The Cleveland Browns dropped to 1-4 on the season after a disheartening 21-17 defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings. Cleveland scored a touchdown off an early turnover and led for the majority of the game, but ultimately fell short. Here are five things we learned from the loss.
1. Dillon Gabriel has an NFL Future
Gabriel's box score in his NFL debut was fine; he finished 19/33 for 190 yards and two touchdowns, but that shows only so much. His adjusted completion percentage, which disregards drops and throwaways, was a much better 71.4%. He executed the gameplan well, taking a sack on only 14.3% of his pressured dropbacks and averaging a time-to-throw of 2.44 seconds, best for the Browns this season and fifth-fastest in the league this week pending Monday Night Football.
Gabriel was far from perfect, but he played his role well, and showed what the Browns saw that made him a third-round pick. Kevin Stefanski and Tommy Rees didn't try to push him too far, opting instead to consistently pound the ball with Quinshon Judkins (the correct decision) and to rely on their elite defense to win the game against a Minnesota offense comprised of multiple backups (also the correct decision).
A touchdown pass to David Njoku put the Browns up by three points with just over three minutes to go in the third quarter, but Cleveland managed only two first downs in the entire fourth quarter, one of them coming on the final drive of the game that began with 21 seconds to go. Gabriel made some mistakes in key situations, throwing uncharacteristically inaccurate balls that led to drives ending prematurely.
However, he also had some impressive moments, and his mobility enabled the Browns to employ concepts previously inaccessible. He was pressured at the sixth-highest rate in the league, yet earned the highest Pro Football Focus passing grade under pressure of any QB in the league at 88.2. It didn't always shine through, but the vision for what this offense is supposed to look like was visible at times. As Gabriel grows more comfortable in the offense, he should play even better, and whether he ends up being a starter or a l0ng-term backup, there will be a place for him in the NFL.