After seeing what happened on Sunday against the Ravens, there’s one main question on my mind: When should Dillon Gabriel start? Gabriel got to play in last week’s game in garbage time. He looked pretty solid and even threw a touchdown pass to fellow rookie Dylan Sampson. It was one heck of a throw. But the Ravens had their second-string defense in, so it could be fool’s gold.
2026 Draft Hopefuls
There’s no doubt in my mind that Gabriel will get a few starts under his belt before this season ends. Even though the Browns are widely expected to draft another quarterback in next year’s NFL draft with one of their two first-round picks. But they spent a 3rd round pick on the former Oregon Duck just a few months ago. That kind of draft capital is pretty big in the NFL. They are at least going to try and see what he’s got.
To top it off, the college quarterback pool has not looked very good throughout the first couple of weeks. Some of the top names that will possibly be available for the Browns next season are: Arch Manning, LaNorris Sellers, Garrett Nussmeier, Cade Klubnik, and the local product, Drew Allar.
Most notably, the Browns brass has been spotted a few times scouting some of these QBs. Arch Manning has been at the top of the list for most NFL teams for a while. His performance has not helped back up his status as the Heisman favorite. Peyton and Eli’s nephew only completed 11 of 25 passes for 114 yards against UTEP last week. He finished with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. To me, that doesn’t scream 1st round pick. At least not until we find out if our rookie quarterback is worth keeping around.
So, when should Dillon Gabriel get his first start?
Next up on the schedule for the Cleveland Browns are the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay is 2-0, and with the recent addition of star pass rusher Micah Parsons, looks to be a Super Bowl contender. I have a pretty clear idea in my head of how this game is going to go. The Browns’ offensive line has been very, very bad to start the year. Against a team like the Packers, Gabriel would stand no chance at all.
After Green Bay, the Browns travel to another NFC North Super Bowl-contending team. The Detroit Lions don’t necessarily have the defense that Green Bay has, but their offense is prolific. I expect the Browns to get down big in this game and have to play from behind. That deficit will most likely make whoever is playing quarterback pretty rushed and under pressure to make deep throws. I’d hate to see Gabriel have to go through that in his first start.
Week 5 could be more interesting. Just today, Adam Schefter announced that Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy will miss 2-4 weeks. Meaning, he could be out for the Browns game against Minnesota in London. This would be a cool time to see what Gabriel is made of. Getting your first start in another country is probably not ideal. Although it would make for one heck of a story.
If Joe Flacco continues to play at the poor level he just did against the Ravens, I wouldn’t be opposed to throwing Gabriel to the wolves in Week 5 against the Minnesota Vikings. Thank you for reading and be sure to stay up to date on clesportstalk.com so you can see all the latest news and stories on Cleveland Sports. And so you can see when the Browns play one of their rookie quarterbacks.
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