Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel may not have been taking a shot at his biggest competition in training camp and the preseason, Shedeur Sanders, with his comments on entertainers and competitiors, but he did have an opportunity on Saturday in the Browns' second game of the preseason. With Sanders sidelined due to injury, along with Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco also out, Gabriel was handed the keys with a chance to prove himself.
It certainly feels like Gabriel didn't take advantage of the prime opportunity at hand.
Playing the entire first half at the helm of the Cleveland offense, Gabriel did look solid at times as he completed 13-of-18 passes for 143 yards. The biggest downside, however, came in the fact that he also coughed up the rock twice, once on an interception and once on a botched handoff that resulted in a lost fumble.
Now, to give Gabriel some grace, his opportunity came while he was also a bit banged up, as the rookie was nursing a hamstring injury in this game. At the same time, when you look at the turnovers and also add in the fact that he often seemed a bit unsettled by pressure and in the pocket, it's hard not to think back to the first week of the preseason and Sanders' performance and not think there is a clear delineation between the two rookies already.
Dillon Gabriel proves that Shedeur Sanders is the Browns' best rookie QB
While Sanders was impressive prior to his current oblique injury when he debuted in Week 1 of the preseason, there were some faults, no doubt. There was a lot of short game involved, which is why his 14 completions (on 23 attempts) went for just 138 yards. However, the Colorado product was infinitely more comfortable in the face of NFL pressure, found the end zone twice through the air, and most importantly, didn't turn the ball over.
This was a reality that Browns fans essentially knew going into training camp, though. Despite Gabriel being the higher draft pick, no one in their right mind looked at Sanders and saw a worse quarterback prospect in terms of talent than Gabriel. Sanders fell to the fifth round for reasons off the field, but the talent advantage always favored the son of Coach Prime.
There are always going to be growing pains for rookies, without question. But in this battle in particular, Gabriel isn't doing a thing that should make the Browns favor him over Sanders at this point. Not only did Sanders look more of the part in his preseason debut with Cleveland, but he's also a year younger than Gabriel with far less high-level college experience as well. You'd expect Gabriel to be further prepared for the NFL because of that, but Sanders still looked more the part in their respective preseason debuts.
Obviously, there's still two weeks until the Browns will have to make some tough decisions in the quarterback room with Gabriel, Sanders, Pickett and Flacco and sort out the depth chart. At the same time, the moment Sanders was selected in the fifth round, Browns fans knew that the team got a steal in terms of talent. Now that he's shown that and largely outshined Gabriel, while also proving himself as a competitor, to use Gabriel's term, in camp, the notion that Cleveland's best rookie QB was the second one that they picked is only being further solidified.