Seven games into the Cleveland Browns season, plenty of questions are being answered by the players themselves. Coming into the season, the front office and coaching staff needed to know if they had a long-term answer at quarterback on the roster. Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco have already been traded away. Rookie Dillon Gabriel is in the process of trying to improve and show he can be a franchise quarterback.
That hasn’t exactly been panning out, with Gabriel’s limitations being on full display so far. He has avoided mistakes, but has also thrown just three touchdowns. That has many wondering when Shedeur Sanders will get his shot. It won’t be this week, at least not from the get-go. The 5-2 New England Patriots will host the Browns in Week 8, led by a resurgent Mike Vrabel at head coach. It sounds like Vrabel isn’t too worried about the Browns’ quarterbacks; instead, it’s Cleveland’s defense that scares him a bit.
Mike Vrabel says Cleveland Browns defense is “playing at a high level”
While speaking to media this week ahead of the matchup, Vrabel had almost glowing praise when talking about the Browns’ defense, who he says is “playing at a high level“.
Yeah, I mean, just statistically and play style, they’re playing at a high level. There’s quite a lot of confidence. It’s a lot of speed, a lot of disruption. They don’t give you a lot of time to make decisions, and then there’s enough change-ups in there. You just have to be good, you have to be sound, and you can’t hold onto the ball.
Vrabel also spoke earlier about the Browns offense, but he didn’t really say much about Gabriel. He called the offense and offensive line “physical”, while saying the “running backs are doing a nice job“. There wasn’t much room for praise for the quarterback.
As for Sanders, he simply isn’t on Vrabel’s radar due to being a backup. Vrabel is a hard-nosed coach with a focus on the football aspect of games. For this week, that means trying to find a weakness in the Browns defense and thwarting their running game on offense.
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