Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel enters the 2025 NFL Draft as one of the most productive quarterbacks in college football history.
That’s not hyperbole, either. Gabriel has the most career touchdown passes in FBS history, as well as the most total touchdowns and total points responsible for. It’s hard to argue there’s a more proven player in this year’s draft class than him due to his large sample size of tape.
Dillon Gabriel’s Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’0″
- Weight: 200 pounds
- Position: Quarterback
- School: Oregon
- Current Year: Graduate Student
Scouting Report
A native Hawaiian, Gabriel grew up in Mililani, Hawaii, and attended Mililani High School. His mother was a college softball player, and his father was a quarterback at the University of Hawaii. Gabriel was a three-star recruit coming out of high school and was named the 2018 Gatorade Hawaii Player of the Year in football. He committed to the University of Central Florida.
Though Gabriel started the 2019 season as UCF’s second-string quarterback, he took over the role midway through the first game of the season and proceeded to close out the year as the Knights’ starter. They went 10-3 that year, with Gabriel throwing for 3,653 yards, 29 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. He also added four rushing touchdowns and had a 59.3% completion percentage.
In a COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, Gabriel was still able to put up big numbers. His per-game averages all increased, and he finished the year with 3,570 passing yards, 32 touchdowns, and just four interceptions with an improved 60.0% completion percentage. He earned a second-team All-AAC nomination for his efforts, trailing only Desmond Ridder in all-conference votes.
UCF lost head coach Josh Heupel to Tennessee heading into the 2021 season, but they added another experienced coach in his place, Guz Malzahn. Gabriel remained the starter but suffered a broken clavicle in the Knights’ third game of the year that ended his season prematurely. Leading up to the end of the season, he entered the transfer portal and committed to Oklahoma in Dec. 2021.
Gabriel led the charge in the Sooners’ first season post-Lincoln Riley, and though his 2022 season as an individual was strong, Oklahoma as a program had some issues. Gabriel ended the year 6-6 as a starting quarterback, but he still threw for 3,168 yards, 25 touchdowns, and six interceptions while rushing for six touchdowns in the process. He was named a second-team All-Big 12 member for his efforts.
Oklahoma bounced back in 2023 with a 10-3 season, with Gabriel finishing the year 10-2 in his starts. He finished with a career-high 42 touchdowns, throwing for 30 and rushing for 12. His 3,660 passing yards and 69.3% completion percentage were both career-highs for him at the time, and he earned first-team All-Big 12 recognition for the year.
After the regular season ended, he announced he would enter the transfer portal, committing to Oregon after only a few days in the portal.
In his last year of college eligibility, Gabriel ended up reaching career highs in most passing categories. He put up personal bests with a 72.9% completion percentage and 3,857 passing yards, and he scored 37 total touchdowns with six interceptions. Oregon ended the regular season undefeated, winning the Big Ten in their first season in the conference.
Gabriel was a first-team All-American, a first-team All-Big Ten member, as well as the Big Ten MVP. He finished his collegiate career second all-time in FBS passing yards — 18,722 yards. He played in 64 total games, making him the NCAA Division I leader in the most games played by a quarterback.
Strengths
- Tremendous collegiate résumé with production and longevity that is unmatched by any quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft.
- Throws have NFL-caliber velocity and zip behind them, which helps him in targets in tight windows.
- Capable of stretching the field vertically with solid arm strength down the field and intriguing flashes of deep accuracy.
- A legitimate dual-threat quarterback with the lateral quickness to avoid defenders both in and out of the pocket.
- Breakaway speed as a ball carrier is quite good for the quarterback position.
- Throws with ideal anticipation, showing off the ability to see his receivers open and deliver a well-placed ball across the middle of the field.
- Good sense of timing when he chooses to get the ball out.
- Reliable in terms of his creativity out of structure, as he has both the agility and the spatial awareness to extend the play with his feet while still scanning the field for open receivers.
Weaknesses
- Will turn 25 years old in his rookie season.
- Undersized quarterback whose height is below average for the position, and his frame — though thicker than it used to be — is still pretty light.
- Doesn’t stand out as having a particularly elite physical upside.
- Throws have good velocity, but his ability to throw from different arm angles and different platforms isn’t anything to write home about.
- Left-handed quarterback who will require an adjustment period for teams in their playbook if they don’t already employ a lefty.
- Tends to throw off his back foot when under pressure, thus affecting his poise and accuracy in a collapsing pocket.
- Has a season-ending injury to his name, a broken clavicle.
- Throwing motion is a bit winded with an elongated delivery in his arm.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
When you have a prospect who’s taken as many snaps and thrown as many passes as Gabriel, there isn’t much mystery as to what his strengths and weaknesses are.
What you see is what you get with Gabriel. He’s an experienced quarterback with a natural sense of timing and anticipation behind his throws. He’s accurate, he’s athletic, and he’s reliable in the short-to-intermediate ranges. As far as a pure game-manager quarterback goes, he’s as steady as they come at the collegiate level.
That said, Gabriel’s ceiling at the professional level doesn’t seem to be incredible. He’s an older prospect entering the league, to begin with, and he’s small for the quarterback position. His arm is good, but it’s not great, and his deep ball is still a work in progress. That limits his upside when projecting him into the NFL.
Gabriel does the little things well, which will get him selected in the 2025 NFL Draft. He feels like a good backup quarterback at the next level, and while he probably won’t ever become “the guy” for whichever team he ends up at, he could carve out a strong career for himself and make some serious money as a steady backup. Round 4 or Round 5 seems like a good value for that type of prospect.
