Quincy Avery believes the narrative that Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel is not able to see the field because of his height is a fallacy, relaying that no quarterback under six-foot-eight can see over the line and that it’s a “silly thought” to think otherwise.

Of note, Avery has been a critic of Gabriel’s fellow 2025 draftmate, Shedeur Sanders. Avery predicted Sanders would go in the sixth round of the draft in early April.

“I know he goes in the first round because of all the hype and all the things we said. But I think if his last name was Williams, he is a sixth round quarterback,” Avery said on “The Ryen Russillo Podcast.”

Needless to say, there’s probably some bias in Avery defending Gabriel here.

Dillon Gabriel has done ‘nothing’ to earn Browns QB2 role

The Athletic’s Zac Jackson revealed that Gabriel is still seen as above Shedeur Sanders on the Browns’ depth chart, but he’s done “nothing” to prove he can be relied upon as Cleveland’s primary backup.

“With the two rookie quarterbacks, there’s a clear order: Gabriel, the third-round pick, goes ahead of Sanders and gets more total reps, too. But to say Gabriel has had an up-and-down camp would be to at least slightly ignore that he’s been wildly down (and wildly inaccurate) in recent days. And though camp stats and camp completions don’t tell anything close to the whole story, Gabriel has done nothing to make anyone observing believe he’s ready to be trusted as a No. 2 quarterback,” Jackson wrote.

Some might be confused about the reason why Gabriel isn’t QB2 material, but reporting from Jackson and the running tally of every Browns QB’s completion percentage paints a damning picture for the former Oregon Ducks star.

Time will tell if Gabriel can return the narrative to before training camp started, when Gabriel was seen as a “dark horse” option to win the starting job.