NFL Draft film room: Dillon Gabriel the experienced rookie

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 to the middle of the field. The corner plays with outside leverage to make it look like the post is open while the curl-to-flat defender at the bottom of the screen takes two steps wide initially before dropping for depth. Also, the defense has another defender drop from the other side of the formation to help take away the middle.

But, Gabriel isn’t fooled. As soon as he sees the curl-to-flat defender work for depth, he makes the correct read by hitting the tight end on the wheel route and the tight end rewards his quarterback, hurdling the safety for a touchdown.

Gabriel has impressive accuracy to hit receivers in stride, leading to opportunities to tack on extra yards after the catch. This is especially true when throwing slant routes or digs to the middle of the field as he consistently places the ball on the pass-catcher’s front shoulder to keep their momentum going forward, as seen in the last three throws above.

Again, the Oregon product doesn’t have a strong arm to consistently hit deep shots, but the first clip above is a good example of how he can drop it in the bucket when he has good timing on vertical passes.

Finally, Gabriel can also make plays with his legs via designed runs or scrambles. His vision to find rushing lanes stands out in the first and last runs above, and he showed just enough athleticism to make a couple of defenders miss in the open field on the one against Ohio State.

Something that stands out about Gabriel’s scrambling ability is that he keeps his eyes downfield instead of just taking off and running. Versus Penn State, he escapes the sack and keeps his head up while running toward the line of scrimmage which gets No. 7 to stay deep in coverage. So, when he does take off, he has a clear path to pick up the first down.

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In addition to lacking a big arm, Gabriel is physically limited as he’s listed at an even six feet tall which seems generous. So, his ceiling at the next level could be capped, but his extensive experience allows him to operate an offense like a veteran which could help make a smooth transition to the NFL.