Cleveland Browns fans are gearing up for a highly entertaining quarterback competition which will include Dillon Gabriel. Despite recent college football stints with the Oregon Ducks and Oklahoma Sooners, Gabriel spent the most time with the UCF Knight during his collegiate career.
Gabriel’s tenure with UCF ended abruptly as the quarterback was one of the first major departures for the Knights in 2022 as the transfer portal era began. There will be at least some UCF fans following how Gabriel’s NFL career unfolds.
The Browns selected Gabriel in the third round with the No. 94 overall pick. Things got a lot more interesting as Cleveland traded up on Day 3 to select Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round.
Both Gabriel and Sanders have been quiet on their reaction to being teammates. Gabriel did reveal his first reaction to getting selected by the Browns on Day 2.
New Browns quarterback Dillon Gabriel warms up before the 2025 Senior Bowl football game against the American Team at Hancock Whitney Stadium.
Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images
“Ballers Ball #DawgPound,” Gabriel noted in a message posted on X on Saturday.
It is worth noting that Gabriel’s response came after Day 2 and well before Cleveland would land Sanders.
Gabriel threw a career-high 32 touchdown passes with UCF in 2020. The signal-caller spent his first three seasons as the Knights QB1.
Gabriel’s best season at UCF came in 2020 when the quarterback threw for 3,570 yards, 32 touchdowns and four interceptions while completing 60% of his passes in 10 contests.
Browns general manager Andrew Berry admitted that the team did not expect to take Sanders after selecting Gabriel on the previous day.
“And then (with) Shedeur, we talk oftentimes about quarterback being the most important position in the sport,” Berry told reporters on Saturday. “We obviously spent a lot of time with Shedeur throughout the process. He’s highly accurate, can play well from the pocket, very productive college career.
“And we felt like it wasn’t necessarily the plan going into the weekend to select two quarterbacks. But as we talk about, we do believe in (taking) best player available. We do believe in positional value. And we didn’t necessarily expect him to be available in the fifth round.”
