Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel made his first career start on Saturday in Philadelphia as the Browns battled the world champion Eagles.
In one half of action, Gabriel led the Browns on three scoring drives, including two drives that ended in field goals. The third-round pick in this year’s draft also had two turnovers—a pick-six in the second quarter and a fumble after a botched handoff later in the quarter.
Despite the two turnovers, Gabriel, who was battling a hamstring injury, was solid. He finished the game completing 13-of-18 passes for 143 yards and an interception.
In the end, the Browns emerged victorious with a 22-13 win over the Eagles in their second preseason game.
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski discussed what he saw from Gabriel.
“I thought the operation was good,” Stefanski said. “When you go into these games, I know that’s kind of boring, but that’s what you’re looking for from the quarterbacks to orchestrate, get guys in and out of the huddle, make the right calls, send the motions, all those types of things. So I thought he did a good job with that. He’s got plenty that he’s going to clean up.”
Gabriel added on his performance: “I think we’ll still have to go back to the film and see how it is, but for me, I think just continue to learn from some things that can’t happen, like turnovers. But I think other than that, there are flashes of being very consistent and clean as an offense. I think as long as we consistently work on that and then try to put more of those kinds of drives together, you see our defense playing really well and just putting each other in better positions.”
Rookie QB Shedeur Sanders started the first preseason game, and Gabriel started the second. However, Joe Flacco, who has not played a preseason game, has gotten the most of the first-team reps during the team’s joint practices with the Panthers and Eagles, so it appears he’ll be the Week 1 starter.
According to Stefanski, the third preseason, which is against the Rams next Saturday, is going to be a dress rehearsal, so the team will name a starting quarterback for Week 1 this week.
“So we will treat the final preseason game in a dress rehearsal-type way in the sense that we’re going to do a regular season schedule this week,” he said. “So we will make a game plan now. We won’t run every play that we put in this week, but I want the guys to get used to getting a game plan, new plays, evolving the offense, defense, and special teams. In terms of who plays and that type of thing, we’ll talk about that later.”
Both Gabriel and Sanders showed promise in their starts. While Sanders(fifth-round pick), who is missed the game against the Eagles due to an oblique injury, may have had a more impressive performance, but Gabriel’s status as a third-round pick bodes well for his future with the team.
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