The Cleveland Browns were always expected to take a quarterback at some point in the 2025 NFL Draft.
However, not many people had them taking two.
More than that, not many analysts would’ve guessed they were going to take Dillon Gabriel, much less in the third round.
The fans and the media have had a tough time understanding their reasoning, and a report by Noah Weiskopf of CBS Sports recently revealed that some teams around the league were even surprised by it.
Per Weiskopf, some teams even projected Gabriel to go undrafted.
“The #Browns’ 2025 draft class was widely praised, but their third-round pick, Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel, shocked folks around the league. Based on conversation. I’ve had, my understanding is most teams graded Gabriel anywhere from a sixth-rounder to undrafted. Yes, there were clubs who graded Gabriel as undrafted,” Weiskopf wrote on X.
The #Browns’ 2025 draft class was widely praised, but their third-round pick, Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel, shocked folks around the league. Based on conversations I’ve had, my understanding is most teams graded Gabriel anywhere from a sixth-rounder to undrafted. Yes, there were… pic.twitter.com/zUPrR4zOYK
— Noah Weiskopf (@NoahWeiskopf) May 5, 2025
He also reported that the Browns fell in love with Gabriel throughout the course of the pre-draft process, up to the point where they had him only behind Cam Ward.
Of course, every team has its own intel, models, projections, and assessments, so perhaps they knew someone else wanted to take him and they decided they couldn’t afford to take that risk.
Nevertheless, even if that were the case, taking Shedeur Sanders two rounds later when they already had Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco under contract made this an even tougher decision to understand.
At the end of the day, the Browns will have to come up with a plan to give everybody enough reps to develop and prove that they deserve a spot on the roster, and it just seems like everybody’s being set up to fail in this scenario.
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