The Cleveland Browns have exactly one week remaining until they must make a final decision on quarterback Dillon Gabriel, and things aren’t looking up for the 2025 third-round pick’s future in Northeast Ohio.
Gabriel started the year on the injured reserve list (IR), where the team sent him shortly after the second-year signal-caller put up a monster preseason performance against the New England Patriots on August 27.
Some fans and members of the media wondered if sending the QB to IR with his so-called back injury was a way to keep him with the team, along with Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders and sixth-round rookie Taylen Green, and to let the season play out a bit before the team made a final decision on which three players to keep through the end of 2026.
The Browns opened Gabriel’s 21-day practice window on October 6, which means the team must make a call on his future by Tuesday of next week. If Gabriel is healthy, the Browns can’t send him back to IR in what would be a season-ending move.
That leaves the options of trading Gabriel, granting him his release or adding him to the 53-man roster. Of those three options, a trade is the likeliest for several reasons.
Browns Should Not Release or Roster Dillon Gabriel Next Week
Releasing Gabriel doesn’t make a ton of sense for the Browns, given he is only 25 years old and playing in just his second NFL season on an affordable rookie contract (four years, $6.2 million).
In other words, Gabriel retains real trade value, even after a rookie campaign that saw him earn a record of 1-5 as a starter across 10 games played with a completion rate of 59.5 percent for 937 yards passing, seven TDs and two INTs.
As such, it would make sense for the Browns to keep Gabriel, but perhaps not more sense than keeping the other three QBs over him. The team can’t move on from Watson, even though tales of his return to his pre-trade form fall somewhere between exaggerated and entirely fabricated.
Cleveland is 4-2 on the season, and Watson has made a big play in a big moment here and there, but the Browns offense is producing less than 18 points per game through Week 6.
Still, things are currently working with Watson under center. There was a good chance that wouldn’t happen, and if the Browns had benched Watson by now, Gabriel’s immediate and longterm futures in Cleveland would look far rosier.
Meanwhile, Sanders is a fan favorite who replaced Gabriel as the starter down the stretch of last season and had more success — at least in the win/loss column. And he still has yet to get a shot this season.
Then there’s Green, a hyper-athletic dual-threat quarterback the team took a flier on late in April’s draft. He’s the type player a franchise holds onto and extends a couple of chances to over a two- or three-year period, not one they dump halfway into his rookie season without ever putting him on the field.
Falcons Sensible Trade Partner for Browns QB Dillon Gabriel
For all those reasons, and because it’s not economical from a personnel standpoint to carry four quarterbacks through an entire season, Gabriel doesn’t make a ton of sense as a member of the 53-man roster.
But he’s also too good for Cleveland to just release for nothing, especially after spending a third-rounder on him only one year ago. Hence, a trade sooner than later.
There are a handful of teams that could already use a solid backup, with the Atlanta Falcons and Gabriel’s former head coach Kevin Stefanski making the most sense. Stefanski has his starter in Michael Penix Jr., and while the Falcons are 2-2 since Penix came back, they could easily be 3-1 or even undefeated over that stretch.
But Tua Tagovailoa as QB2 is a scary proposition given how he played in the preseason and late against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 5 after Penix left with a rib injury. Tagovailoa arguably cost Atlanta that game, and he has looked washed every time he’s been on the field in any context in 2026.
The Philadelphia Eagles could also be in the market for a QB trade after sending starter Jalen Hurts to season-ending IR with blood clot issues.
Cleveland probably can’t expect more than a fifth- or sixth-round pick in return for Gabriel, but that’s better than cutting him loose for nothing.
Browns’ Dillon Gabriel Gets Bad News, as Final Call on QB Approaches Next Week