Browns Gave a Sleek Nod to Deion Sanders While Announcing Dillon Gabriel’s Arrival for 1st Preseason Start

Shedeur Sanders was impressive in his preseason debut last week. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to build on it this weekend in Week 2, as an oblique injury he picked up at practice on Wednesday sidelined him all week. That means it’s Dillon Gabriel’s time to shine.

The 41-year-old favorite for the starting QB job, Joe Flacco, has not suited up yet in the preseason and is unlikely to. Kenny Pickett, currently QB2 on the depth chart, has been dealing with a hamstring issue and will not be in the lineup either.

Gabriel, who also missed the first preseason game with a hamstring injury, has fortunately put that behind him, getting in full practices this week before earning the starting nod (by default after Sanders got the first crack in Week 1) against the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday. To build some buzz around his debut, Cleveland’s social media team shared a clever, but weird, post on Saturday morning:

“Look good, feel good, play good,” the team captioned alongside pictures of the rookie QB arriving in Philly.

For those who don’t know, the caption is a nod to a famous quote made by Deion Sanders. He was a Hall of Famer at CB, but he is also the father of Gabriel’s adversary in this QB battle, Shedeur Sanders, which made the joke all the more strange. Here’s Prime Time’s original for reference:

“My motto is, you look good, you feel good, you feel good, you play good, you play good, they pay good.”

As of this writing, Gabriel has completed the full first half as Cleveland’s QB in Philly. Unfortunately, he has already had a few flubs. One of them was a miscommunication with a receiver on a route that resulted in a pick-six. The other was a botched handoff recovered by the defense a few minutes later.

However, apart from those two plays, Gabriel has represented himself well out there. His opening drive was a 13-play, 63-yard journey that included three third-down conversions for Gabriel. He also led two field goal drives, went 13-for-18 for 143 yards, and keyed Cleveland’s 6-for-8 overall mark on third downs in the first half.

However, it is worth noting that he has had a lot of dump-offs and short completions, rarely looking downfield for a big play. This performance wasn’t too far off from Sanders’, but it’s clear that the rookie with the lower ranking on the depth chart has outplayed the rookie ahead of him so far in this preseason.

Hopefully, all of Cleveland’s QBs are available for their final preseason game, so we can really get a side-by-side comparison.