Dillon Gabriel appeared to throw some shade in addition to his 18 passes during his preseason debut on Saturday for the Cleveland Browns. But it wasn't directed at fellow rookie Shedeur Sanders, as many immediately speculated.
After sitting out the Browns' preseason opener with a hamstring injury, Gabriel got the start versus the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles and played respectably. He completed 13 of 18 passes, but one of them was returned for a pick 6 by Eagles rookie safety Andrew Mukuba.
However, Gabriel made a remark during a televised interview that quickly raised eyebrows. Speaking on the sideline after Tyler Huntley took over at QB, he appeared to take a swipe at Sanders, with whom he's competing for a spot on the Browns' depth chart and perhaps a spot on the roster.
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Asked by reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala to share his thoughts on "tuning out the noise" and not letting it interfere with his preparation, Gabriel seemingly addressed something unrelated to the question.
"There's entertainers and there's competitors, and I totally understand that," Gabriel said. "But my job is to compete. And that's what I'm focused on."
Interpreting that comment as a dig at Sanders could be taking the remark out of context. But the exact exchange went like this:
Kinkhabwala: "You gave us some fabulous wisdom on how you tune out the noise and don't let it infiltrate yourself; will you share that with everybody at home?"
Gabriel: "Yeah, it's just part of it. You know, there's entertainers and there's competitors, and I totally understand that. But my job is to compete. And that's what I'm focused on."
Gabriel was asked about demonstrating leadership and talking to receivers and running backs on the sideline in the previous question. So it's possible he was continuing some thoughts on that, even though Kinkhabwala went on to another question.
Another possibility was that Gabriel remembered what he heard at Oregon — perhaps head coach Dan Lanning, in particular — about facing Sanders and Colorado. Lanning infamously made a pregame locker room speech in which he told his players, "They're fighting for clicks, we're fighting for wins."
However, Bo Nix was Oregon's quarterback that season. Gabriel was at Oklahoma. And the Ducks did not play the Buffaloes during his lone season at Oregon after transferring. Yet it's not difficult to imagine that Gabriel talked to his former coaches and teammates before he was preparing to compete against Colorado's outspoken QB in a competition for a roster spot.
As a third-round draft pick, Gabriel's place on the roster seems more assured than Sanders, who was selected in the fifth round. Yet Sanders has received decidedly more attention from media and fans because of his drop down the NFL draft board and his self-promoting persona at Colorado that continued leading up to the draft.
In his preseason debut, Sanders threw for 138 yards and completed 14 of 23 passes with two touchdowns.
Gabriel's remark, especially the "entertainers" crack, didn't seem to be addressing the media, Yet he insisted otherwise when asked about it after Saturday's game, saying he was referring to the media with that. (Other NFL reporters supported that notion, faulting the league's social media channels for posting the clip out of context.)
"I'm all about my team and each other," Gabriel said.
Though Gabriel was actually taking a shot at the media, not Sanders, the comment will still likely be picked apart and become a topic during the upcoming week of practice. As a result, Gabriel possibly created the very noise he was asked about tuning out.
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