Dillon Gabriel Carves Up Patriots as Browns Roll 37-13 in Preseason
Gabriel authored three scoring drives before halftime and Cleveland cruised to a 37-13 win — but does any of it move the fantasy needle?
Sharp preseason, but he's QB42 in our ranks and buried on the depth chart.
- Browns won 37-13 in preseason vs New England
- Gabriel our QB42, ranked #242 overall
- Gabriel: 937 pass yds, 7 TD, 0 INT in 2025 (10 gms)
- Two Floriea TDs + Marshall score before half
- Cleveland trims to 53-man roster next
Dillon Gabriel spent the afternoon making a 37-13 preseason win over New England look easy. The Browns rookie touched off the day with an opening-drive touchdown — a 6-yard playaction dart to Luke Floriea — and never really slowed down, stacking multiple scoring drives before halftime and putting Cleveland up 27-13 by the break.
The volume was the story. Gabriel hit Floriea again for a 14-yard score, connected with Ben Patterson on a 52-yard catch-and-run, and later found Ahmani Marshall for a 7-yard touchdown. For context, Gabriel's 2025 line (10 games) reads 937 pass yards, 7 TD and 0 INT for 74 PPR points — clean, efficient, and exactly the profile he flashed here.
New England's quarterback rotation, by contrast, was a mess. Tommy DeVito opened with a 45-yard strike to Kyle Williams, but Behren Morton threw a tipped interception on his very first pass, and Justin Jefferson — the Browns linebacker, not the Vikings receiver — picked off Morton again in the second half to set up more points. The Patriots managed just three field goals after that early touchdown.
Taylen Green took over in the second half and leaned on his legs, ripping off a 30-yard scramble out of his own end zone. He didn't produce a score himself, but Davon Booth's 8-yard spin-move touchdown pushed the lead to 34-13 on Green's watch. Andre Szmyt handled the kicking, drilling field goals from 35, 47 and later chipping in the closing points.
The Fantasy Fallout
Here's the sober part. Gabriel sits at QB42 in our rankings (#242 overall), and a tidy preseason afternoon against backup defenders doesn't change his depth-chart reality. Szmyt, our PK26, finished 2025 with 97 PPR points but has trended -5.7 fantasy points over his last five games — not a name you're chasing. Rookie pass-catchers like Larvadain (WR166, 14 PPR points in 2025) are box-score curiosities, nothing more.
The real Justin Jefferson — Minnesota's WR18 in our ranks, coming off 84 catches for 1,048 yards and 202 PPR points in 2025 — wasn't within a thousand miles of this game. For fantasy managers: enjoy the tape, but Gabriel is a watch-list stash at best until he wins a real job. Everyone else here is a preseason ghost. Keep your waiver claims for players who'll actually see September snaps.
