The Browns waited until the back of the 2025 NFL Draft’s third round to select a quarterback — and stunned the rest of the league in the process.

Cleveland chose Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel with the 94th overall pick Friday night.

The pick is surprising both because most evaluations of Gabriel projected him as a Day 3 choice — Daniel Jeremiah listed him as his 148th-best prospect out of 150 — and because Gabriel was selected by the quarterback-needy Browns before Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders. In fact, Gabriel wasn’t even considered to be an option until just before the Browns were on the clock at No. 94.

“We really felt strongly about Dillon throughout this process,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry told reporters on Friday when asked about the decision to take Gabriel with Sanders still on the board.

“Think he’s a really strong, really, really good prospect. That’s not to say that we didn’t meet with other quarterbacks that we thought were really talented players and good people, but we felt strong about Dillon and felt he was the best quarterback to pick.”

Sanders, who was considered one of the top QB prospects entering Thursday, went undrafted on Friday, and Gabriel marked the fifth QB taken in the first three rounds.

“The time that we spent with Shedeur and what he’s done throughout his college career is impressive,” Berry said. “He’s an impressive young man. He’s a really good quarterback. Sometimes fit comes into play.”