Robert Griffin III called for the Cleveland Browns to trade Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel for the sake of the quarterback room. Neither guy is being set up for optimal success while the other is on the roster, per Griffin. “I think the Cleveland Browns need to trade Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel,” Griffin said […]
Robert Griffin III called for the Cleveland Browns to trade Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel for the sake of the quarterback room. Neither guy is being set up for optimal success while the other is on the roster, per Griffin.
“I think the Cleveland Browns need to trade Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel,” Griffin said on Outta Pocket with RG3. “Right now, they have a toxic environment around their quarterback situation, and it’s not a growth environment for either guy. So right now you need to allow Shedeur Sanders to be the guy that you’re tabbing as your quarterback of the future, or you need to allow Dillin Gabriel to be the quarterback that you’re tabbing as your quarterback of the future.
“Because having them together on the roster right now, after you traded up to get Dillon Gabriel in the third round, you drafted Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round, after he slid from the first round … You’ve created an environment where there’s so much fanfare around it that the most popular guy on your roster is the fourth-string quarterback on your team, because you made it that way. You didn’t allow him to go out and compete like you would a third round pick in Dillon Gabriel, because you had a third round pick in Dillon Gabriel.”
Griffin pointed to the last preseason game where Gabriel had more opportunities and situations than Sanders. It already created an uneven playing field and the coaching staff was at fault.
“I don’t think that either Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel are being set up for success right now based on the way things are going,” Griffin said. “This brings me to the point of the last preseason game, Dillon Gabriel played his butt off, absolutely, went out there, executed a two minute drill to perfection. But Shedeur Sanders was not afforded the same opportunity. Not only was Shedeur Sanders put out there with threes, fours and fives on the depth chart, on the offensive line and at wide receiver, Sanders was not allowed to run the two minute drill at the end of the game because they gave that opportunity to Snoop Huntley …
“No matter how well he ran that two minute drill, or how well he didn’t, it wasn’t going to impact his availability and whether or not he was going to make the 53 man roster. So why wouldn’t you give Shedeur Sanders that opportunity to go out there and have it, juxtaposed against Dillon Gabriel running the two minute drill at the end of the half … It wasn’t just the wrong decision, it was a catastrophically terrible decision on behalf of Kevin Stefanski and the Cleveland Browns organization.”
Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel to be traded eventually?
Sanders put up very solid numbers at Colorado, which led most to believe he could be a first round pick. But after reports of not-so-great interviews at the NFL Scouting Combine, a guy like Gabriel ended up going before Sanders.
“Shedeur Sanders comes with a ton of fanfare,” Griffin said. “But it’s earned. It’s not just because of his dad’s name and what his dad accomplished being a Hall of Famer, the greatest cornerback of all time. Shedeur has been in the limelight since he was a baby. He earned what he got at Jackson State. He went the hard way, going to the HBCU and building that program up. He went the hard way, going to Colorado and building that program up. And then his tape said, I’m a first round pick on my own merit, not just because of my dad’s name. And he wasn’t afforded that.
“He can’t cry over that spilled milk anymore … But now, when he goes out and he performs in the first preseason game and throws two touchdown passes and earns the right to get more reps, why didn’t he get more reps? Why was he still relegated at the bottom of the depth chart? You can say we weren’t at the practices. We didn’t get to see everything that was going on behind the scenes. But what I do know is that the eye in the sky don’t lie … So for the Browns to not allow this young man to actually compete is a detriment to him, but it’s also a detriment to all the quarterbacks on their roster.”
Griffin noted that Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett are affected by the Sanders and Gabriel dynamic as well. Flacco is the starter and Pickett was brought in to be that reliable backup in the offseason.
“Joe Flacco is the starter,” Griffin said. “Joe Flacco is about 70 years old. I was teammates with Joe. I know when you watch Joe Flacco throw the ball, it makes you fall in love with football all over again. He was always going to be the starter for this team … They have to pick between Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. They wouldn’t be having these conversations in this whirlwind of what’s going on, if they had just stuck with the pick that they wanted by trading up to draft Dillon Gabriel, who, it is very clear, is the favorite of the head coach.
“To me, what’s going on in the organization right now is people are trying to prove whose guy is better. Somebody wanted Dillin Gabriel, somebody wanted Shedeur Sanders, but they’re hurting both of them.”
Category: Football
