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Daniel Oyefusi
As the news trickled out Wednesday morning that Cleveland Browns rookie Dillon Gabriel would take over as the team’s starting quarterback, a good friend of Gabriel sent him a picture of a fire station.
“When he sends it, he just lists the obvious, right?” Gabriel said. “Like, doors are open, garage doors are open, things are ready to go, they’re just waiting on that phone call to respond surgically. Just what a great representation of the job I have and being ready for that moment.
“And I think I smile because it’s a moment you prep for, and you are extremely excited for, but also got to realize that it’s extreme focus, and that’s what I’ve continued to harp on.
“But, you wait for the perfect time, you’re going to wait a whole lifetime. So, for me, I’ve always been ready for every moment.”
Gabriel’s preparedness and that of the Browns will be tested as the third-round pick becomes the franchise’s 41st starting quarterback since it returned to the NFL in 1999 (most in the league over that span).
The Browns initially turned to Joe Flacco, who helped lead the franchise to the playoffs late in the 2023 season, to begin this season. However, his second stint in Cleveland got off to a rough start, as the 18-year veteran posted a Total QBR (27.0) that ranks above only Tennessee Titans rookie Cam Ward.
Flacco’s struggles led Browns coach Kevin Stefanski to insert Gabriel for his first career start. Though the weekly preparation in the first month of the season was geared toward helping Flacco, the Browns have also been working hard to develop their rookie passers, Gabriel and fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders, to set them up for success, from film study to splitting scout team snaps to post-practice reps.
The merits of that strategy will be in the spotlight Sunday when Gabriel, who becomes the first NFL QB to make his first career start in an International game, leads the Browns (1-3) against the Minnesota Vikings (2-2) in London (9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network).
“The big thing for us, it goes back to that intentionality of what we do,” Stefanski said. “That’s [quarterbacks coach] Bill Musgrave, that’s [offensive coordinator] Tommy Rees, that’s our player development team. Everybody understanding that we’re bringing our guys along. And it may, on one day, mean meetings, may, on one day, mean a physical individual drill — if you will, at practice, while this side’s doing this, these guys are doing that. So, just like, big picture being very intentional about every minute that you have.”
THE BROWNS ARE first turning to Gabriel, a six-year college player at UCF, Oklahoma and Oregon, in an attempt to jump-start an offense that has scored the second-fewest points in the NFL (14 points per game through four weeks).
He takes over a quarterback group that has been through numerous changes since the April draft.
Stefanski on Wednesday announced that Flacco will be the backup, while Sanders, the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer and Colorado football coach Deion Sanders, will continue to serve as the No. 3 and emergency QB.
Deshaun Watson is eligible to return to practice from the physically unable to perform list, but he continues to rehab his Achilles injury. Watson, though, has posted workout videos of himself throwing on his surgically repaired Achilles. And to add to the depth of passers on staff, Cleveland brought in veteran passer Bailey Zappe, who started a game for the Browns last season and is familiar with Stefanski’s offense, to the practice squad.
Meanwhile, Gabriel, 24, impressed the Browns during the predraft process by recalling concepts and processing that information. Though Gabriel, 5-foot-11, is one of the shortest starting quarterbacks (i.e., at 5-10, the Carolina Panthers’ Bryce Young and Arizona Cardinals’ Kyler Murray are the only ones shorter), Cleveland’s coaches don’t believe it has had a big impact on his game.
Gabriel’s work during training camp and the preseason made the team comfortable with trading Kenny Pickett to the Las Vegas Raiders and naming Gabriel as Flacco’s backup to start the season. Tyler Huntley, who was signed during the summer amid injuries to Pickett, Gabriel and Sanders, was released as part of roster cuts and is on the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad.
CLEVELAND, IN A way, entered the regular season well-versed in allocating practice time for multiple quarterbacks.
During training camp, the team juggled splitting practice reps among four quarterbacks when Pickett was on the roster, and, at times, a fifth when it signed Huntley.
Many of those plans carried into the regular season, where Flacco took the majority of the practice reps for game prep. Stefanski on Wednesday said that Gabriel received reps with the starting offense in the first month of the season.
Gabriel talked about those starting reps as “here and there throughout practices but also respecting Flacco getting his reps throughout those weeks. So, I think we try to fit it in as much as possible, but I think we also did a good job of that in training camp. So, like I said, you got to build those moments up to get to this moment, and I think a great week of prep will set us up for success.”
