General consensus during the draft was the Browns reached on Dillon Gabriel because of his lack of plus physical traits. However, there was some hope he could survive in the NFL because of his accuracy, processing, and poise to make plays under pressure. The Browns agreed with this assessment to the point where they said he has “computer-like processing” before the draft and during offseason workouts. While that might have been the case on his college tape and during camp, it hasn’t shown up much during his first five professional starts.
It wasn’t just the Browns who thought Gabriel’s poise and ability to process a defense could make him good enough for the NFL. Dane Brugler of The Athletic listed the following bullets in Gabriel’s strengths in his pre-draft big board, giving the rookie a fourth-round grade: “Shows outstanding feel to patiently sort through rush, elude pressure and buy time,” Brugler said. “Keeps eyes downfield and doesn’t panic when locating secondary progressions.”
After watching the offensive all-22 film, it was clear there were numerous answers for chunk plays that were not hit. Not all were on Gabriel, as sometimes the offensive line allowed pressure before the play had a chance. There were even a few cases where the right read was made, but either the throw was inaccurate or it was dropped – which pretty much sums up the Browns’ offense in 2025.
Gabriel doesn’t seem like he’s confident in what he’s seeing, and his internal clock is sped up way too much. He had a few out-breaking routes that he appeared to be looking at, but didn’t throw. Other times, he bailed to the checkdown too quickly in a clean pocket instead of trying to get to the backside digs, or he didn’t get to the backside in-breaker altogether.
The most notable example was the fourth-and-one near the end of the game when it was a one-possession game. Gabriel had a sail route from David Njoku and an out from Jerry Jeudy, who was lined up in the backfield. The offensive line slid right, making Gabriel responsible for the blitzing corner.
He could have thrown to either Jeudy or Njoku with a bit of anticipation at the top of his drop, but didn’t and instead took a sack to turn the ball over on downs. Cedric Tillman was open on a sit route as well, but it’s understandable not to get to that when he had to account for the free rusher on the opposite side.
Perhaps his physical shortcomings play into his timidness on out breakers, and he seems to have little trust in the protection, but regardless, Gabriel isn’t appearing to process defenses at the level expected coming into the year. If he wants to stick around this team in any capacity, he’s going to have to do better at seeing things unfold downfield and getting to the open answers when they’re open in structure.
Looking at the offensive numbers put up against the Browns by the Jets in Week 10, there is no conceivable reason that Cleveland should have come away with a loss. New York had a measly 54 yards passing, just 127 yards on the ground, had quarterback Justin Fields sacked three times for a loss of 12 yards, and committed the game’s lone turnover.
The Browns offense was not great by any measure, but it was certainly better than what the Jets put forth. The difference, however, was on special teams, where the Browns gave up a 99-yard kickoff return to Kene Nwangwu for a touchdown, and followed that up by yielding a 74-yard punt return to Isaiah Williams.
The two plays were separated by just a little more than 30 seconds, and put the Browns in a catch-up mode that the offense is just not prepared to handle. There were other reasons the game was lost, but special teams was a firm No. 1 on the list.
In the wake of that disaster, there were the natural knee-jerk reactions that called for the firing of special teams coach Bubba Ventrone. On the whole, the Browns’ special teams have not been bad this season, but a missed field goal in Week 1 did cost a win against the Bengals–though the special teams deserves ample credit for the impressive Week 3 win over the Packers.
Still, coach Kevin Stefanski was asked about the job security of Ventrone last week, and Stefanski essentially shrugged off any notion of firing him. “I have a ton of faith in Bubba, I have a ton of faith in our special teams,” Stefanski said.
On Thursday, Ventrone–who played for eight NFL seasons and coached 11 more–met with the media and was asked about the vote of confidence from the head coach.
“That’s good to hear,” Ventrone said. “I respect Kev a lot, and I’ll say this – I’ve been in the NFL a long time. I’ve played, I’ve coached for a long time. You know, there’s times when stuff does not go your way, and the game comes down to playing with great fundamentals and techniques. So, if you’re not doing those things, you’re going to get beat.
“Unfortunately, we’re learning the hard way right now.”
The Browns are a young team, and that’s been an overriding factor for the group–special teams has been manned by more rookies than most teams would like. Ventrone cited that as a reason for the struggles.
“It’s definitely contributed to it,” Ventrone said. “It’s not the only underlying factor. But like I said, we, just as a unit, as a collective group, we have to do a better job of playing our technique, and playing into the scheme, and just trusting that just do your job and that the guy next to you is going to do his job.
“That’s the best way to do it. The best way to play coverage is play complementary to one another, leverage, tackling. We just haven’t done a good enough job of that.”