Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel came into Saturday's game against the Philadelphia Eagles with a good deal of pressure.
It was his first preseason action, after sitting last week with a hamstring injury. He got the start with the team resting Joe Flacco and bringing Kenny Pickett back slowly from a hamstring injury. In addition, Gabriel watched fellow rookie Shedeur Sanders play very well in his preseason debut last week. With Sanders sitting out Saturday due to an oblique injury, a poor performance by Gabriel could have affected the depth chart as the regular season gets closer.
Gabriel did pretty well with his opportunity. He was 13 of 18 for 143 yards in a half of work. Gabriel had a very good first quarter against the Eagles. He completed eight of his nine passes in the opening quarter. All of the things that made Gabriel a third-round pick — quick processing, accuracy, understanding the offense — were on full display as he strung together completions in his first NFL work.
And he made a mistake to start the second quarter that he'd like to have back. The Browns had a bit of a sloppy play and two receivers were in the same area as Gabriel rolled to his left, then he threw a pass in between them that was picked off by Eagles rookie Andrew Mukuba and returned 75 yards for a touchdown.
It was a play, on first down, that Gabriel probably should have thrown away. It's a rookie mistake that he can learn from. But it didn't entirely wipe out that Gabriel ran the offense very well before that interception. Sanders did not make any big mistakes like that last week, and Sanders also had two very nice touchdown passes. Gabriel didn't throw one, though he led a touchdown drive and two field goal drives.
Gabriel's first drive started ominously, with Eagles first-round pick Jihaad Campbell sacking him on his first dropback. But Gabriel settled in and completed all four passes for 29 yards, and the drive ended with a rushing touchdown. The best pass of the drive came on third down, when he had a nicely placed pass to a well covered Jamari Thrash for the first down. That drive ended with running back Ahmani Marshall rushing in for a touchdown.
Gabriel had a few more accurate, decisive passes on Cleveland's second drive including another third-down conversion to Thrash. After the interception Gabriel had another productive pass to Thrash on a third down, as Thrash ran a shallow crossing route.
Gabriel has less-than-ideal size for a quarterback — that was evident as Gabriel played on an NFL field for the first time too — but he is very good at many other aspects of the game. He didn't look like a rookie, though Sanders didn't either last week. The vision and ability to accurately deliver the ball where it needs to go is why the Browns took Gabriel with a valuable third-round pick.
Gabriel was drafted in the third round, two rounds ahead of Sanders, but you'd never know it based on how much attention is given to Sanders. All indications from Browns training camp, and the offseason practices before that, are that Gabriel has been ahead of Sanders on the depth chart. Whichever rookie goes into the season atop the other on the depth chart might end up being a big deal; if the Browns struggle and turn to a rookie quarterback later in the season, they have two to choose from.
If Gabriel could eliminate one play from Saturday, he had a promising first preseason game. There's probably no reason to move him down the depth chart after that performance.
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