{"id":194735,"date":"2025-10-01T13:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T13:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/194735\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T13:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T13:02:07","slug":"browns-set-to-start-dillon-gabriel-vs-vikings-bench-veteran-joe-flacco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/194735\/","title":{"rendered":"Browns set to start Dillon Gabriel vs. Vikings, bench veteran Joe Flacco"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Browns are ready to make a change at quarterback.<\/p>\n

Rookie Dillon Gabriel will make the start this weekend in the team\u2019s matchup with the Minnesota Vikings, the Browns announced Wednesday. He\u2019ll take over for veteran Joe Flacco in what will be the first start of his NFL career.<\/p>\n

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski reportedly informed the team of the change Wednesday morning, per reports. Flacco will reportedly serve as Gabriel’s backup<\/a> in Week 5, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Former Colorado standout Shedeur Sanders will remain the team’s No. 3 option.<\/p>\n

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Flacco joined the Browns this past offseason, and won the starting job after a very public position battle throughout training camp. He\u2019s led the team to just a 1-3 start, however, and the Browns offense has struggled significantly under his watch. Flacco went just 16-of-34 for 184 yards with two interceptions in last week’s 34-10 loss to the Detroit Lions. He has just two touchdowns and six interceptions so far through four games this season and holds just a 27.0 QBR, which is better than only Tennessee Titans rookie Cam Ward.<\/p>\n

While Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski again insisted that he wasn\u2019t focused on a<\/a> swap after the team\u2019s loss to the Lions, he clearly opted to change his mind just days later.<\/p>\n

Gabriel, who the Browns took in the third round of the draft in April out of Oregon, has come in twice during blowouts and looked solid. He went 3-of-3 for 19 yards and threw a touchdown pass in the end of the team\u2019s 41-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 2. He also came in late during their loss to the Lions.<\/p>\n

Gabriel racked up a career-high 3,857 yards and 30 touchdowns with just six interceptions last season at Oregon, where he finished third in the Heisman Trophy race.<\/p>\n

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Flacco, now in his 18th season in the league, will move into the backup role this weekend. Despite claiming he could start in the NFL right now<\/a>, Sanders will remain third on the depth chart.<\/p>\n

While the Browns brought Flacco in this past offseason, the 40-year-old was never going to be their long-term option at quarterback. With his career almost over, and quarterback Deshaun Watson recovering from a second straight Achilles injury, it was very likely that Gabriel was going to get the nod eventually.<\/p>\n

Whether he\u2019s capable of turning this season around for Cleveland, however, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

The Browns, whose lone win this season came thanks in part to a blocked field goal as time expired, will take on the Vikings on Sunday morning at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. It will mark Minnesota’s second straight game in Europe. They fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers last weekend in Dublin, which dropped them to 2-2 on the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Browns are ready to make a change at quarterback. Rookie Dillon Gabriel will make the start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8849,4,450,14389,1799,4057,1810,8395,451,113004,1800,28649,8851,3,1321,17349,8394,8853,22392,452,453],"class_list":["post-194735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cam-ward","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-deshaun-watson","tag-detroit-lions","tag-dillon-gabriel","tag-headlines","tag-interceptions","tag-joe-flacco","tag-kevin-stefanski","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-quarterback","tag-shedeur-sanders","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-the-browns","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}