One of the more controversial moments of the 2025 NFL Draft wasn’t just the Cleveland Browns taking Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel in the third round, but also them taking Shedeur Sanders in the fifth. Now the two players will be in the same quarterback room, and a comparison between them is bound to happen.
How Do Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel Compare Head to Head?
When speaking about size, Gabriel is 5’11” and 205 pounds and is one of the older prospects to come out of college after six years with UCF, Oklahoma, and Oregon.
He’s on the small side, but Gabriel put up insane numbers. He finished his collegiate career second all-time in FBS passing yards with 18,722. He played in 64 total games and started in 63, making him the NCAA Division I leader in games played by a quarterback.
Sanders can’t quite match those career numbers, but when he moved from Jackson State to Colorado, he threw for 3,230 yards, 27 touchdowns, and just three interceptions with a 69.3% completion percentage in 2023. In 2024, his second season with the Buffaloes, he increased his numbers to 4,134 passing yards, 37 passing touchdowns, and 10 interceptions with a career-high 74.0% completion percentage.
Sanders measured in at 6’1 ½’’ and 212 pounds, which are both on the lower side for a QB.
When it comes to their contracts, there will be a disparity due to them being drafted in different rounds. Thanks to the NFL‘s rookie compensation structure, Gabriel could get as much as $6.22 million over four years with a $1.17 million signing bonus.
Sanders took a considerable hit to the potential paycheck he could have earned by falling to the fifth round. He could get around $4.5 million over the four years, as opposed to a projected $45 million he could have commanded had he been picked in the upper tiers of the first round.
On the awards front, Sanders was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year in 2024, won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and was a second-team All-American last season. Gabriel, meanwhile, was a first-team All-American, Big Ten MVP, and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year in 2024.
Sanders’ biggest strength is his accuracy, with a 70.1% career completion rate coupled with exceptional poise and field vision. His weaknesses are his arm strength and attitude issues, which were cited after his pre-draft interviews. There are also questions surrounding his ability to adapt to complex NFL offenses.
Gabriel is a dual-threat talent who had 1,209 rushing yards and 34 rushing touchdowns in his collegiate career. Most pre-draft analyses pegged him as a developmental project, but he’s a seasoned quarterback with a wealth of high-end college experience.
Sanders offers significant upside with his accuracy and on-field leadership, but he will have to win over critics both inside and outside the Browns’ facility. Now that the draft is over, the real competition begins as Gabriel and Sanders enter a QB competition room that includes former first-round pick Kenny Pickett and long-time veteran Joe Flacco.