{"id":684099,"date":"2026-06-04T15:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684099\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:11:08","slug":"jared-verse-shows-up-for-practice-in-no-8-even-though-its-dillon-gabriels-number-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684099\/","title":{"rendered":"Jared Verse shows up for practice in No. 8, even though it’s Dillon Gabriel’s number (for now)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second Verse is, for now, same as the first<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Myles Garrett arrived as a new member of the Rams, he purchased No. 95<\/a> from defensive tackle Poona Ford. When Jared Verse arrived as a new member of the Browns, he had a different strategy regarding the number he wore with his former team.<\/p>\n

He just took No. 8.<\/p>\n

Verse was on the practice field, wearing his number of choice. It\u2019s the number that had officially been issued in 2025 to quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who started six games as a rookie.<\/p>\n

Although teams have some freedom to double up on jersey numbers during the 90-man portion of the calendar, it\u2019s awkward to say the least to have Verse and Gabriel wearing the same number. Sufficiently awkward that the @FootballCravee account on Twitter (which has a habit of posting blatantly made-up quotes) was able to post a false quote from Gabriel that went somewhat viral on Wednesday because it seemed, on its face, to be semi-plausible.<\/p>\n

At some point, Verse or Gabriel will officially have No. 8. Verse seems to be intent on wearing it. Given that Gabriel may not even be on the 53-man roster come Week 1, that could be a safe assumption.<\/p>\n

Regardless, it\u2019s a bold move from Verse. But why buy the number when you can just wear it? Make it not a financial transaction but a battle of wills.<\/p>\n

The situation illustrates the bizarre nature of the entire culture of buying numbers. The team owns the numbers. The team can reclaim a number and reissue it, if it wants.<\/p>\n

When there\u2019s a clear disparity in a player\u2019s current value to the team, why shouldn\u2019t a team be willing to tell a guy who will be third string (at best) that he\u2019s giving up his number to a new player who will be in the starting lineup?<\/p>\n

Of course Verse is currently more important to the Browns than Gabriel. Why should Verse pay Gabriel for No. 8? Verse should get it, if he wants it.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Verse took the first step toward making that happen. He showed up for practice wearing his number. It should be up to Gabriel and\/or the Browns to make the transfer official, without Verse having to give Gabriel anything for it.<\/p>\n

However it goes, the Browns need to make a fairly quick decision. Verse jerseys are already available for preorder. They can\u2019t be printed and distributed until his number is official.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The second Verse is, for now, same as the first. When Myles Garrett arrived as a new member…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-684099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684099","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=684099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}