On Sunday, the Cleveland Browns will hit the road to take on the New England Patriots in search of their second win of the 2025 NFL season. Dillon Gabriel has been starting for the Browns at quarterback the last few weeks since the benching and subsequent trade of Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals, with Shedeur Sanders occupying the backup position for now (although he will miss this game due to injury).
Many have been clamoring for Sanders to get an opportunity to start in Cleveland considering Gabriel's uninspiring start and Sanders' bankability in the headlines, and recently, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam spoke on a side of Sanders that some fans may not get to see.
“Listen, he’s a serious football player, and inside the building, there’s no noise,” Haslam said, via Dianna Russini of The Athletic. “He comes to work every day just like everybody else, and he’s trying to get better as a football player.”
Still, Haslam continues to extend a long leash to Gabriel as his career develops.
“Dillon has played three games, and that's not a great sample (size),” Haslam said. “And one of them was in a monsoon. You could say he played two games. Shedeur's making progress in practice, so we're going continue to work with both of those guys.”
An interesting time for the Browns
It's not often that an NFL team selects two rookie quarterbacks in the same draft class, but that's exactly what the Cleveland Browns opted to do this past April by selecting both Sanders and Gabriel in the 2025 draft.
Sanders performed well in one of his preseason opportunities, but an injury then limited how much he was able to see the field after that, opening the door for Gabriel to get more runway to prove himself and ultimately earn the starting job after it was clear that Flacco was not going to get the Browns where they wanted to go.
In any case, the Browns and Patriots are set to kick off at 1:00 PM ET from Foxborough. Up next for the Browns following that matchup will be a bye week.
