Verse’s No. – Jared Verse showed up at Browns practice on Wednesday wearing No. 8—the same number Dillon Gabriel has worn since he was drafted in 2025—turning a routine jersey detail into a clear sign of where Cleveland’s quarterback room appears to be heading. With multipl
Cleveland fans got their first close look at Jared Verse on Wednesday, and the timing couldn’t have been more pointed for Dillon Gabriel.
Verse. the Browns’ new edge defender. opened his first practice with the team by working through individual drills—starting the session with the familiar No. 8 he previously wore with the Los Angeles Rams. On the practice field, it took about 60 seconds for Browns reporters to spot the uncomfortable problem: two No. 8 jerseys.
The number belongs to backup quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who has worn No. 8 since he was drafted in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft. If Verse is headed toward eventually replacing Myles Garrett as the next franchise face. that number shift may soon be the first step of that transition. Gabriel, meanwhile, is already looking like the odd man out inside a quarterback group that appears increasingly crowded by design.
Rumors about Gabriel’s future have been circling since the Browns selected quarterback Taylen Green on Day 3 of the 2026 draft. It’s unlikely Cleveland carries four quarterbacks into this season—especially with Deshaun Watson. Shedeur Sanders. and Green all “all but locked in. ” leaving Gabriel in a precarious position.
That tension was there again on Wednesday. where Gabriel’s presence stood out not through anything he did on the field. but through how the first-team reps were being organized. The Browns held their third OTA practice with the media in attendance—also their eighth session overall—and Watson and Sanders kept taking the first-team snaps while they switched off.
New head coach Todd Monken has already had a close look at Green. getting an extended look during last month’s rookie minicamp and appearing to like what he saw. Gabriel. by comparison. has been treated like a clear outsider in this stage of the plan—one the coach who may have believed most in his NFL future is now carrying forward somewhere else.
Barely a year ago, Cleveland made Gabriel its No. 94 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. and the Kevin Stefanski regime quickly elevated him into a starting role after a 1-3 start to the 2025 season. Gabriel went on to wear No. 8 at Oregon, but his time as the Browns’ starter didn’t finish on his terms. After exiting a game against the Ravens in Week 11 with a concussion, he relinquished the job to Shedeur Sanders.
Now, with the jersey conflict on the practice field and the quarterback picture set around Watson, Sanders, and Green, Gabriel seems likely to reach training camp—just not in the same role he once had.
Cleveland will likely carry Gabriel into training camp, but he would be a bubble player from Day 1. In the ideal version of this scenario. the Browns would be able to trade him to a team like Atlanta or Tampa Bay in exchange for a late-round pick in 2027 or 2028. The optics of waiving a top-100 pick in Year 2 aren’t great. but the front office has already shown it’s willing to restructure quickly.
GM Andrew Berry traded Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams for Jared Verse and a major package of draft picks. so the Browns aren’t treating roster reshaping as something they’ll hesitate on. That’s the backdrop for why the No. 8 jersey—normally a simple detail—suddenly carried weight in a room where Gabriel has been slowly losing attention.
Verse’s number with the Browns wasn’t a major talking point until he stepped onto the practice field. That may be the point, too. For months, Gabriel has felt like an afterthought in Cleveland’s quarterback room. On Wednesday, that feeling got a visible confirmation: two No. 8s, and cameras locked onto the one arriving as a new cornerstone.
Jared Verse Dillon Gabriel Cleveland Browns Myles Garrett trade Todd Monken OTA practice 2026 NFL Draft Taylen Green Deshaun Watson Shedeur Sanders