Dillon Gabriel’s starting tenure with the Cleveland Browns has been anything but glamorous. His pass completion percentage of 58.6% in five games as a starter is well below the league average. Gabriel’s passer rating is also equally poor.
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Gabriel is 1-4, with more lowlights than highlights. However, 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,” Stefanski had said.
“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 tails off to get better every single day,” added the coach.
However, fans and analysts alike have been calling for Sanders to receive a fair shake at a starting position. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as if they’ll get to see that anytime soon.
While that’s frustrating, no doubt, Cam Newton feels Stefanski and co. are making the right call. During the latest episode of his 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,” said Newton.
“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,” added the former Heisman winner.
Newton then referred to the catastrophic contract that Cleveland handed to Deshaun Watson while arguing that the depleted nature of both the Browns’ roster and their cap space makes it difficult for anyone to get a fair deal at the franchise.
Watson’s contract has the potential to go down in history as the worst one in professional football. And as Newton points out, the franchise is still reeling from its fallout.
Simply put, “It doesn’t matter who is taking snaps from under center… They don’t have enough,” added Newton.
So 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, neither Sanders nor his fans may want those reps, as they likely won’t result in anything positive.
