The Cleveland Browns needed to find a quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Notably, they found two.
The Browns waited until the third round to take a signal-caller, and then, once Shedeur Sanders kept slipping, Andrew Berry reportedly became very aggressive in an attempt to trade up to get him.
That pick in the fifth round was great value, but it only made taking Dillon Gabriel a little hard to explain.
The Gabriel pick was controversial at the time, and the fact that they took another quarterback just two rounds later made it even less popular.
With that in mind, insider Ashley Bastock believes that taking Gabriel that high was an absolute ‘head scratcher’ (via 92.3 The Fan):
“The biggest head-scratcher pick for me was taking Dillon Gabriel at [no.] 94,” Bastock said. “Just because I don’t know that anyone else was going to take him there that high. Maybe they had some intel [that] he may have been gone early on Day 3. It’s a move that I think makes less sense when you consider they come back the next day and take Shedeur Sanders, too.”
Many projections stated that Gabriel would be a fourth or fifth-round selection.
He is also projected to be a backup at the next level.
The Browns, however, met with him multiple times, and while those meetings stayed mostly under wraps, reports later showed that he was much higher than other signal-callers on their draft board.
Kevin Stefanski and the front office were reportedly quite high on the Oregon product, who comes with concerns about his size, age, and the fact that he’s left-handed.
Not many people expected the Browns to leave the draft with two quarterbacks, but if that’s what it takes to find the new face of the franchise, so be it.
NEXT: Analyst Is Convinced Which QB Will Be Browns' Week 1 Starter
