Cleveland Browns expected to bench Joe Flacco, start Dillon Gabriel vs. Vikings

Following their 1-3 start to the season, the Cleveland Browns are officially making a change at quarterback.

Rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel will start Cleveland’s Week 5 game against the Minnesota Vikings, per CBS Sports‘ Matt Zenitz. He will become the 41st different quarterback to start a regular season game for the Browns since 1999 on Sunday.

The current belief is that the #Browns are going to make a change at quarterback and start rookie Dillon Gabriel this week vs. the Vikings, sources tell @CBSSports pic.twitter.com/UKvkzazXWw

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) September 30, 2025

Veteran quarterback Joe Flacco started the first four games of the season for Cleveland and struggled mightily. He completed 58.1% of passes for 815 yards, just two touchdowns and six interceptions. He was also sacked nine times and was benched in favor of Gabriel in Cleveland’s 41-17 loss to Detroit in Week 2.

In his NFL debut, Gabriel was 3-3 passing for 19 yards and an eight-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Sampson with 1:50 remaining in the game. He will now get his first shot at earning a starting job this weekend at home against Minnesota.

Gabriel played six college football seasons across three different programs (UCF, Oklahoma and Oregon). In 64 career games, Gabriel passed for 18,722 yards, 155 touchdowns and just 32 interceptions. His best season was his final season with the Ducks, where he passed for 3,857 yards, 30 touchdowns and six picks. He was named a Heisman Trophy finalist and was selected with the No. 94 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Gabriel will be 41st starting quarterback for Browns since 1999

The Hawaii native will now become the 41st different quarterback to start a game for the Cleveland Browns since it resumed as a franchise in 1999. Since head coach Kevin Stefanski took over in 2020, 12 different quarterbacks will have now started a game. In that timespan, the Browns are 41-47 and have made the Playoffs twice.

“Believe it,” former NFL head coach Rex Ryan stated, regarding whether the Browns should bench Flacco via Get Up Monday morning. “Shedeur Sanders — ‘Why is Shedeur not in there?’ Well, I don’t know. Are you sitting in the back of the meeting rooms with scout-team receivers? If you are, get your butt in the front. You probably would be starting. 

“But this guy (Flacco) can’t play. He can’t play anymore. He couldn’t play eight years ago. He’s your starting quarterback? Give me an absolute break. We saw the difference that Jaxson Dart made with the Giants. This move has to happen. I don’t care who it is. I don’t care — doesn’t matter. The little lefty guy that’s under six foot? (Dillon Gabriel). I don’t care — put somebody in there.”

Kick-off for Sunday’s game against the Vikings is scheduled for 9:30 AM ET in London. The game can be seen on NFL Network.