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Dillon Gabriel made the Cleveland Browns 53-man roster, but that may change in the coming months. A third-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Oregon product had the opportunity to prove himself during his rookie campaign. Taking over for an ineffectual Joe Flacco, Gabriel appeared in 10 games as a rookie while making six starts. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make the most of his opportunity, completing just 59.5% of his passes for 937 yards, seven touchdowns, and two interceptions before eventually ceding the job to fellow rookie Shedeur Sanders. After spending the offseason in a three-way battle in arguably the league’s least inspiring quarterback competition, Dillon Gabriel is now on the injured reserve. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t see him in 2026. Seeing as the team waited until after the 53-man roster cuts to place him on the injured reserve, this means the quarterback can return to the field after four games. Quite frankly, Cleveland wouldn’t have done this if they didn’t plan on playing him – or trading him – at some point in the season. According to Fox Sports Eric Williams, the reason the Browns handled the Dillon Gabriel situation like this is that they hope to trade him at some point in the season. While nobody thinks they could get a massive return for his services, Williams believes Cleveland hopes they can eventually secure a late-round pick for the quarterback, much like what happened with Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco last year. Dillon Gabriel Could Be On the Trade Block Perhaps the Browns consider a Dillon Gabriel trade at some point in time, but it’s hard to believe that’s the only reason they kept him on the roster. Cleveland has arguably the worst quarterback situation in the NFL (stop me if you’ve heard that one before), and they probably held on to Gabriel simply because there’s a good chance this team goes through a lot of quarterbacks in 2026. Deshaun Watson hasn’t looked like an NFL-caliber quarterback since 2020. Shedeur Sanders had a disastrous rookie season and couldn’t even beat out Watson, and rookie Taylen Green is a sixth-round pick with low expectations. There probably isn’t a franchise quarterback on this roster, but Sanders, Gabriel, and Green are all young enough to provide some long-term hope for the organization. Dillon Gabriel didn’t appear to have the physical gifts to be a starting quarterback as a rookie, but he mostly kept the ball out of harm’s way. If he can add some arm strength (unlikely), then he might develop into something. Considering where Cleveland is as a franchise, that outside possibility justifies a roster spot.