The Cleveland Browns are about to enter training camp with a surplus at quarterback.
No, really.
While the Browns’ ongoing competition between Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson for the starting job leaves much to be desired, Cleveland’s QB room as a whole could be more attractive on the trade market than fans realize.
Watson is locked onto the Browns’ roster — and the Browns’ roster alone — for the full 2026 season due to the salary cap penalties associated with his contract. Beyond that special situation are three young quarterbacks the team has drafted within the past two years, including a top-100 selection in former Oregon standout Dillon Gabriel.
Browns reporter Daniel Oyefusi recently made the Gabriel projection that all Browns fans are expecting in his camp preview for ESPN. He expects GM Andrew Berry to seek out a trade partner for Gabriel ahead of the season opener, leaving Cleveland with Watson, Sanders, and sixth-round rookie Taylen Green on the active roster.
The big question that still needs to be answered is: What will Gabriel’s true trade value look like?
There have been some comps in recent years, as in, backup-level quarterbacks drafted within the first three rounds who were dealt prior to a new NFL season. The compensation range has generally fallen between a high and late Day 3 pick or pick swap.
Patriots writer Graham Wiliker of Musket Fire recently pitched a trade idea that would equate to the Browns’ surrendering on a player they drafted No. 94 overall in 2025.
“New England re-signed Tommy DeVito to a two-year deal and selected Behren Morton of Texas Tech in the seventh round,” Wiliker wrote. “DeVito has gotten the lion's share of the backup snaps thus far, but if he tails off or Morton's collegiate injuries persist into his professional career, it could be worth sending a seventh-round pick to Cleveland for Gabriel later in the offseason.”
The Cleveland Browns should be open to trading Dillon Gabriel, but in a responsible manner
There is actually a strong comp for Wiliker’s trade pitch of a seventh-round pick for Gabriel. Back in August of 2024, the Tennessee Titans dumped their own third-round quarterback, Malik Willis, in a trade with the Green Bay Packers. Willis was traded straight-up for a 2025 seventh-round pick, No. 239 overall.
That deal hasn’t exactly aged well for Tennessee, though. Willis was excellent in spot-start duty working with head coach Matt LaFleur and Green Bay’s talent-rich offense. He cashed in this offseason with a three-year, $67.5 million free agent contract to become the new starting quarterback of the Miami Dolphins.
Tennessee obviously mismanaged the asset, which is what franchises that continually pick near the top of the draft do. The Browns should be doing everything in their power to get out of that same viscous cycle.
There are other trade comps, with the high-end being Trey Lance to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a fourth-round pick in 2023. That was a major white-flag moment by the San Francisco 49ers, who traded a haul to move up to the No. 3 overall pick for Lance in 2021.
Mac Jones might be the best comp for the Browns. He was a mid-first-round pick by the Patriots in that same 2021 draft, was the starter for a stretch with varying results, and was ultimately shipped to Jacksonville for a sixth-round pick, No. 193 overall.
If the Browns do trade Gabriel, the value cutoff should be something inside that top-200 range, like a fifth-round pick in 2028 or a sixth-rounder, at worst, in 2027. He’s a second-year player who was thrust into an impossible situation as a midseason starter last year.
It would make a lot more sense for Cleveland to bite the bullet and hold all four quarterbacks on the active roster this year than it would be to gift Gabriel to an AFC contender for next to nothing.
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