The Cleveland Browns hit it out of the park with their first moves in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Then, many fans and analysts had a tough time understanding their reasoning for some late-round picks.
They took Dillon Gabriel in the third round, even though he was projected to be available in the fourth or fifth.
Needless to say, NFL teams have different intel, so perhaps they knew that he wasn’t going to be up for grabs later, but even so, it seemed like a bit of a reach.
Now that it’s been more than a week since the Browns took Gabriel, ESPN analyst Ben Solak revealed that he’s worried about that selection because he just doesn’t see a world in which Gabriel can make a meaningful impact on the team:
“It’s tough for me to find a rosy future for Gabriel, who lacks the size necessary to make all the throws on an NFL field. He also doesn’t have the compensatory arm talent and movement skills that shorter quarterbacks like Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson have. I struggle to find a world where Gabriel really makes waves in that Browns QB room, even if Sanders wasn’t there,” Solak wrote.
On paper, it’s hard to disagree with that statement.
Gabriel put up huge numbers and was a perennial starter in college, but if there had been anything about his game or his physical traits that would’ve made scouts think he was an NFL-caliber quarterback, he would’ve been gone much sooner.
Of course, he’s a hard-working player who has played in different systems and has seen all types of coverages, and it’s not his fault that he’s undersized.
Nevertheless, being a starter on an NFL team is one of the toughest and most exclusive jobs on Earth.
There are just 32 openings, and it’s hard to believe that Gabriel is one of the 32 best quarterbacks in the world or even in the league, for what it’s worth.
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