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Tua Tagovailoa-Dillon Gabriel in Dolphins-Browns is NFL's first lefty-lefty QB matchup since 2006

Week 7 will become Southpaw Sunday in Cleveland.

The Browns' date with the Miami Dolphins will feature dueling left-handed quarterbacks -- Miami's Tua Tagovailoa and Cleveland rookie Dillon Gabriel -- for just the 24th instance since 1950, per NFL Research. It will also be the first such matchup in nearly 20 years, ending a drought that began after Atlanta's Michael Vick defeated Tampa Bay's Chris Simms in Week 2 of the 2006 season.

The matchup also pits two Hawaiian natives against each other, a fact of which Gabriel was reminded and acknowledged by adding he's played against Tagovailoa once in his life.

"Of course, him playing in Hawaii, everyone knew Tua," Gabriel said on Wednesday.

Sunday's game will be the first lefty-on-lefty matchup to not involve Simms since his football career ended after the 2010 season; the last five instances all included him. It will also be just the second matchup of left-handed quarterbacks involving the Browns or Dolphins since 1950.

The last time Miami featured a southpaw and faced one was 1993, when the Jets' Boomer Esiason defeated Scott Mitchell and the Dolphins, 27-10. Cleveland hasn't encountered such a matchup since Week 8 of the 1984 season when Esiason's Bengals defeated Paul McDonald's Browns, 12-9.

Considering Cleveland's and Miami's identical 1-5 records, Sunday's meeting doesn't carry much prestige. The rarity of the quarterback matchup should add some intrigue, though, on a day that is expected to include strong wind gusts and could produce some wacky outcomes.

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