One week after Shedeur Sanders impressed in his NFL (preseason) debut, Dillon Gabriel got his chance to do the same... and he did, then didn't, then kind of did again, then didn't again. You with me? After a near-flawless first drive that led to a Browns touchdown, Gabriel threw a pick-six on his second drive, and then a botched handoff was recovered by the Eagles defense a few drives later. He ended his day by leading another scoring drive, a field goal before the half, and Gabriel went 13/18 for 143 yards on the day, with two turnovers.
He was far from perfect, but he didn't look completely lost out there, either.
Dillon Gabriel was a rollercoaster in NFL debut
At times, Gabriel looked sharp, poised, and on target. His best throw of the day might have been on his first drive, when he found Jamari Thrash on an out route for a first down. There were flashes of the accuracy he showed in his many years of college football.
Dillon Gabriel leads a TD drive on his first drive as a starter
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Comparing Dillon Gabriel's debut to Shedeur Sanders' debut
While Gabriel completed more of his passes and had more passing yards, Sanders didn't turn the ball over and finished two drives with his arm by tossing two touchdown passes last week. That's a pretty big difference-maker.
Still... neither played with a full first team, neither played against a first team defensive unit and neither was quite good (or bad) enough to really separate from the other. Sanders played better overall and protected the ball, but Gabriel made some nice throws and you can make the argument that neither turnover was solely his fault.
Frankly, neither has done quite enough this preseason to earn the QB1 tag for Week 1, which looks like it's going to be Joe Flacco, which is a crazy sentence to type. This doesn't mean neither has the capability to be a starter in the future (or maybe even later this season) but it doesn't look like either is quite NFL ready at this point... which is fine, really, considering they were drafted just four months ago.