Browns place Dillon Gabriel on IR with back injury, keep 3 QBs on 53-man roster

The Cleveland Browns are going forward with three quarterbacks on their Week 1 active roster, while placing Dillon Gabriel on injured reserve with a back injury.

The Browns posted their initial 53-man roster via the team’s social media accounts Sunday and have an active quarterback room of starter Deshaun Watson, backup Shedeur Sanders and rookie Taylen Green.

Gabriel’s placement on injured reserve means he will miss at least the first four games of the season. The second-year quarterback had tightness over the weekend, was held out of practice and had an MRI as a precaution, a team source told The Athletic. The team doesn’t view it as a long-term injury, the source said on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Gabriel spent the offseason as Cleveland’s No. 3 quarterback and was 12-of-15 passing for 186 yards and three touchdowns in the first half of Thursday’s preseason finale. He never factored into new coach Todd Monken’s offseason competition for the starting job between Watson and Sanders.

The Browns kept four quarterbacks on their initial 53-man roster in 2024, but Tyler Huntley was released a few days later.

Last year, the Browns held a four-man quarterback competition through much of training camp but ended up trading Kenny Pickett to the Las Vegas Raiders on the night before rosters had to be trimmed to 53. Joe Flacco started the first four games of the season, then was traded to Cincinnati in October after Gabriel became the starter.

Gabriel started six games last season and threw seven touchdown passes and two interceptions with a 59.5 completion percentage.