Dillon Gabriel NFL Draft 2025: Scouting report, prospect outlook, NFL team fits and more for Oregon QB
Dillon Gabriel is older than Anthony Richardson -- you'll read and hear that sentence often during the pre-draft process for the Oregon quarterback who's also spent time as the Central Florida quarterback and Oklahoma quarterback in his career.
But a three-college career isn't completely out of the ordinary in the modern portal-driven world of college football, and wherever Gabriel's been, he's won and produced at a high level. Entering the College Football Playoff, he's played in 63 games with 153 touchdowns to 32 interceptions. Altogether, he has 186 touchdowns since beginning at Central Florida in 2019.
While the Ducks, the No. 1 team in the land, have their sights set on a national title, soon we'll all be evaluating Gabriel as a draft prospect. How does he stack up? What are his strengths and weaknesses, and which teams would represent the best fit for the quarterback? Let's dive in.
We need to start where every NFL Draft prospect profile starts: the measurables. The combine will ultimately confirm or deny Gabriel's height and weight, but he's listed at 6-foot-0 and 200 pounds, although, frankly, he looks even shorter on film. Thankfully, the likes of Bryce Young, Baker Mayfield, and over a decade ago, Russell Wilson have paved the way for shorter quarterbacks to be picked early in the draft.
For apt perspective on Gabriel's size, Brock Purdy measured in at nearly 6-1 and 212 pounds at the 2022 combine. By NFL size standards at the quarterback position, Gabriel is still quite small.
Then there's, of course, the age factor, which is not dissimilar to what Georgia's Stetson Bennett dealt with during his pre-draft process in 2023, although Gabriel isn't quite as old as Bennett was as a prospect. He'll turn 24 three days after Christmas, meaning he'll turn 25 near the end of his rookie season in the NFL.
Do teams care about age anymore, in the post-COVID world, where all of college football got one full year of extra eligibility? It seems as though they don't put as much credence into age as they used to, and it goes deeper at quarterback. Clubs seemingly are viewing older, more experienced passers in a better light thanks to the early-career successes of Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix and corresponding struggles for relative youngster Anthony Richardson.
And those 60-plus starts for Gabriel will almost assuredly be viewed as a positive on his profile, age be damned.
Gabriel is patient in the pocket. It's his clearest strength on film. Unlike the vast majority of quarterbacks in today's game who flee at the first indication of pressure or when their first read is covered, Gabriel will stand and scan. It's a lost art. Ask Tom Brady if it works. Entering the CFP, Gabriel was only pressured on 26.4% of his dropbacks. Related to that play style, he's is willing to glide through his progressions, and full-field reads are part of his game.
The Oregon offense is loaded with intricate screens but does feature "NFL-like" play-action bootlegs, so it's not completely gimmicky where pro offensive coordinators won't be able to find reps from Gabriel that will be translatable to what he'll be asked to do in the NFL. And his pocket presence, thanks to his bouncy feet, improved as he progressed in college. That continuation will be imperative to his development at the next level.
When he needed to operate outside the pocket, Gabriel has proven to be capable. On those designed rollouts, he demonstrated surprising velocity while throwing on the run with quality. As evidenced by his 33 rushing touchdowns to date, Gabriel's not always stationary in the pocket, either.
Gabriel's accuracy is a plus, although I can't label him as surgical with his ball placement. And that goes for all levels of the field, although just 10.5% of his attempts thus far have been 20-plus yards in the air. He's mostly a short-to-intermediate level thrower.
Gabriel's arm is not atrocious. By NFL standards, it'll be average on a good day, and slightly below-average on a bad one. There aren't many times on film when he displayed the ability to really drive a ball through a closing window or stretch a defense vertically more than 25 yards. His tight, textbook, almost three-quarter release gets rid of the ball quickly, which helps alleviate some of the drawbacks of his weaker arm strength, but let's just say Gabriel will not be asked to throw many out routes toward the sideline from the far hash or deep posts in the NFL. It will mostly be a limiting factor on him as a professional.
There's some mobility to his game -- although I can't envision him making many NFL defenders miss in space or outrunning too many linebackers. Gabriel's a rhythm thrower. When everything's operating well within structure, almost all of his passes will be on time and to the correct receiver based on where coverage dictates he should throw the ball.
