BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns are looking to bounce back from their dismal loss to the New York Jets as they prepare for a much more difficult test with the Baltimore Ravens coming to town Sunday, but as they do, it’s all about growth—especially for the offense and rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
Gabriel knows that part of his development as a quarterback is working through the highs and lows of the season. For the Browns as a team, it's been mostly lows with their 2-7 record. And while they aim to work their way out of their slump and find some success, Gabriel knows his production won't be perfect.
"I don't think growth is ever linear, and there's regression and there's progression. So there's things that get better and things that you got to continue to work on. But I want to continue to get better. And that's what you strive for every single day," Gabriel said.
One of the ways Gabriel can look to progress is in his passing accuracy. Gabriel has started in five games this season and played in seven. In that time, he's owned a completion rate of just 58.6%, the second lowest of qualifying quarterbacks in the NFL this season. The only quarterback worse is Titans' rookie Cam Ward.
Gabriel was asked about his accuracy and the low completion percentage, to which he owned as something for him to improve moving forward.
"It's always something you continue to work on and want to get good at. I think it's striving for every inch and being able to catch runners and allow them to get more receiving yards after the catch. So being accurate in that way and then giving guys a chance... It's something that you want to pride yourself on and continue to get better at," he said.
And while the quarterback production needs to improve, no doubt, it's not the only area the team needs to improve upon.
The Jets returning a kickoff for a touchdown, followed by them returning a punt for a touchdown on their next possession, special teams is one of those areas. Drops have been an issue for the Browns' receivers a number of times this season, which will need to continue to be improved upon. The offensive line, both holding up the pocket and helping create rushing lanes for the running backs, has been wildly unreliable this season. Penalties have been one of the more frustrating areas the Browns need to look to clean up.
That, Gabriel said, starts in practice.
"It's how you practice. You get what you emphasize and you definitely want to eliminate negatives. That's something that's a drive killer, right? But I just feel like at times we all take our turns, whether it's not even a penalty, but me missing a throw, a penalty here or there, or maybe a negative play that all just makes it more difficult. And then on the same note, you live on the other side, explosive plays, chunks. You're not living in third down a bunch, you're sustaining drives. It just looks a whole lot different. But I think we see, what everyone sees, is there's inefficiencies at times and maybe the nine-play touchdown drive vs. a three-and-out. And how do we kind of find the middle ground and continue to prolong drives, sustain them, go put points on the board," he said.
It's not all on the quarterback, as head coach Kevin Stefanski said as much.
"I understand that a lot of the focus goes to the quarterback position, but I look at it also globally and try to look at ways that we can improve across the board, whether it’s how we’re designing some of those plays, who we're putting in those spots in some of those plays. I think that’s as big a part of it as well," Stefanski said.
As they work toward that growth and improvement, they do so in desperate need of a win. To lose against the Jets makes a win against the Baltimore Ravens seem perhaps more unlikely than ever before, but if they want to find their next win— and soon— they know it will need to be a full team effort.
"We just got to execute in practice, make sure we're all on the same page and just attention to detail and everything and then just come out ready to play, come game day and everybody do their job. That's the biggest thing and do it at a high level. So that's what I think we got to focus on," said cornerback Denzel Ward.
