Dillon Gabriel’s big chance to jump ahead of Shedeur Sanders comes amid camp struggles

The Cleveland Browns made the interesting decision of selecting both Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders in the 2025 NFL Draft, adding them to a quarterback room already consisting of veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett. Having four quarterbacks created a whole lot of pressure, particularly on the rookies, to contribute right away in training camp. Well, it looked as if Gabriel might've just gotten the break he needed to pull ahead of Sanders on the Browns' depth chart without doing a thing.

Sanders was held out of drills on Saturday with what the team is calling shoulder soreness, per ESPN's Adam Schefter. It's unclear as of now how many practices Sanders will miss or if he'll be good to go for Friday's preseason opener, but the Browns have no reason to rush Sanders back from a shoulder injury.

With a good showing Saturday, Gabriel could've given the Browns coaching staff something to think about. Unfortunately, Saturday's practice didn't bring many great moments from the Oregon product.

Dillon Gabriel fails to take advantage of golden opportunity

With both Sanders and Pickett on the sidelines, Gabriel had ample opportunity to make a good impression. In fact, he even wound up throwing the ball even more than projected starter Joe Flacco in team drills. Unfortunately, despite more attempts than Flacco, he completed the same number of passes as the veteran, and barely managed to complete 50 percent of his throws. He didn't throw an interception, which is a bright spot, but really the lone one.

The odds of Gabriel (or Sanders) starting in Week 1 of the regular season have always been slim, barring injury, but he could've moved up the depth chart, at the very least, by impressing. Doing the opposite of that could have the opposite effect.

Dillon Gabriel has lost whatever lead in Browns QB race over Shedeur Sanders that he might've had

It was easy to assume that Gabriel and Sanders were not battling on equal footing when taking into account when they were selected in the NFL Draft. Gabriel was a third-round pick, while Sanders fell all the way to the fifth round. Being selected one day and two rounds earlier seemingly gave Gabriel an early advantage, but Sanders has looked much better in camp.

I mean, just look at Friday's showing. Sanders was a whole lot closer to Flacco than Gabriel, who, by all measures, was awful.

Sanders didn't participate on Saturday, but Gabriel's stat line doesn't exactly suggest that he took advantage of that. Odds are, if he held an early lead in the depth chart race over Sanders, that's gone now. Sure, Sanders was selected later, but draft positioning isn't better. There were reasons to like Sanders over Gabriel to begin with, and the fact that he's looked better in training camp should mean something.

Odds are, Gabriel's draft selection will allow him to make the team no matter what, but Sanders should, too, based on what we've seen, and should also be above Gabriel on Cleveland's depth chart.