BEREA — The starting quarterback remains the same as the Browns come out of the bye week as it was the four weeks prior. The voice Dillon Gabriel will hear in his helmet, though, is going to be different.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski announced Nov. 3 he was ceding play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. That means the voice Gabriel will hear on a play-in and play-out basis will be different.
Other than that, however, Gabriel hasn’t noticed a difference in the days since the decision was made. The only question is how it looks on Nov. 9, when the Browns face the New York Jets.
“Yeah, I think it hasn’t really changed much in terms of day to day, just going about our business that way,” Gabriel said Nov. 5. “But I think it’ll be good. I think it’d be good for the guys. Just want to get this thing going in the right direction.”
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Stefanski made the change for the second year in a row as the Browns once again try to pull their offense out of the mud. Cleveland ranks in the bottom five in almost every significant offensive categories through nine weeks of the season.
Gabriel’s only partially responsible for that ranking, as he took over the starting job in Week 5 after Joe Flacco opened the season as the starter. He doesn’t have the minimum 306 pass attempts to qualify for any of the league statistical leaders, but he’s completing just 59.9% of his 142 passes for 117.0 yards per game with five touchdowns, two interceptions and a 78.4 passer rating.
Although the week after the bye brought with it a change in play callers, the week of the bye brought with it a chance for Gabriel to step back and evaluate his first four NFL starts.
“I think there’s a lot to learn,” Gabriel said. “There’s a lot to take in, but good things and things that you can learn from. But there’s got to be a change within the process to create a better outcome. And I don’t want to stand up here and say the same thing, but it’s truth. There’s got to be better fundamentals, and I think that’s everyone coming together to make that happen.
“But you look at third downs, you look at those categories and where you can just sustain drives and help yourself and then after turnovers, trying to convert those into points.”
Gabriel’s only a piece of the Browns’ passing game problems. The wide receivers haven’t helped, either, with 10 of the team’s 18 drops, according to Pro Football Focus.
It’s not just drops, but just general productivity as well. Jerry Jeudy is the only wide receiver in the team’s top six for either receptions (20) or receiving yards (260).
“A lot of stuff just ain’t go as planned,” Jeudy said Nov. 5. “There’s a lot of stuff that needs to happen right for the receiver to get the ball. It’s got to be the right coverage, it’s got to be the right look, so it is a lot of stuff that needs to happen to go right. It just hasn’t gone that way, unfortunately. But hopefully it goes on these next few games.”
The lack of catches by the wide receivers has played into the lack of a downfield passing game. Gabriel was just 1-of-6 passing for 22 yards on throws of at least 20 yards in the air over the first half of the season, and just 13-of-34 passing for 194 yards, but with four touchdowns, on throws between 10 and 19 yards downfield.
Jeudy, meanwhile, has just three catches on 10 targets on throws of at least 20 yards downfield. Those throws have added up to 84 total yards.
So, with the benefit of bye-week hindsight, how does that change?
“No, I think there’s just a mixture of things that have to come together to make that happen,” Gabriel said. “That’s myself included. But like we’ve talked about before, explosives, they got to happen. There’s certain categories within a game that you have to win, and explosives and being really good on first and second down so that you’re in some third-and-manageable [situations] and moving the chain, sustaining drives.”
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Dillon Gabriel says post-bye changes for Browns can get offense going in right direction
Reporting by Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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