BEREA, Ohio — Browns rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel used the phrases “microwave mentality” and “Amazon lifestyle” on Tuesday.
No, he wasn’t giving a TED Talk. He was talking about the process of competing for the Browns starting quarterback job.
“I think whether it’s a microwave mentality or that Amazon lifestyle of wanting it right away,” Gabriel said, “sometimes it’s just not the case.”
A few minutes earlier, his fellow rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders emphasized patience as he continues to work last during practice, waiting on reps that might not always be there.
“I view things as I got time,” Sanders said. “I got time to be able to grow and mature and be able to understand the ins and outs of the defenses and be able to get the good insight from the (veterans) in the room. So I look at it as a plus.”
The last few months have been all about patience for the 23-year-old, starting with the draft when he had to wait until Saturday afternoon to hear his name called. The Browns traded up to select him in the fifth round after months of speculation he could be a first-round pick -- or, at worst, a Friday night selection.
The Browns did choose a quarterback on Friday night, taking Gabriel No. 94 overall and when mandatory minicamp opened on Tuesday, the pecking order looked about the same as it did during the two OTA practices open to the media the previous two weeks.
Kenny Pickett was first. Joe Flacco likely would have been second, but he took it easy for the day, not participating in team reps. Gabriel went ahead of Sanders, even taking reps with the first team offense against the first-team defense. Sanders went after Gabriel in team reps and, as has been the case throughout the offseason program, spent time working alone on a different field from the rest of the quarterbacks.
“Whenever it’s time for me to play, then it’s time for me to play,” Sanders said. “But I’m not looking too far in the future about all that. I’m looking about every day in practice.”
The eyeball test shows Sanders is playing well. He hit two of the day’s highlight throws, a deep ball to undrafted wide receiver Gage Larvadain on the side field and then another throw to Larvadain over the middle during the final 7-on-7 red zone session.
He has had more “wow” throws than Gabriel to this point, though Gabriel, working higher up the depth chart than Sanders, connected with Jerry Jeudy for a catch-and-run at the same time Sanders delivered his deep throw and hit Jamari Thrash in the back corner of the end zone on an accurate throw.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski has insisted all offseason not to pay attention to the order of reps, but how can you not, especially when they have so consistently told the story that Gabriel remains ahead of Sanders and both are trying to catch up to the veterans in front of them?
“You can view things as you’re not getting reps in a negative way or you could view it as, OK, when it’s my time to get out there, let’s be proactive and let’s get warm, let’s get going so there’s no excuses,” Sanders said. “Because when you get out there, nobody cares how many reps you got. Whenever you get in the game, nobody cares if you took a snap before. Everybody cares about production.”
It’s that microwave mentality. People want results and they want it now. The Browns, however, seem content to slow play this, at least through the spring when there are no pads and, up until this week, participation was voluntary.
Both quarterbacks have time, at least for now.
“You love to stay process driven,” Gabriel said. “I think for a lot of people, it’s a results-based business, so let’s not get that wrong, but you have to have a process behind it to be able to create consistent results.”
How much time? Well, it gets late fast when it comes to winning this job and proving to this franchise you deserve to keep it beyond the 2025 season.
After minicamp, Browns players will scatter and get a break before returning for training camp at the end of July and the tenor of things will change.
At that point, it’s time to get ready for real football, which will be less than 50 days away. Preseason games will cut into practice time. Reps for non-starters will start to dry up and ultimately disappear when the regular season begins.
The Browns have been two-spotting throughout the spring -- running reps simultaneously on multiple fields -- but it won’t be long before they must home in and decide who has a real chance to start Week 1 and who doesn’t.
It’s fair to think that by the time they head to Philadelphia for joint practices on August 13th and 14th ahead of their second preseason game, they will have the competition pared down. That’s only about two months from now, and those two months include about a six-week hiatus.
Beyond the immediate competition, the long-term outlook is also daunting. The Browns possess the ammunition to perhaps solve their quarterback problem for good in 10 months. They have their first-round pick and Jacksonville’s -- both potentially high picks -- and, at least for now, the 2026 quarterback class is much more promising than this last one, which yielded just two first-round quarterbacks.
The question remains whether the Browns can definitively identify a franchise quarterback in the building before they venture back into the deep end of the draft pool.
Did the Browns get an unlikely quarterback savior delivered to their door, like one of the Amazon packages Gabriel referenced?
“I mean Amazon Prime -- you get on your phone and you order it, it’s there to you right away,” Gabriel said. “And I’m not saying we should wait seven days, but I’m just saying, sometimes there’s some work within that -- or a microwave, just heating your food up in 30 seconds rather than cutting it up, seeing the process of it -- I think throughout that journey it’s a lot more reward, you learn more through that.”
It’s a balance between patience and urgency for the players and the team. The Browns will eventually need some kind of answer, but they need to be careful not to rush to find it. There is, ultimately, a job to be won here but also a future to build, whether the quarterback who will lead that future is currently in the building or not.
“Everyone in this game sees themselves as starters and that belief of self is why a lot of guys are in the NFL,” Gabriel said. “So you just continue to improve, continue to challenge yourself. And not a lot of people love it, but failure creates growth, yet we live in a production-based business, so it’s hard for people to understand that balance.”
For now, the rookies have time and they’re embracing the process. That time will run out fast, though, and someone will either win the job or, potentially, get shipped out when a new quarterback gets delivered next year.
Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com's Browns reporters.