Browns coach Kevin Stefanski talks rookie quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders
BEREA — The first snap of the first team period of the 2025 Cleveland Browns draft class' first practice in the NFL went to the first quarterback drafted by the team two weeks earlier. That would be third-round pick Dillon Gabriel.
After about a half-dozen snaps, though, the quarterback so many people showed up to Friday's first day of rookie minicamp to watch was able to get under center. Shedeur Sanders, the center of attention despite his fifth-round selection, threw a completion on a bootleg to the left with a defender in his face.
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None of it, however, was to be taken as a harbinger for things to come in the Browns' quarterback derby. Forget the four-person competition awaiting when the full roster is together, it wasn't even one for the rest of the weekend.
"Yeah, I wouldn't look into anything," Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said after the 80-minute practice ended Friday. "I think you'll see the whole weekend, going through the spring, we don't pay too close attention to who's in there first."
One could view the Browns' quarterback competition through a two-pronged approach. There's a prong that involves established quarterbacks Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett, two players who were acquired by the team over the last two months and who have been active in Cleveland's voluntary offseason program over the last three weeks.
Those two opened the second phase of the Browns' program this week, which included some on-field work.
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"I think the guys are working really hard," Stefanski said. "It's been a really fun group to work with in the meeting room, out on the practice field. I think they push each other just by naturally being guys that work so hard and put so much effort into it in the meeting room, out here on the practice field. So, it's a really good group."
The other prong started Friday and involved the two quarterbacks who the Browns selected in the draft: Sanders and Gabriel. Or Gabriel and Sanders if one wants to list them by their draft order.
Either way, it's irrelevant on May 9, the first time both stepped onto an NFL practice field.
"I think for all coaches, as you can imagine, you put plans together to practice and get the guys ready for a season, but we don't have to put a depth chart out for such a long time," Stefanski said. "So, it's not something that we're really focused on. How guys come off the field in terms of who gets the first shot at it, I mean, you may get the first rep of practice with the ones, but then the next period you may get the second group. So, we vary it throughout. We're not as, we're focused more on the totality of this competition, if you will, at every position, not just the quarterbacks."
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Neither quarterback spoke to the media on Friday, with the expectation being that both will talk Saturday. Both, however, managed to get plenty of opportunities on the field due to the way Stefanski and the rest of the offensive staff structured the practice.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) watches as quarterback Dillon Gabriel (5) throws during NFL rookie minicamp at the Cleveland Browns training facility on Friday, May 9, 2025, in Berea, Ohio.
A year ago, the Browns only had one quarterback in for rookie minicamp, and it was a player they had signed almost exclusively to be a rookie minicamp arm. This year, they don't just have two quarterbacks in, they have two quarterbacks in who could very easily end up as their starting quarterback this season.
That made setting up a practice format to benefit both critical.
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"Yeah, so today we did a couple seven-on-sevens, longer seven-on-sevens than we typically have done. And the idea there is just to maximize reps for those guys, what we're trying to do. And that was part of the idea of bringing in some tryout players this weekend. Now those tryout players are trying to make the football team. They're not just here for practice. I was around a tryout player a few years ago named Adam Thielen, so we're giving these guys every chance they can to put their best foot forward."
Both quarterbacks had their moments over their first practice. Both showed off the accuracy that had been the hallmark of their college careers.
It was also hard to declare anyone the day's "winner," because it was just a controlled environment with players in helmets, T-shirts and shorts. Stefanski, however, said there was a method to the madness in the evaluation.
"Well, I think the fun part is we've spent so much predraft time with these players, particularly when we're talking about our quarterbacks with Dillon and Shedeur," Stefanski said. "We've spent meeting time with them out of this building. We've taken them through walkthroughs and then they get to go do it in uniform with the helmets on and just see what they can take from the meeting room to the grass. And I thought both guys did a nice job."
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Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders take field for 1st time as Browns QBs
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