A large portion of Gabriel’s practice reps, though, came as Cleveland split scout team reps among him, Sanders and Zappe.
“On Wednesdays, there’s a scout team meeting, so we’ll go in there, and defensive coaches will go over the cards to kind of give us a heads-up,” Zappe told ESPN, “because Wednesday is kind of like the bulk, that’s your bigger practice. Those are the practices that you practice the most. So, they want to get those fine-tuned.”
The rotating of scout team reps among multiple quarterbacks is a bit different for most NFL teams, Musgrave said, but has allowed each quarterback to get valuable snaps, even if they aren’t preparing to start.
“At times, the concepts resemble what we would run here with the Browns, and at times, it’s completely foreign,” Musgrave said. “But the fact that they’re out there and having to make decisions and process and then deliver throws accurately, all that is really good. And we try to engineer it or orchestrate it where certain concepts almost meet our quarterbacks.”
For Sanders, who started throughout his four-year college career at FCS program Jackson State and Colorado, it’s the first time since the COVID season in spring 2021 at Jackson State — when he was an early enrollee — that he has run the scout team.
“It’s concepts. Anytime you’re throwing the ball, there’s only so many ways you can get to different spots,” Sanders told ESPN. “I just enjoy it, and like I say, that’s my game day. It’s my game day.”
To Zappe, a four-year pro, the benefits of the scout team reps are using the practice time to hone mechanics.
“It’s not always the plays that you’ve run or plays that you’re used to running,” Zappe told ESPN, “but really just kind of using the same footwork and the same reads, just kind of trying to imagine, OK, this is the play that we run. So, kind of read it out the same.”
In training camp, for example, the backups often stay afterward with pass catchers for the post-practice reps that they aren’t afforded during the week of game prep.
“We’ll try to work on the throws within our plays that week, but also things maybe we missed in the week prior,” Gabriel told ESPN. “Trying to stay on top of it so you can get as much as you need. So, it is kind of per quarterback and situation, but we all definitely try to get in our mix of film, walk-throughs, extra throws, pre-practice throws or even in between during special teams when we have a lot of position work”
Musgrave noted the difficulty of finding a new weekly routine — and one that maximizes opportunities with limited practice reps — for not only Sanders but Gabriel, whose 63 college starts are the most for a quarterback in FBS history. This week also presents an unorthodox schedule for Gabriel and the Browns, who flew to London on Wednesday afternoon after practicing at their facility in Berea, Ohio. They held a walk-through Thursday and are practicing Friday.
“There’s challenges there because you’re not getting the time on task and getting the actual rep,” Musgrave said. “So, the drill work is crucial. The studying — I call them simulations where we do almost stand-up meetings or walk-throughs, both in the meeting room and perhaps out on the grass or even on the carpet where we have more space.
“So, there’s ways that we are trying to be creative, and it happens with each quarterback room in the whole league at all levels of football. The guys that have to be ready to play, but also, they’re young. And so, we want them to develop and keep working on their craft at the same time.”
1:06
Why J.J. Watt is rooting for Dillon Gabriel
J.J. Watt tells Pat McAfee he hopes Dillon Gabriel can become a great quarterback for the Browns.
THIS PAST WEEKEND, one NFL team already promoted its rookie quarterback as the previously winless New York Giants started Jaxson Dart, the 25th pick in April’s draft. New York’s offense showed signs of life after the change, as Dart accounted for two touchdowns in a 21-18 win against the previously undefeated Los Angeles Chargers.
In the lead-up to Dart’s first start, though, Giants coach Brian Daboll said that there’s no foolproof way to know when a rookie QB is ready to take the reins.
“I don’t think any rookie quarterback is ever just ready to play,” Daboll said. “You put him in there because you think that he’s done enough to show you that he can go out there and compete, and he’s done that every step of the way.”
Last week, Sanders told ESPN Cleveland that he was “ready to play right now.” Though Sanders remains the No. 3 QB, many wonder when he will make his regular-season debut. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has said it’s “absolutely” important to see both rookies play ahead of a 2026 draft when Cleveland has two first-round picks.
For now, though, the focus is on Gabriel and his first start.
“From the second he’s been here, he’s been working very hard, very intelligent young man,” Stefanski said Wednesday. “He’s done a nice job throughout practice, and this whole season, he’s been learning how to get yourself ready, and understand the rhythm of an NFL week, and what that looks like as a backup, and obviously now feel like he’s ready to start.”
