The Cleveland Browns currently find themselves carrying four quarterbacks on the roster, and Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport believes Dillon Gabriel represents the most logical trade candidate to help resolve that logjam.
Davenport laid out why Gabriel could hold real value for a franchise searching for quarterback depth.
“Gabriel appears firmly third on the depth chart in Cleveland. If that’s the case, other teams should kick the tires on acquiring him on the cheap. To be clear, Gabriel is what he is, he doesn’t have elite arm talent. But he’s an intelligent player who didn’t make a ton of mistakes last year, throwing seven touchdowns against just two picks. He profiles better as a long term NFL backup than as a full time starter, and he has the potential to fill that role for a long time,” Davenport wrote.
For Cleveland, moving Gabriel would help address the numbers crunch at the position without giving up much of anything the coaching staff currently views as central to their long-term plans. With Watson and Sanders occupying the top two spots and newly added rookie Taylen Green also in the quarterback room, carrying four passers into the regular season represents an unusual roster move that rarely benefits a team looking to maximize roster flexibility elsewhere. Trading Gabriel, even for modest draft compensation, would allow the Browns to clean up that logjam while still recouping some value for a player who has shown he can competently run an NFL offense in a pinch.
As training camp begins, this situation figures to develop further, particularly if another team suffers a significant injury at quarterback and needs a low-cost, low-mistake option to step into a backup role. Davenport believes the pieces are already in place for a trade to make sense on both sides, and it would not be surprising if Gabriel’s time in Cleveland comes to an end before the regular season begins.
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