Browns’ Dillon Gabriel is Over Shedeur Sanders in ‘Clear Order’

Reports came out over the weekend that Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders is dealing with some shoulder soreness, keeping him out of practice on Saturday. Sanders didn’t participate in any team drills, a concerning sign for a player who’s trying to win a job. However, if Sanders is hurt, there’s no reason to push that further in training camp. 

But there are still questions about what opportunity Sanders will get to compete at the highest level. According to Zac Jackson of The Athletic, that likely won’t be in the role of having a chance to win the starting job. 

He noted that there’s a clear order right now, and that Dillon Gabriel is the rookie with the better chance to be the QB1. 

“With the two rookie quarterbacks, there’s a clear order: Gabriel, the third-round pick, goes ahead of Sanders and gets more total reps, too. But to say Gabriel has had an up-and-down camp would be to at least slightly ignore that he’s been wildly down (and wildly inaccurate) in recent days. 

“And though camp stats and camp completions don’t tell anything close to the whole story, Gabriel has done nothing to make anyone observing believe he’s ready to be trusted as a No. 2 quarterback,” he wrote.

Draft Pick Hierarchy

It remains uncertain why the Cleveland Browns are giving Gabriel that opportunity when Sanders has played better in training camp, according to reporters at practice. 

However, after spending a third-round pick on him and a fifth-round pick on Sanders, that could be their reasoning. According to Jackson, however, Sanders has been the better quarterback in practice for the Browns, and even noted that he’s made the best throws in multiple days of practice. 

“Sanders has shown impressive accuracy, and though he hasn’t been razor-sharp every day, he’s had the best throw of the day on multiple practice days. The Browns have no plans to rush Sanders into anything and want him to continue developing in their offense. If Sanders can handle pressure and off-schedule plays over the next two weeks in preseason and joint practice settings, he could position himself to play late in the season,” he added.

Sanders’ Shoulder Injury Outlook

The injury certainly raises some questions for the Cleveland Browns, but some believe that it could be worse than initially reported. 

For now, it’s just shoulder soreness, but those things could be tricky if Sanders doesn’t treat it properly. 

Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com thinks that because it was self-reported, this could be a bad sign of how Sanders feels. She didn’t say that anything is on the table just yet, but the fact that he reported it could be telling, considering he’s in such a tight quarterback battle. 

“The fact that he self-reported the soreness is significant,” Cabot wrote. “Because he’s still involved in the four-way competition for the starting job, and wouldn’t miss a snap unless he absolutely had to.”

Sanders has to look out for himself at the end of the day, so he has to consider everything. However, if he wants that starting job in Week 1, he at least needs to be healthy.

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