We all expected Dillon Gabriel to be the starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns at some point during the 2025 season. However, none of us truly expected the switch to happen this soon.
It’s expected that Kevin Stefanski will name Dillon Gabriel the starter on Wednesday for Sunday’s matchup against the Minnesota Vikings in London, England. That will make it 41 starting quarterbacks for the franchise since its return in 1999, the most for any team in the NFL during that span.
Gabriel is taking the reins from Joe Flacco has to be done for several reasons. Despite it possibly being too early to throw the third-round pick, it’s clear there may be no perfect time for that to happen during the 2025 season.
Sure, it could be said that despite a change at quarterback, the offense still has many issues, and yes that is indeed a fact. A potential change could make things change for the better for an offense that has grown stagnant over the last 20 games.
The Browns averaged 15.2 points per game in 2024 and so far through four games in 2025, the team is averaging 14 points per game. The Browns averaged 206.2 passing yards per game in 2024 and in 2025, they’re averaging 195 passing yards per game. The biggest stat that still looms over the offense is that they’re still averaging 2 giveaways per game, which they also did in 2024. Joe Flacco leads the NFL in turnovers with six interceptions thrown and two fumbles lost.
There have been a lot of contributing factors to the offensive woes outside of the quarterback play, such as the offensive line performances and the fact that there have been four different starting lineups in four games, and there will soon be another combination with the additions of Thayer Munford and Cam Robinson over the last week as an attempt to fix the offensive line.
The receivers haven’t been helpful either, whether it’s not getting open or dropping passes in key moments in games. Jerry Jeudy and David Njoku haven’t looked themselves in the early portion of the season. Cedric Tillman, before his current injury, hadn’t really shown to be of taking a step forward, and the rest of the skill position players are rookies trying to find their footing in the NFL despite some flashes early on.
So while I’m listing reasons why the blame shouldn’t all go on Joe Flacco while still saying it’s time for Gabriel to take the starting job, it doesn’t look like I’m making a strong case. The biggest case I can make for why they should make the switch is that it’s time to see if something else can be better than what’s currently out there.
Flacco is 40 years old and on his last leg of his NFL career. If the team is truly in a multi-year re-tooling (I won’t call it a rebuild because there are still foundational pieces on the roster) project, then letting the young guys play, especially at the quarterback position, over the final 13 games is what the team needs to do.
Seeing Dillon Gabriel and/or Shedeur Sanders and getting an evaluation over their entire body of work was one of the things people wanted to see out of the Cleveland Browns in 2025, including owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, who made that publicly clear in their media session during training camp.
It may not look any better than what has been out there during the first month of the season, but at this point and time, if we’re going to see a quarterback out there making mistakes, it’s time we see it out of a rookie quarterback to see how they can bounce back off those mistakes and seeing if they can grow and improve out of those mistakes. Joe Flacco’s run is over, and it’s time for Dillon Gabriel’s run to begin.