Dillon Gabriel to be Tua Tagovailoa's successor? Analyst predicts Dolphins to select Oregon QB in mock draft

Oregon Ducks quarterback Dillon Gabriel will head to the NFL after playing six seasons at the collegiate level. Where he will play next season remains to be seen.

On Thursday, The Athletic's NFL draft analyst, Dane Brugler, published his final mock draft of the year. According to his full, seven-round mock draft, Gabriel could be drafted by the Miami Dolphins with the 135th pick in the fourth round.

Tua Tagovailoa is the QB of the Miami Dolphins. Seeing that he has dealt with multiple concussions throughout the last few seasons, a young, NFL-ready backup would be a good selection for Miami.

Tagovailoa suffered a concussion in Week 3 last season, which led to him missing six games. The Dolphins missed the playoffs by two games and are aware that if they had a solid backup QB, the team would have likely made the postseason.

Gabriel had five seasons where he threw for over 3,100 passing yards and three seasons where he threw for at least 30 touchdowns.

Dillon Gabriel addressed similarities between he and Tia Tagovailoa

In March, Dillon Gabriel was asked by reporters at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine about the similarities between him and Tua Tagovailoa. Besides being both born and raised in Hawaii, there is another similarity: they are both left-handed — a rarity in the NFL.

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"I think there's lefty comparisons, but as you could imagine, there's very few of us," Gabriel said to reporters. "Which is cool. Great person to be compared to. Of course a guy I watched growing up and has had a bunch of success."

In 2024, Tagovailoa and the Atlanta Falcons' Michael Penix Jr. were the only left-handed QBs in the league.

Gabriel also told reporters that he met with the Miami Dolphins during his time at the combine and that he was pleased with how the interaction went. Adding another left-handed QB to the depth chart would be beneficial for the Dolphins' receivers as well, so there wouldn't be much of a difference if a change is made at QB.

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