preseason finale against the Rams, and he built on his debut from the week prior. The Oregon alum completed 12 of 19 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown, good for a 100.5 passer rating.
Dillon Gabriel puts together another strong preseason performance against Rams
Despite only getting action on two drives, Gabriel led the team to two scores on a 15-play, 70-yard field goal drive followed by a textbook 11-play, 86-yard touchdown drive in the two-minute drill. He routinely found Gage Larvadain and Jamari Thrash for chunk gains and hit Larvadain for his lone touchdown pass. The rookie looked incredibly comfortable operating this offense, which shouldn't come as much surprise considering his extended amount of reps during his collegiate career.
Gage had to hit the LeBron celly for his first TD in the Land!#LARvsCLE on NFLN, @WEWS & NFL+ pic.twitter.com/FvYHQ7Z7L5
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 23, 2025
The physical attributes undeniably cap Gabriel's ceiling, but there's a reason Kevin Stefanski fell in love with him during the pre-draft process and took him earlier than most expected. Gabriel looks like a perfect fit to operate this offense, even if it's unlikely to be a league-best unit under his control. Most importantly, he did a better job protecting the ball in this one, but there were some plays where he broke the pocket and probably could have taken a profit with his legs instead of forcing a throw.
It remains to be seen how the rest of the quarterback room will shake up behind Flacco, but Gabriel is certainly locked into the top three with the potential to be the main backup if they move on from Kenny Pickett. He almost undoubtedly will be the first rookie to get a chance if they make an in-season change because of his experience in this type of offense and his combination of processing and accuracy.