Why sticking with Dillon Gabriel after the Jets loss is the smart move: Mary Kay Cabot

The Decision to Stick with Dillon Gabriel

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Kevin Stefanski didn’t hesitate when asked if he’ll stick with rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel after Sunday’s 27-20 loss to the Jets and with the Ravens coming to town next Sunday.

“Yeah, we’re going to stick with Dillon,” Stefanski said. “Obviously, this is a young player that you’re always trying to get one game better and those type of things, but we have to play better as an offense, we have to coach better, all the above.”

The decision to play Gabriel for now is the right one, especially because he’s coming off of his first game with Tommy Rees calling plays, and there’s something to build on.

Rees moved Gabriel out of the pocket more Sunday, remained committed to the run even when it was tough, tried some new and creative formations, and used Malachi Corley more on jet sweeps. Rees took a few more shots downfield, got Jerry Jeudy (6 of 12, 78 yards, 1 TD) involved in the offense early on, and played a more up-tempo brand of ball.

It didn’t result in a victory, largely because special teams sprung a leak with two returns for touchdowns in the span of 36 seconds in the first quarter — a 99-yard kickoff return and a 74 punt return.

But Gabriel looked more comfortable in the Rees-called game, and it should get better now that they’ve worked together for a week.

Granted, Gabriel (17 of 32, 167 yards, 6 sacks, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, 88.9 rating, 5 runs for 54 yards) was sacked six times and that derailed the offense as much as anything.

But if they can shore up the protection problems, emphasize a quicker release and install a few more safety valves, they can probably keep him upright and sustain drives better going forward.

Another reason not to pull the plug on Gabriel yet is because eight starts is too much for Sanders, their fifth-round pick, when their third-round pick has only gotten five (1-4).

If Sanders isn’t any better, or if he’s worse, eight games is a long stretch to endure ineffective QB play. In that scenario, if the Browns had to make another change, they’d have to either start practice-squader Bailey Zappe or possibly even Deshaun Watson if he passes his medical exams and is ready to play.

If the Browns thought Sanders would play better than Gabriel right now on this still struggling offense, they’d surely give him his shot. But they obviously believe that Gabriel deserves a longer look, especially with Rees in charge.

One good thing on Sunday was that he didn’t throw any interceptions, although he did have one dropped.

But Gabriel knows that winning is the name of the game, and that he’ll likely get the hook sooner or later if he’s not getting the job done.

“When things aren’t going well, there’s always going to be change,” Gabriel said. “That’s part of it because if you keep doing the same thing and don’t change anything, that’s insanity. But just I feel like at times there’s things that went well and we sustained and executed, and then in certain moments we didn’t execute and that starts with me.

“But it’s always frustrating when it’s not going the way you want it to and you put in the work and time, but in crucial moments you’ve got to have it and execute. And we didn’t.”

With the 2-7 Browns hitting the reset button on the offense and turning play calling over to Rees coming out of the bye, they owe it to themselves to see if Gabriel improves exponentially over the next few weeks.

“That’s the hard part with change too, right?” said Gabriel. “You’re trying to create continuity and then see it long enough to reap benefits. You don’t want to plant a seed and then rip it up before it can even grow. For us it’s just building. We’ve got to, but at the end of the day we’ve got to find a way to win and that’s what we’re building towards.”

The young offense made a bunch of mistakes, with missed blocking assignments that led to some of the six sacks; a handful of drops, including at least one by Jeudy; an unacceptable sack on fourth and 1 with 10:15 in the fourth quarter and the Browns trailing only 24-17; and a too-high pass to Corley on a possible trick play.

But there were enough promising moments, including on the 95-yard touchdown drive on Gabriel’s second possession that ended with the 9-yard TD pass to David Njoku off play-action to warrant a longer look.

Gabriel also aggressively took a deep shot to Jeudy in the end zone after Ronnie Hickman’s interception for a 22-yard TD pass that tied the game at 14 with 10:34 left in the half.

“I think it just had great flow and I think at times we got it going and there’s a lot of things that execution-wise we can help ourselves, but it felt good going into it,” Gabriel said. “And we’ll stand by that for sure.”

Jeudy, like many of his teammates, is still on Team Dillon all the way.

“Dillon’s constantly growing each game,” Jeudy said. “I feel like he’s just getting better and better and all a quarterback needs is opportunities and consistency, so him being out there and just getting more reps is going to give him more confidence.”

Left guard Joel Bitonio echoed that sentiment.

“We’ve just got keep giving him a chance to grow,” Bitonio said. “It’s the NFL. It take a long time to develop an NFL quarterback. You see some of these quarterbacks in the NFL, some of the all-time greats, and I’m not comparing anybody, but you look at some of their interceptions, their sacks, their things like that. It takes a long time to see how tough defenses play in this league, and I’m going to continue to fight for whoever’s back there. The whole offensive team has to be better for him to make sure that he has his opportunities.”

Right guard Wyatt Teller reminded everyone that Gabriel threw two TD passes and might’ve snapped the 12-game road losing streak had the special teams not collapsed. Gabriel put 20 points on the board, and the Browns defense held New York to a 169 yards and Justin Fields to only 6-of-11 for 54 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT for a 60.4 rating. But the two returns for TDs were killers.

“Sucks, but I don’t want fans, I don’t want our players or Dillon to get upset at himself because he thinks he messed up when it’s like, we had an efficient offense,” Teller said. “We’re talking about right there on the verge. We had a good plan. We ran the ball effectively. It was nice to see us having success throughout the game. Not just the first 15 working and then be stalled, but actually have success throughout the whole game. Defense played tough. We just can’t put them in situations like that.”

Teller came away buoyed by the flashes of efficiency he saw in the Rees-called gameplan.

“We have really good rookies,” he said. “We have really good players that can make plays. We have to be dangerous downfield to be able to run the ball effectively. And we had a little bit of that with the movement and keeper and pin-pull game and stuff like that where we were able to get outside but also give Dillon a chance to be good at what he’s good at and that, I mean, hit a couple throws whether they’re caught or not, that were just like, this is very, very impressive. Obviously a couple of balls that weren’t.”

Corley, the 2024 third-round pick of the Jets, believes the future is bright with Gabriel.

“Dillon Gabriel’s a great player, a great leader most importantly,” Corley said. “He’s a guy’s guy. He understands what it takes to compete and be great at this level and he does a great job executing for us, and he keeps us together as a unit. We’re going to continue to lean on him. He’s our guy.”

At some point this season, it will probably be time to see what Sanders can do. But for now, it’s best to see more of Gabriel in this Rees-led offense.