Silver And Black Pride
What could the six-year college quarterback bring to Las Vegas?
With the Las Vegas Raiders in the quarterback market during the 2025 NFL Draft, we’ve been working our way through this year’s quarterback class and one name to keep an eye on is Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel.
Gabriel will be at the upcoming Senior Bowl after wrapping up a six-year college career at three schools: UCF from 2019 to 2021, Oklahoma in 2022 and 2023, and this past year at Oregon. As a result, he logged nearly 19,000 passing yards and 155 touchdowns with the latter tying the most in FBS history.
Last season was the well-traveled quarterback’s best as he logged career-highs in completion percentage (72.3 percent) and passing yards (3,854) while tossing 30 touchdowns and being a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.
Unlike other notable QBs in the 2025 draft class, Gabriel doesn’t win with extraordinary arm talent by throwing deep passes all over the field. Pro Football Focus credited him with just 15 “big-time throws” at a 3.2 percent rate in 2024, tied for seventh and tied for 14th in the Big 10.
Instead, the former Duck operates more like a veteran quarterback who attacks holes in coverages, and has good anticipation and impressive accuracy to be worth the deeper dive.
Part of where Gabriel’s experience as a six-year starter shows up on film is how he’s able to anticipate when receivers will be open by hitting throwing windows with good timing or starting his throwing motion before wideouts finish their break. The first two clips above are good examples of those two elements of his game.
In the first, Ohio State shows a two-high safety look like they’re about to play Cover 2 or 4. However, they roll into Cover 3 post snap where the safety at the top of the screen bails to take away the deep post. So, the dig route will be open between the two underneath defenders and Gabriel throws with perfect timing to hit the receiver in the middle of the window for a big gain.
In the second, the Buckeyes blitz with a five-man pressure against a five-man protection from the Ducks. That means the quarterback has to get the ball out quickly and Gabriel recognizes the cornerback is playing far off the line of scrimmage against a 12-yard out route. Gabriel starts his throwing motion before the receiver is out of his break and delivers a good ball under pressure to beat the coverage.
Building on the section above, Gabriel also excels at reading coverages and making the correct throws even when the defense changes the picture post-snap.
Ohio State shows man coverage pre-snap but rolls into Cover 3 post-snap in the first play above. However, the quarterback isn’t fooled as he hits the seam route with good timing before the safety can get to the receiver.
To explain the second play above as that one might not be as intuitive, Penn State is trying to trap him into throwing...