When that's not the case, things can get ugly. Against Michigan State in October, Gabriel did complete 22 of 30 passes for 257 yards but threw two picks along with two touchdowns and his eight incompletions were mostly ghastly misses because he wasn't able to calmly click through his reads from a clean pocket. Unfortunately too, I didn't see a variety of anticipatory throws on film. He's not a master in that area at this stage.
He's simply not a plus physical specimen by today's NFL standards. He also threw to a tremendous amount of wide-open receivers at Oregon in 2024, and his stats were buoyed by the spread/bootleg based scheme at Oregon. Ironically, Michigan State was the only contest to date for Gabriel in which he hit the 20-pass mark on throws that weren't screens and were attempted at least 6 yards downfield.
The best chance for Gabriel to succeed in the NFL is if he lands in a reasonably cushy situation -- similar to what he was in Oklahoma and even more so, at Oregon -- on a team with a reasonably sturdy offensive line and a YAC-based philosophy on offense, which is becoming more of the norm in the NFL. A head coach from the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree, which grows every offseason, would be ideal.
Of course, as a backup or QB3 to begin, teams like the Browns, Raiders, Giants, Vikings, 49ers, or even the Dolphins would be logical, soft landing spots.
As far as scheme, plenty of schemed-open quick-game opportunities, RPOs, a dedication to play-action rollouts, and digs underneath clearing vertical routes would be nice. The whole attack doesn't have to be centered around dink and dunk, although the limited vertical ability from Gabriel has to be considered. Then again, a team isn't likely to pick Gabriel and then construct its offense around him.
The idea with Gabriel in the NFL has to operate has to mostly reduce his physical impact on the game and lean into his deceptive quicks, progression-reading acumen, pocket-navigation skills, and hint of mobility.
Gabriel feels like a quarterback who could sneak onto Day 2 or be an early Day 3 selection, and the combine will have a sizable impact on when the Oregon passer is ultimately picked.
WATCH: Oregon's Dillon Gabriel advocates for more warm-weather games, fireworks in hilarious interview
Dillon Gabriel is one of the best college football players in the country, and he has some ideas to make the game even better. Ahead of Oregon's College Football Playoff game against Ohio State at the Rose Bowl, Gabriel excitedly advocated for some improvements.
Speaking to KOIN News, Gabriel said the Rose Bowl has all the makings of an excellent football game. Between the warm weather and natural grass field, Gabriel said every game should be played in that kind of environment -- with a few more pyrotechnics.
"We love the Rose Bowl," Gabriel said. "We love warm weather. I think we should play more games on nice grass instead of artificial stuff. The more sun the better. Why do we do it to ourselves? Do fans want to sit in the snow and the rain? Let's make arenas. Let's make domes. More grass. Let's do more fireworks at games. Yeah, let's do that."
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Gabriel, a Hawaii native, loves playing football in a warm climate. That hasn't prevented him from having all kinds of success with the Ducks in Eugene, Oregon.
Gabriel has led the top-ranked Ducks to the playoff while completing 73.2% of his passes for 3,558 yards, 28 touchdowns and just six interceptions. He's also used his legs, rushing for 192 yards and seven touchdowns.
Gabriel finished third in Heisman Trophy voting this year, and now he can cap the season with a national championship. The next step for Gabriel will be defeating an Ohio State team that just throttled Tennessee in the first round. Kickoff for that game is set for 5 p.m. ET on New Year's Day.
Oregon Ducks QB Dillon Gabriel named finalist for Heisman Trophy
For the second year in a row, an Oregon Duck will be heading to New York City to represent the green and yellow.
On Monday night, Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel was named a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, joining Boise State Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty, Colorado Buffaloes cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter, and Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cameron Ward.
This is the second straight year that an Oregon quarterback will be up for the award, with Bo Nix finishing third in the voting last year. LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels won the award, while Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. placed second.
The Heisman Trophy will be awarded on Saturday night in New York City.
Following the end of the regular season, Hunter is the overwhelming favorite to win the award, with Jeanty in second place behind him. Both Gabriel and Ward are tied for third place in the betting odds.
