BEREA, Ohio (AP) 鈥� Browns offensive coordinator Tommy Rees accomplished some of his goals in his first game calling plays last week, a 27-20 loss to the New York Jets.
However, one area where Rees needs to make progress is helping Dillon Gabriel improve his accuracy.
Ahead of Cleveland’s game Sunday against the visiting Baltimore Ravens, the rookie quarterback鈥檚 58.6% completion rate is next-to-last among the 32 single-season qualifiers (at least 14 attempts per team game). According to Next Gen Stats, Gabriel’s expected completion percentage is 63.9%, with the minus-5.2% difference third-worst in the league.
On Thursday, Rees couldn’t point to an overarching explanation for Gabriel鈥檚 accuracy problems.
鈥淚s there something mechanical or fundamental we want to correct? Is there something from an understanding during the week鈥檚 game plan that we want to correct? Sometimes quarterbacks miss; sometimes rain or weather can affect it 鈥� all those things can affect it. So, you try to boil each play down into its own individual play and then what caused this, and then how can we correct that?鈥� he said. 鈥淚f there鈥檚, 鈥楬ey, I wasn鈥檛 quite sure on the coverage,鈥� then that鈥檚 where we dig back in as coaches and talk through the reason why we鈥檙e doing things. And you know, all those are really important.鈥�
The Browns highlighted Gabriel鈥檚 accuracy and his ability to compensate for his 5-foot-11 frame when they drafted him in the third round. Last season at Oregon, he completed 72.9% of his passes, ranking third in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
鈥淵ou know, it鈥檚 always something you continue to work on and want to get good at, and I think it鈥檚 striving for every inch, you know, and being able to catch runners and allow them to get more receiving yards after the catch,鈥� Gabriel said. 鈥淪o, being accurate in that way and then giving guys a chance. So it鈥檚 something that you want to pride yourself on, continue to get better at.鈥�
In college, Gabriel didn鈥檛 face the pass rush that he has seen this year. Cleveland has allowed a 42.2% pressure rate, second-most in the league. Under pressure, Gabriel is averaging only 4.8 yards per attempt, fourth-lowest.
Rees had Gabriel rolling out more and took better advantage of his scrambling ability. Gabriel had five rushes for 54 yards against the Jets.
Coach Kevin Stefanski also said Gabriel was not solely to blame for his accuracy problems.
鈥淭here are things that I know Dillon can do better and will do better as a young quarterback. And I know there are things that we as a staff can do better, and putting our guys in position,鈥� Stefanski said. 鈥淚 understand the individual aspect of this, but there鈥檚 also the collective aspect of this.鈥�
Besides rolling Gabriel out more, Rees got wide receiver Jerry Jeudy involved early, which led to him having a season-high six catches for 78 yards, including his first touchdown of the season.
Rees said Gabriel has graded out as the coaching staff wanted during his five starts, pointing to his preparation as a positive.
The coaches’ assessment of Gabriel hasn鈥檛 been enough to silence fans鈥� calls for fellow rookie Shedeur Sanders to get some playing time.
Gabriel and the Browns (2-7) will face a Ravens defense that has improved during a three-game winning streak. Baltimore had 12 quarterback hits and forced two turnovers in last week鈥檚 27-19 win over Minnesota.
鈥淭hey have a veteran group up front that has good rush patterns, good gains, and stunts,鈥� Rees said. 鈥淭hey use personnel in multiple ways. So, the running backs have to be tied into it. Our line鈥檚 got to be tied into it. Our tight ends, the pass catchers themselves. It鈥檚 always a race between them and the pass rushers to get open. And our whole group needs to understand how critical that is.鈥�
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