CLEVELAND, Ohio — Dillon Gabriel stepped to the podium at Browns rookie minicamp with the poise of a quarterback who’s seen it all. With over 60 FBS starts across three different college programs, perhaps he has. But the challenge he now faces in Cleveland might be unlike anything in his football journey so far.
Dan Labbe observed during the Orange and Brown Talk podcast discussion of Gabriel’s demeanor: “He is unfazed by this quarterback competition. He seems to set a very cooperative tone of things. But there’s a confidence there with him, and you’re gonna see it when you hear him talk or hear it when you listen to him talk. And it’s there.”
That confidence was on display throughout the weekend, but so was something else – a hint of tension that could foreshadow the months ahead. When asked by Mary Kay Cabot about how he would handle the attention surrounding fellow rookie QB Shedeur Sanders, Gabriel pushed back.
Mary Kay Cabot recounted: “He actually took a little bit of umbrage with a question that I asked him about, how are you going to approach this Shedeur Sanders hoopla? Are you going to ignore it? Are you going to engage with it? And he said, if we keep getting questions like this, it’s going to divide the team.”
This reaction raises important questions about how Gabriel will navigate an unprecedented situation. He’s not just competing against another rookie quarterback – he’s competing against a cultural phenomenon whose fame has exploded since his draft-day slide.
The dynamics at play echo previous quarterback controversies in Cleveland. As Cabot pointed out, “I watched Brian Hoyer have to deal with it when Johnny Manziel came to town, when that circus came to town. And when you’re somebody that’s trying to win the starting job or hold the starting job, and you’ve got a Johnny Manziel or a Shedeur Sanders that’s sort of larger than life, this presence that sort of just takes over everything around you. It has an impact.”
For Gabriel, the challenge isn’t just about outperforming Sanders on the field. It’s about handling the external pressure from fans and media who may be clamoring to see Sanders regardless of on-field performance.
Dan Labbe noted: “If we get to a point where Dillon Gabriel is playing ahead of Shedeur Sanders, there’s going to be a lot of people on Twitter and wherever else that are going to attack Dillon Gabriel for no other reason than he’s not Shedeur Sanders. He’s going to have to be able to withstand having this super popular quarterback behind him if he is, in fact ahead of him and playing ahead of him at some point this season.”
This pressure will only intensify as training camp and the preseason unfold. While both quarterbacks showed flashes during rookie minicamp, with highs and lows expected of young players, the real test for Gabriel may be mental rather than physical.
Ashley Bastock pointed out: “I don’t think the questions themselves are what would cause division. I think it’s just the nature of Shedeur’s celebrity and the gravity that he has already... What’s this going to look like in mid-August? What’s this going to look like in October?”
For Gabriel, maintaining that unfazed demeanor will be crucial. His path to the NFL as a 5-foot-11 lefty has always required outsized confidence. Now, that confidence will be tested in an entirely new way as he competes not just against another quarterback, but against a cultural phenomenon.
The Browns organization now faces the challenge of managing this dynamic to prevent any actual division from forming. With veterans Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco also in the quarterback room, the competition is just beginning, and Gabriel’s response to these early questions may provide a window into how he’ll handle the pressure cooker that awaits.
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