Dillon Gabriel flying under radar nationally as a top returning QB in 2023

Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel is ranked first or second, depending on which ranking of the top returning quarterbacks in the Big 12 for 2023 you refer to, but when you broaden the scope to the best returning signal callers nationally, the Sooner QB drops down precipitously.

Granted, Gabriel may not have had his best performance last season, but it was still a pretty darn good one. Despite having one of the worst defenses college football last season (122nd out of 131 FBS teams), the OU offense, with Gabriel at the on-field controls, still remained highly potent (13th in total offense).

Gabriel thttps://twitter.com/PFF_College/status/1653393150285852673hrew for 3,163 passing yards and 25 touchdowns last season. That wasn’t far off his freshman season in 2019 at UCF, also under offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, during which he passed for 3,653 yards and 29 touchdowns and led a UCF offense that finished No. 5 in the country.

Pro Football Focus recently published a ranking of the top-10 returning quarterbacks in college football for the 2023 season. No need perusing it if you’re a Sooner fan because Gabriel’s name is not on it. He may have fallen somewhere in the 10 to 20 range, but that was not the intention of the article. A former Sooner, however, headed PFF’s top-10 ranking of the best returning QBs. Of course, the person in question is Heisman winner Caleb Williams.

What I find truly interesting about all of this is that PFF also published a top-10 QB ranking several days early that did include Oklahoma’s Gabriel on it. The difference between the two, apparently, is how the returning QBs graded out based on PFF criteria. Another oddity is that K.J. Jefferson was drafted in the recent NFL Draft, so he is not returning to Arkansas.

Brad Crawford of 247Sports also ostensibly lost favor in Gabriel between January and May. In January, Crawford listed Gabriel as the 10th best among the quarterbacks believed to be returning in 2023. Interestingly, former Sooner QB Spencer Rattler was ranked No. 11, right behind Gabriel.

Earlier this month, Crawford issued a revised ranking of the top-10 returning quarterbacks. Gabriel did not make the top 10, but the No. 10 spot was occupied by another Big 12 QB. Jaylon Daniels of Kansas.

Whether Gabriel will have as good a year, or an even better one than last season, will be determined on the field in the fall. Oklahoma is expected to be better than it was last season, and if that indeed becomes reality, you can be assured that Gabriel will have a major hand in it, regardless of whether he is deserving of a top-10 standing among returning Power Five signal callers.