With Dillon Gabriel as the Browns' starting QB, Cleveland has a case to be the AFC North's best team

Giants coach Brian Daboll said Russell Wilson was the starter until he wasn't. Rookie Jaxson Dart made his NFL debut in Week 4, helping the previously winless Giants beat the Chargers. Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, who had committed to veteran Joe Flacco going back to training camp, was something less than committed when asked about this starter ahead of the team's Week 5 game in London against the Vikings.

"I understand the question," Stefanski said. "We have to play better as an offense. We have to coach better on offense. It's not about one person. There are so many things that we need to do better, and obviously quarterback included, but this is not about one person."

A lot of times, we'll see quotes like that and begin with, "reading between the lines..."

There are no lines to read between.

Flacco, who is 40 years old, was always nothing more than a placeholder. And pretty much from the moment Stefanski announced that Flacco would be the starter, the "how long until we see Dillon Gabriel?" countdown began.

We have arrived at that moment, it seems. The Browns are expected to bench Flacco and start Gabriel moving forward, beginning with Sunday's overseas game against Minnesota, sources told CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz.

And that's great news for a Cleveland team that is an above-average quarterback away from being the AFC North's best team.

I didn't say franchise quarterback because that isn't what the Browns need to be competitive. We know this because they've been plenty competitive this season with subpar quarterback play.

Among starters, Flacco is last in the league in passer rating (60.3), has thrown just two touchdowns (that ranks 31st) and six interceptions (that's also dead last). He's also near the bottom in completion percentage and yards per attempt.

There are mitigating factors. The offensive line has been ravaged by injuries. The wide receiver room, to put it politely, is underwhelming -- and that was before we learned Cedric Tillman would miss time with a hamstring injury from Week 4's loss to the Lions.

As it stands, the Browns two leading receivers are tight ends -- rookie Harold Fannin Jr. (17 catches) and David Njoku (14 catches). Jerry Jeudy, the No. 1 receiver by default, has 13 receptions for 142 yards and no touchdowns -- through four NFL games, mind you.

By comparison, red-hot Rams receiver Puka Nacua managed 13 catches in one game -- Sunday's win over the Colts. In fact, he has double-digit receptions in three of this season's four games.

But for all that is wrong with the Browns' offense, Cleveland's defense makes up for it. Maybe not completely -- there's a reason why they're 1-3 -- but defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz's unit gets you far enough down the road that, along with even adequate quarterback play, you're suddenly competitive in a wide-open division. More than that, though, you have a 10-plus game sample size with a rookie quarterback and two first-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.

What Gabriel's immediate future with the Browns could look like

Better than you think. That's the four-word answer. Another four-word answer might be "rocky to very rocky," and for all the reasons that you might suspect.

Rookie quarterbacks not named Jayden Daniels almost always have an adjustment period. That period can last a few months before you see signs of progress. Sometimes it lasts the entire season. And other times, the ol' "change of scenery" cliche comes to life for guys like Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff and Sam Darnold who don't find their footing until they've moved on from the teams that drafted them.

But one of the themes that we repeat on "With the First Pick," the NFL Draft podcast that I co-host alongside Ran Carthon, is "fit matters." Coaches, players and organizations, they all have to be aligned.

When losses start to pile up, NFL staffs and front offices far too often look more like Game of Thrones than a group striving for the same goals. When infighting happens, invariably things end badly.

Alternatively, when you get the right coach with the right player, expectations outside the organization can be exceeded. Mayfield and the Bucs, Goff and the Lions, Darnold and the Seahawks, and even Daniel Jones and the Colts are all examples of that. 

The Browns really liked Gabriel -- enough to consider taking him before the third round -- and he fits what Stefanski wants to do offensively. Physically, he won't be mistaken for a prototypical NFL quarterback; he's just a shade over 5-foot-11, has 29 5/8-inch arms and 9 1/4-inch hands. But what he lacks in physical tools he makes up for in leadership and playmaking ability. 

"Decorated college career, very accurate, very poised, throws with anticipation, good mobility," Browns general manager Andrew Berry said shortly after the team drafted Gabriel in the third round April 25. "We just thought he had a really well-rounded game. And the biggest negative that you can say about him is that he doesn't have ideal height. But that's not something that we felt like showed up in his game or his film at UCF, Oklahoma, and certainly not at Oregon this year."