After leading the Ducks to a perfect 13-0 record and a Big Ten Championship, Gabriel finished the regular season completing 297-of-406 passes for 3,558 yards, 28 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions. Gabriel also rushed for 192 yards and 7 touchdowns.
Gabriel is now the fifth Oregon Duck to ever be named as a finalist for the award. In 2001, QB Joey Harrington became the program’s first-ever finalist, while RB LaMichael James became the second finalist in 2010. QB Marcus Mariota won the Heisman Trophy in 2014, and Nix was a finalist in 2023.
Story originally appeared on Ducks Wire
Dillon Gabriel seeks big win to go with big numbers when No. 12 Oklahoma faces No. 3 Texas
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel has put up big numbers for years.
Now, he finally has a chance to seize the national spotlight.
The redshirt senior is second among active Bowl Subdivision players with nearly 13,000 career yards passing, but he hasn’t had that special moment or big win that grabbed the nation’s attention. He was productive when he started his career at Central Florida, but that was a Group of Five program at the time. He transferred to Oklahoma and started for the Sooners last season, but sat out the 49-0 loss to Texas with a head injury, and the team stumbled to a 6-7 finish and a loss in the Cheez-It Bowl.
Now, Gabriel has his opportunity. He could put his team in the race for a College Football Playoff spot and make himself a clear Heisman contender when the 12th-ranked Sooners (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) play No. 3 Texas (5-0, 2-0) Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
“It’s an atmosphere, environment you live for, dream of,” he said.
Gabriel witnessed the craziness of the rivalry game last year as he watched the first half from the sideline, then observed the second half from the press box. He recalled the disappointment of not being able to play.
“I think just being sidelined, being off the field — it’s just not fun,” he said. “I play the game because I love it. It’s something I’m passionate about. You work so hard with a group of guys, and not being able to be on the field with them, it didn’t feel the best. I think you learn a lot from those moments as well, both as a player and as a group.”
Texas will face a much better quarterback than it would have seen last year, when Gabriel was the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. He ranks in the top 10 nationally in passing yardage, total offense, touchdown passes, completion percentage and passer efficiency rating.
The mobile 5-foot-11 left-hander also has four rushing touchdowns this season.
“He’s the head of the snake,” Texas linebacker Jaylan Ford said. “We know he’s going to make the team go. He’s the quarterback, so his ability to make certain throws gives his receivers chances to go up and make plays on the ball. I definitely see that on tape.”
Quite a few Oklahoma fans on social media were ready to move on from Gabriel this season and rush in five-star freshman Jackson Arnold. Venables said Arnold’s presence has helped Gabriel.
“Competition should bring out the best of everyone if you’re made of the right stuff,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said. “I don’t think Dillon’s ever felt ‘threatened,’ but certainly knows that the young guy’s watching him every day and is incredibly talented in his own right.”
Gabriel doesn’t have a clear favorite receiver. Nic Anderson leads Oklahoma with five touchdown receptions on just 10 catches. The 6-foot-4 freshman is former Oklahoma running back Rodney Anderson’s younger brother. Drake Stoops, former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops’ son, leads the team with 25 receptions. Andrel Anthony leads the team with 387 yards receiving.
His 15 touchdown passes have gone to eight receivers, and none have caught more than four scoring passes from him.
“I think it’s a credit to all the players and getting open,” Venables said. “And then I think Dillon having the poise to go through his reads and take advantage of where the openings are if you will. All of it together is great chemistry, great understanding by everybody involved, then everybody gets an opportunity to have some success.”
He’s done it all with just a few key receivers back from last year. Drake Stoops said the quickly developed chemistry comes from offseason work.
“It’s just building his connection and rapport with the wide receivers, us all being on the same page and having a good connection and him knowing where we’re going to be and us being at the right place at the right time and just making plays for each other,” Drake Stoops said.
Last week, Gabriel passed for three touchdowns and ran for two in a 50-20 win over Iowa State. All three touchdowns went to different players, an example of his command of the offense.
“Couldn’t ask for much better,” Venables said. “You’d have to be pretty dang picky to find some places, but he’s done incredibly well. He’s made improvement, he’s making great decisions, playing with great confidence, still having humility and respect for what it takes to be successful and practices with a game-like mentality, and it shows up.”
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll
