Quarterback · Cleveland Browns

Dillon Gabriel

No. 8 · 2nd season

Left out of the competition, and somehow he's the one turning heads

The Cleveland Browns are running a competition to find their starting quarterback. Dillon Gabriel isn't in it. And somehow, he might be the most interesting person in the room.

Gabriel came to Cleveland as a rookie with a reputation built on college football — one of the most productive quarterbacks in college history before the Browns took a chance on him in the draft. He is young, he is new to this level, and right now, the franchise has decided the starting job conversation doesn't include him yet.

He says that doesn't bother him. Whether or not you take that at face value, what's harder to ignore is what's happening in practice. People inside that building are watching him. The reps are going well enough that his name is coming up in conversations about the quarterback group — not just as a placeholder, but as someone worth paying attention to.

Being left out of a competition is usually a message. Gabriel seems to be answering it anyway, just without anyone officially asking the question. That is the kind of thing that has a way of changing what the question is.

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