The Cleveland Browns (1-3 straight up, 2-2 against the spread) are making a quarterback change, benching veteran Joe Flacco in favor of rookie Dillon Gabriel.
Gabriel will make his first career NFL start Sunday vs. Minnesota in London. The southpaw signal caller was Cleveland’s third-round pick with the #94 overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Flacco will be the backup against the Vikings, while rookie Shedeur Sanders will remain the third-string QB.
In four starts this season, the 40-year-old Flacco completed 93-of-160 passes (58.1%) for 815 yards with an abysmal 2/6 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Since throwing for 290 yards in a 17-16 season-0pening home loss vs. Cincinnati, Flacco has failed to throw for more than 199 yards in each of the last three contests.
In a 41-17 loss at Baltimore in Week 2, Gabriel connected on all three of his pass attempts for 19 yards and one TD at garbage time. He came in for one drive in last week’s 34-10 loss at Detroit, throwing an incomplete pass in his lone attempt.
Gabriel played six seasons of college football. He was at Central Florida for his first three years and then spent two seasons at Oklahoma before playing at Oregon in 2024.
In his lone year with the Ducks, Gabriel led them to a 13-1 record and a 45-37 win over Penn St. at the Big Ten Championship Game. They lost to Ohio St. in the College Football Playoff.
Gabriel completed 326-of-447 throws (72.9%) for 3,857 yards with a 30/6 TD-INT ratio. He also had seven rushing TDs and finished third in voting for the Heisman Trophy.
In 64 career games in college, Gabriel completed 65.2 percent of his passes for 18,722 yards with a remarkable 155/32 TD-INT ratio. His 155 career TD passes are tied with Houston’s Case Keenum for the most in college football history.
Gabriel also had 1,209 career rushing yards and 33 TDs.
As of Wednesday morning, most books had the Vikings installed as 3.5-point favorites with a total of 35.5 or 36. The Browns were +165 on the money line.