The Opening Drive 8/17: Comparison is the Thief of Joy
Sit back and enjoy the optimism, I beg of you.
Welcome to a slightly tardy Opening Drive today, which I’m marking as the “Wallpaper Edition.” We made the bold choice to remove wallpaper from our laundry room in order to paint and reshape the space, and let me tell you—it was twelve hours of personal hell. Whoever invented that nonsense should be paying for it in the afterlife. I say all of this to explain why today’s edition is late and why my body is sore from the effort.
Usually, I’m up bright and early working through this quickly to send your way, but once the Game Notes dropped last night, it turned into a grind. I paid for it by oversleeping. So yes, today’s work is late—but I think the topic is worth discussing. Especially after stumbling into the YouTube comments on the BFB Post-Game Show from yesterday. It was… quite unhinged.
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It’s been close to 24 hours since the Browns took on the Eagles in Philadelphia, and the keyboard warriors are out in full force. Following Dillon Gabriel’s first-half performance—one filled with some nice moments and some he’d certainly like back—the football world chose to go down the path of controversy. A harmless quote stemming from a pregame meeting the day before launched social media into a frenzy, with many claiming Gabriel was taking a shot at teammate Shedeur Sanders.
I listened to the interview live and never once considered this to be about Sanders, but the quote looked divisive for those who believe Sanders falls more on the entertainer side — or at least revels in it. It was nauseating to watch unfold as some of the largest accounts in the NFL, including the league’s own, retweeted the comment and took it out of context. Gabriel spent unnecessary time after the game making sure people understood what he meant, and the interviewer, Aditi Kinkhabwala, did the same. This was obvious to those watching, but there’s never a moment without someone seeking controversy.
What is unfolding—something that should have been easy to predict—is that Sanders supporters are out in full force defending his debut against what Gabriel was able to do. To be fair, those who dislike Sanders are now going to bat for Gabriel. This constant struggle to use last Friday or yesterday as confirmation bias for your agenda is equal parts tiring and shallow.
Over two weeks, the Browns’ rookie quarterbacks have each shown traits that might work on Sundays. That alone is encouraging. Both have issues that still need to be ironed out. The Browns are not trying to hinder either of them from reaching their potential, and if we’re being honest, they are sheltering them in the best way possible in a league constantly in a hurry to define players at the most important position.
Instead of viewing this as a one-on-one battle between the rookies, step back and enjoy the fact that two young gunslingers are already comfortable in this offense—a rarity since mid-2022. Who knows if either of them will be the long-term answer, but we can agree that these performances brought enough promise to at least give us a faint idea it could work. And that’s all we can ask for in preseason debuts. So, stop letting unnecessary comparison get in the way of a rare optimistic situation at the league’s most challenging position: quarterback of the Cleveland Browns. I beg you.
In case you missed it, you can catch the video replay of the Post-Game Show. over at our Browns Film Breakdown YouTube Channel. If you’re not subscribed over there, rectify that. It’s free, you know. Film Rooms will be pouring in over here over during the next 24 hours so stay dialed in and if you’re not with us in a subscriber capacity you’ll want to rectify that as well. Don’t miss out. I appreciate all of you.
Browns Film Breakdown will return following consumption of the Game Tape.
The “comfort” in the offense really is such a stark change from last year. Haven’t seen the level of competent offensive play we’ve seen in these two preseason since Flacco’s ‘23 run.
Jameis had some peaks last year, but it never had quite the same feel that ‘20 Baker and ‘23 Flacco hit