Cleveland Browns quarterback Dillon Gabriel has been the invisible man in the early days of training camp as the third man in a depressing two-man quarterback competition.
Some of that is to be expected given that veteran Deshaun Watson is healthy enough to participate after missing all of last year with a twice-torn Achilles tendon. And Gabriel did not exactly light up the NFL in his six starts as a rookie, completing just 59.5 percent of his passes and seeing the Browns win just one of his starts.
Gabriel was statistically better than fellow rookie Shedeur Sanders in just about every metric that matters, however, so one could begrudge him for feeling a bit left out with the spotlight shining so brightly on Watson and Sanders.
But Gabriel does not seem wired that way, at least outwardly, as on Wednesday he said he never felt “disrespected” and that he understands the NFL is a business.
He also spoke confidently about being able to pick up what head coach Todd Monken wants from the offense given the similarities to what Gabriel ran in college (quote via a team-provided transcript):
“I don’t think picking up an offense has ever been a problem for me. I think conceptually, if you see it, a lot of people are on the same (stuff); it’s just how you call it and how you get to things. In man versus zone, or a two-high one-high, do you want an all-call where you can play it split field on one play, or do you want to get to a premier play where there are multiple winners against a certain coverage?
“I think I take that kind of attitude toward it, plus my time with Coach (Dan) Lanning — whatever that Georgia tree is — and Coach Monken being there, I think there’s some similarities. Even in practice and how we’ve seen our offense, it’s kind of similar to Oregon.”
Being comfortable in the offense could conceivably give Gabriel a leg up on the competition, and the fact that he is going about his business has not gone unnoticed by Monken, as he explained on Wednesday:
“One thing Dillon does a really good job of is he’s very even-keeled. First of all, he’s got a great personality; he’s fun to be around. You wouldn’t know it unless you’ve been around him. He seems stoic, but no, he’s actually very funny, has a great personality, and he’s handled this situation with unbelievable class.
“Every player wants to compete, and he hasn’t really had the opportunity in terms of the number of reps. He’s had a chance to compete just with a different number of reps. So, I think he’s done an unbelievable job that way, and for the lack of reps, he does a great job carrying over the meetings to the field. He does a great job with a limited amount of reps, which is a credit to him.”
The competition to be the Week 1 starter for the Browns will still likely come down to Watson or Sanders unless something drastic happens between now and the opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
But given that this is the Browns, they will likely need multiple quarterbacks once again this fall, and Gabriel staying ready could pay off for him at some point before the end of the regular season.
