BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns’ selection of quarterback Dillon Gabriel in the third round of the NFL draft was a widespread surprise for a player pegged as a Day 3 pick — but quickly overshadowed by the team drafting Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round and ending his shocking fall.
Sanders has grabbed headlines in and outside Cleveland since the pick but Gabriel is embracing Sanders’ addition to a crowded quarterback room.
“I love it,” Gabriel said Saturday before the Browns’ second rookie minicamp practice. “I love it because of who it is. I think just for us both, you can learn from one another, but also it’s not just us two in the room. At least for right now it is. But going into the year, Kenny [Pickett], Joe [Flacco], and even Deshaun [Watson], just a bunch of guys who played a bunch of ball that we can all learn from one another.”
On the first day of rookie minicamp, Sanders and Gabriel split practice reps with Gabriel taking the first handful of snaps in team drills but coach Kevin Stefanski downplayed the practice order. Stefanski, though, did say that the rookies’ work in minicamp is both competition and instructional and that the quarterback competition in the coming months would be an “all-encompassing evaluation.”
Both Sanders and Gabriel are transitioning to the pros after lengthy and successful college careers. Sanders was a four-year player at FCS Jackson State before joining his father, Deion Sanders, to Colorado. Gabriel was a six-year player who made 63 starts during stints at Oregon, Oklahoma and UCF.
Despite a quarterback room with plenty of contenders for the starting job, Gabriel said he wants to approach every practice as if he’ll be the starter.
“I only know one way to prepare,” Gabriel said. “I only know one way to work and that is as the starter. I’ve played a bunch of ball and have a lot of experience, so I’m going to use that to my advantage. … I think every day I approach is like I’m going to go get that rep and I live it like that.”
Sanders said his focus isn’t on proving anyone wrong after a stunning fall in the draft.
“It’s just me versus me,” Sanders said. “I can’t control any other decision besides that. So, I just try to be my best self at all times. … My job here isn’t to prove people wrong. I’m proving myself right.”