After the NFL draft come the post mortems, experts weighing in on which picks were sound and which were failures of judgment.
The website Pro Football Focus ranked the quarterback selections Wednesday, and they assigned a "Below Average" to Cleveland's pick of Dillon Gabriel in the third round with the 94th pick.
The Browns shocked everyone by picking another quarterback in the fifth round, Colorado's Shedeur Sanders. That pick rated an "Elite" from the experts at PFF.
They cited Sanders' favorable advanced stats, ranking second in adjusted completion rate and second in fewest turnover worthy plays. Sanders holds the ball longer than most QBs, however, and he rated 17th of 22 eligible passers in air yards.
About Gabriel, the website said,
Despite being a significant size outlier (5-foot-11, 205 pounds) for an NFL quarterback, Gabriel started at three schools over six college seasons. He managed to secure PFF passing grades of 80.0 or higher in five of those seasons. Gabriel now joins a quarterback room with Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco.
The Browns have already declined a fifth-year option on Pickett, so this is inaccurate. What's more, the Cleveland roster still includes DeShaun Watson, whose future remains in doubt after rupturing his Achilles tendon for the second time in January.
Watson has two years remaining on a five-year, fully-guaranteed $230 million contract, so it's no wonder Cleveland management sought value options in the draft. As a fifth-round pick Sanders is projected to be offered a contract worth just over $4.6 million, less than he made in NIL deals at Colorado.
Gabriel remains unfazed by the skepticism and the media circus that surrounds the dual quarterback draft. His two-word message to fans on social media immediately after the draft was, "Ballers ball," meaning that talk or reputations wouldn't matter, only preparation and results.
At least one Cleveland football analyst remains sold on Gabriel as the Browns' eventual choice. Lance Reisland of "The Orange and Brown Podcast" said,
“I just was big on Dillon Gabriel from the start. He throws the ball on time. And once again, production over potential... I don’t care that he’s not 6-4. I don’t care that he’s not 220. I don’t care that he doesn’t have a rocket arm. He throws it on time. He anticipates very well.”
If Gabriel does make it in the NFL, he'd join successful shorter quarterbacks like Russell Wilson, Drew Brees, Michael Vick Joe Theisman and Fran Tarkenton. Gabriel lacks some of the prototypical skills and measurables of Justin Herbert or Joe Burrow, but his outstanding attributes are poise, intelligence and leadership.
Gabriel was 46-17 as a college starter, leading Oregon to a 13-1 record and the Big Ten Championship in 2024. At Colorado, Sanders posted a two-year mark of 13-12.
It's the personal attributes that put Gabriel over the top in the interview process. He's likely to have a long and successful career as an NFL backup or a coach, simply because he excels at communicating and working with people. It's easy to envision him as a head coach at Hawaii or Mililani High School one day.