Dillon Gabriel’s starting tenure with the Cleveland Browns has been anything but glamorous so far. His pass completion percentage of 58.6% is well below the league average, and the same has been true for his passer rating as well.
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He’s officially 1-4 through his first five games as a starter, and there are seemingly more lowlights than highlights. Nevertheless, head coach Kevin Stefanski is standing by his decision to continue starting Gabriel instead of his other rookie quarterback, Shedeur Sanders.
“I think there’s an understanding that there’s going to be ups and downs. Can Dillon play better? Yes, he can. Can we play better around him? Yes, we can. Can we coach him better? Yes, we can… I just trust that our young players, at every position and certainly at the quarterback position, are going to work their tales off to get better every single day.”
Ever since his infamous draft day slide, fans and analysts alike have been calling for Sanders to receive a fair shake at a starting position in the NFL. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as if they’ll get to see that anytime soon.
That will likely prove to be a source of frustration for many as the process continues to play out, but according to Cam Newton, Stefanski and co. are making the right call. During the latest episode of his budding 4th & 1 podcast, the former face of the Carolina Panthers suggested that it is actually the fans, rather than the Browns organization, who need to reassess the situation.
“If the untrained eye is expecting the Cleveland Browns to put Shedeur Sanders in at quarterback, with what he has at his disposal, you would be a fool to think that he would do anything different than Dillon Gabriel. If you are a fan of the Cleveland Browns, or you are a fan of Shedeur Sanders, you wouldn’t even want him to be in that type of situation.”
In referring to the catastrophe that is the contract that Cleveland signed Deshaun Watson to, Newton argued that, due to the depleted nature of both the Browns’ roster and their cap space, it’s hard to expect anyone in Cleveland to receive a fair deal, of any kind.
It’s no secret that Watson’s contract has the potential to go down in history as the worst one in the history of professional football. And as Newton points out, the franchise is still reeling from its fallout today. Simply put, “It doesn’t matter who is taking snaps from under center… They don’t have enough.”
As a result, the Browns will now have to trudge through the eight remaining games on their schedule. It remains unlikely, but there is a chance that Sanders could see some rather meaningless snaps in the final two or three games of the season.
Then again, if Newton is correct, then neither he nor his fans may want those reps, as they likely won’t result in anything positive.
