Is starting Dillon Gabriel a sign of surrender for the Cleveland Browns?

Joe Flacco is not the long-term answer at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, but that is no secret. If you’re Andrew Berry or Kevin Stefanski, what do you value more: projecting team success or seeing what you have at quarterback in your two rookies, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders?

If you were to assess this situation as an outsider looking in, you would think that the answer is obvious. Start one of the rookie quarterbacks, whether it is Dillon Gabriel or Shedeur Sanders, but with the defense that the Browns have, the answer starts to get murky.

📞"Once you go to Gabriel, that's the point of no return, you've raised the white flag. How do you tell that to the defense, that is right now the best defense in the NFL."@RuiterWrongFAN on if the #Browns should make a change at QB👀 pic.twitter.com/WxLfpqBVtq
— 92.3 The Fan (@923TheFan) September 22, 2025

On 92.3 The Fan this morning, Browns reporter Daryl Ruiter expressed his views on the situation.

“It’s too early in the season to running up the white flag, once you go to Dillon Gabriel, that’s the point of no return,” Ruiter said. "Given where Gabriel was selected in the draft (third round), that is the feeling once he is the starting quarterback."

Quarterbacks who are drafted in the third round or later do not have the best track record of being successful, let alone staying in the league.

In fact, over the past five seasons, only one quarterback drafted in the third round or later is currently starting in the league. That quarterback would be Spencer Rattler, whom the Saints drafted in the fifth round of the 2024 draft. Even if you go back 10 seasons, there is only one more quarterback who is starting today that fits that criteria, and that is Dak Prescott, who the Cowboys selected in the fourth round in 2016.

In the past five years, 34 quarterbacks have been drafted in the third round or later. Nineteen of which are out of the NFL, nine are backups, five are on practice squads, and the lone starter is Rattler. It’s safe to say that the hit rate on these types of quarterbacks is not the highest.

That being said, you never know what you have in a quarterback until you see it.

“How do you tell that to the defense, that is right now the best defense in the National Football League?” Ruiter asked about changing QBs.

The answer seems to be that it is going to be a week-by-week process if the Browns were to lose that game on Sunday, we could have seen Gabriel as early as week four or five.

But the Browns thrillingly won that game on the back of that great defense, special teams, and a seamless operation by Joe Flacco in the waning seconds of the game. Frustrations come out after losses, and if the Browns keep winning games, those frustrations will most likely be kept at bay.