There is plenty of excitement surrounding the Cleveland Browns’ rookie class heading into the 2025 season, as the team added a handful of high-upside and potentially explosive players on both sides of the ball who hopefully will be pillars for the franchise for years to come.
The higher picks, such as No. 5 overall choice Mason Graham and second-round selections Carson Schwesinger and Quinshon Judkins, have clear paths to starting roles and should all make an immediate impact, but one insider believes there is another rookie who will have a “longer leash” as the team works through OTAs and training camp.
Dan Labbe of “The Orange And Brown Talk” said third-round quarterback Dillon Gabriel has more leeway than fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders, though both are behind Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco on the depth chart at the moment.
“So where they draft these guys matters, and there’s a reason they drafted them, and they do care about that to an extent,” Labbe said, via Cleveland.com. “Dillon Gabriel was a third-round pick. And so while we’re sitting here saying he hasn’t looked the best of these two quarterbacks, and especially today, he’s also just got a longer leash and he’s just got more room … to maybe not be the guy they’ve envisioned yet because he was a third-round pick, and that matters.”
No one expects a third-round quarterback to look like a star right away, and Gabriel being picked that high was a surprise to most, as it was assumed his lack of size would push him to the third day of the draft.
There have been mixed reports about which rookie quarterback has looked better in OTAs, and at this point, it doesn’t matter a lot because nobody is wearing pads.
All that matters is that Gabriel is getting comfortable and learning the offense, because it’s highly unlikely he or Sanders will be starting early in the season when the Browns have a likely difficult schedule to deal with before their Week 9 bye.
