It remains to be seen what kind of NFL career Dillon Gabriel plans to have. The distinguished former college football star spent last year at Oregon, the two previous ones before that at Oklahoma, and his first three out of his native Hawaii on the other side of the country at UCF. Gabriel does throw a beautiful spiral, is ultra-competitive and has started a lot of games, but unfortunately, size matters...
The 5-foot-11 southpaw from The Aloha State ended up being a third-round pick by the always dysfunctional Cleveland Browns in last spring's NFL Draft. That may have been around the time he should have been coming off the board anyway, but he was never going to be a first-round pick in any estimation in my eyes. He has so many things working against him on his quest to be an NFL starter.
Whether it be his age coming out, his injury-prone nature or even his left-handedness, the biggest thing working against him is his size. I understand that some quarterbacks under six feet have worked in the NFL, but the likes of Drew Brees, Doug Flutie and Kyler Murray are the anomalies and not the expectation. Why is this a problem? You have to step up in the pocket and throw it over the big uglies.
As you can see, all it takes for a defensive lineman like Shelby Harris to swat a pass is to raise a hand.
#Browns DT Shelby Harris gets his hand up for the batted pass. pic.twitter.com/Y1GiXaxmK4
— Camryn Justice (@camijustice) July 30, 2025
I have never been more convinced that Joe Flacco is going to be the Browns' Week 1 starter this fall.
Dillon Gabriel is not going to magically grow three inches taller overnight
There is a reason why an NFL prototype is the prototype. Most NFL teams prefer their quarterbacks to be between 6-foot-2 and 6-foot-6 under center. Any shorter results in far too many chances for passes like the one Gabriel attempted to be batted down. Conversely, any taller usually results in a quarterback being a bit too uncoordinated to have long-term success in the NFL. Flacco is 6-foot-6.
Of course, if NFL talent evaluators could build a quarterback in a laboratory, they would prefer him to have at least two seasons' worth of college stars, which Gabriel has in spades. However, they would also prefer him to be no older than 23 years old coming in, have a clean bill of health, and have a strong right arm. Gabriel is older, has been hurt before, and does not throw from the preferred hand.
What I am getting at is the only way for Gabriel to have any real staying power in this league is for him to bet on himself. He carved out a fantastic college football career in doing so. However, he will soon find out that the NFL is a different beast. It does not matter than he was a high-end player on all the teams he played for. In the NFL, everybody who is anybody was a superstar for their college team.
Gabriel has a chance to be a solid backup in this league, but his attributes were never starter worthy.