2025 NFL Draft QB Dillon Gabriel Talks Raiders, Chip Kelly

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Las Vegas Raiders have a clear and glaring need as they enter the 2025 offseason. Could Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel be the one to fill it?

Gabriel enters the draft as the most experienced quarterback in a class that features big names like Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward. For a Raiders team that is looking to turn things around quickly under head coach Pete Carroll, Gabriel could be a logical fit.

Speaking to reporters at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium, Gabriel confirmed he has met with the Raiders brass this week.

"We had a great conversation. It's been really good. I think initially you meet everyone and you have these conversations, but there has to be great alignment and I know that and just searching for the right fit," Gabriel said.

If Gabriel is drafted by the Raiders, it would be the second time he has his paths cross with Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. The first was when Gabriel nearly played for UCLA after his transfer from UCF. While he did not end up taking a snap for the Bruins, he was very close to being Kelly's starting quarterback.

Gabriel said he reunion with Kelly at the combine was a positive one, which could be a sign that he could the quarterback Kelly wants to develop in his first year as the Raiders' offensive coordinator.

"A lot of big smiles, a guy you have met before. But any familiar faces in this game, you just appreciate the crossover and being able to catch up."

One of the biggest pieces of Carroll's Raiders tenure will be who he tabs as his next quarterback. We will see if that quarterback is Gabriel.

"The quarterback position is going to be highly contested, and if you look back at when we started at Seattle, and how we built the competition to find the proper guy that would take over in that job, that was a very intricate, elaborate process," Carroll said this week.

"And then you saw Russ [Russell Wilson] won the competition was because it was a wide open competition that was very well designed and organized, and it worked out fine. So, however this goes, our guys are all going to take a shot at it, and we've got guys on the roster right now that are fighting their tails off to see if they can own that position. We're going to give them a chance."

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