That "well-rounded game" showed up in the preseason, confirming what the Browns saw during the pre-draft process. The preseason is also a completely different game than regular-season NFL football, but there are also things that you can learn about young players: in watching Gabriel lead the offense, it was clear that the moment wasn't too big, he showed that he could play on time and throw with accuracy and anticipation -- all of the things that Berry talked about when they drafted him.

As for Stefanski, he might be one of the league's most underrated coaches. It feels like a lifetime ago that he led the Browns to 11 wins (it was the 2023 season, and before that, he did it in 2020, his first year in Cleveland -- and he was named Coach of the Year both times).

And for as much as we talk about why Kevin O'Connell, Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan find new and innovative ways to get the most out of their quarterbacks, no matter who they are, Stefanski deserves to be mentioned if not in the same breath, then certainly the one right after it.

His offensive bread and butter isn't complicated; it's a commitment to the run game, and then running play-action off of it. Beyond the X's and O's -- and more importantly -- is his ability to relate to his players.

A league source explained it to me this way: Stefanski is one of the best in the league at meeting people where they are. He'll only ask his quarterback to do things they're comfortable doing. Instead of asking the player to change, Stefanski will tweak things on the back end to maximize the likelihood that the quarterback has success. It's for many of the same reasons we applaud Kevin O'Connell's ability to get the most out of Sam Darnold or Carson Wentz or Josh Dobbs. Stefanski is just as masterful but that message sometimes gets lost because it's buried in all the baggage that comes with Cleveland Browns football.

Another league source said he wouldn't be surprised if Gabriel played well early because a) the QB is smart and b) Stefanski will make him comfortable and put him in position to succeed.

Remember, Stefanski won 11 games with Mayfield in 2020 and 11 more in '23 with Deshaun Watson (5-1), Flacco (4-1), PJ Walker (1-1) and Dorian Thompson-Robinson (1-2). The team managed 11 wins in those seasons in two completely different ways.

In 2020, the offense took care of the football (they only had 16 turnovers all season, which was fourth best), averaged 148 rushing yards per game (good for No. 3 in the league), and was efficient on third down (seventh) and in the red zone (third). The defense, then led by coordinator Joe Woods, was replacement-level or worse in most categories.

In 2023, however -- Schwartz's first year as defensive coordinator -- things changed. The defense was No. 1 in total yards and passing yards per game allowed, and third- and fourth-down conversion percentage. They were also No. 2 in yards per play, fifth in takeaways and sixth in sacks.

It was exactly what the Browns' offense needed, because that group committed more turnovers than any team in the NFL, was 29th when it came to converting third downs and in the bottom third of the league in just about every other offensive category.

The point? There is more than one way to win in the NFL. The Browns not only understood that, but they prepared for it. Having a dominant defense -- and Schwartz's unit has redefined that term through four games this season -- make life a lot easier on any quarterback, especially a rookie who is about to make his first start.

The problem -- the same problem that plagues every other team -- is that they got the quarterback wrong. First, things soured between the team and Mayfield, and then they thought they had their franchise answer when they traded for Watson. Strictly in terms of on-field productivity, you could understand why the Browns took such a huge swing. Get that right, and everything else takes care of itself.

They didn't get it right with Watson, of course. In fact, you could argue it would be hard to get it more wrong than they did. And while that set the organization back in 2024 when they won just four times, the Browns are in better shape than a lot of teams around the league because they have remained true to their roster-building strategy under Berry.

No matter what happens for the rest of the 2025 season, the Browns are in good shape. That may feel like a wild thing to say, but it's true -- in part because their roster-building strategy is among the league's best (just look at their rookie class through the first month of the season; every pick outside of quarterback has been impactful), in part because they should have a clear vision of what their quarterback room looks like after Gabriel plays meaningful snaps.

If the future is with Gabriel, Cleveland will need to get healthy along the offensive line and find another wide receiver or two. If the future isn't with Gabriel, at least as the starter, the Browns have two first-round picks to get it right.

I know, "getting it right" is the hardest part, but look what Daniels did for the Commanders or Bo Nix and the Broncos. Both teams entered the 2024 season with way more questions than answers, and five months later, both were in the playoffs.

Fortunes can change quickly in the NFL, and Cleveland is a lot closer than folks may be willing to accede.