There isn’t much NFL tape on Browns QB Dillon Gabriel, but Steelers S Juan Thornhill isn’t worried about a lack of intel. Indeed, he believes they have plenty to work with, coming off the rookie’s first start. It might only be all of 80 snaps, but his experience tells him that’s plenty to go through.
“I mean, you can learn a lot off one game”, Thornhill said when asked about concerns over the lack of tape on Dillon Gabriel. “You could see how they’re trying to use him, things like that. And you could also go back to the preseason. He’s a young quarterback, but he’s had a lot of snaps in his past”.
While Gabriel only has one NFL start under his belt, he also played in the preseason—and a lot during his six-year college career. For example, he threw for nearly 19,000 yards and a record 155 touchdowns. Now, the Browns aren’t going to do with him exactly what he did in college. But it gives an idea of his skill set.
And rest assured, the Steelers did their homework on Gabriel as a prospect, as they were in the quarterback market. While they didn’t go as high as the third round, they did wind up with Will Howard in the sixth. Instead, they drafted RB Kaleb Johnson, 11 picks ahead of their upcoming opponent.
“I’m not gonna really say what we got on him, but you can definitely get a lot off of one regular-season game”, Thornhill reiterated of the work the Steelers have done scouting Dillon Gabriel. He’s also confident the defense can get to him.
“Let’s just talk about the front. They’re gonna get after the quarterback, and you got a rookie back there”, he said of Gabriel. “Those rookie quarterbacks sometimes get a little shaky. That’s what I’m looking most forward to”.
To his credit, Gabriel hasn’t looked all that shaky so far. On the whole, he has shown poise and hasn’t made too many mistakes. The sample size is still so incredibly small, of course, and we could be having a very different discussion about him by the time he plays the Steelers.
Pittsburgh would like nothing better than to embarrass the Browns this week, of course. They have already benched one starter, even trading him to their next opponent. Cleveland didn’t wait until the third round to draft Dillon Gabriel because it was overflowing with confidence about his future as the face of the franchise. Nobody waits that long for such a player if they really believe as much.
