This week, the Indianapolis Colts benched struggling second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson, a player they invested heavily in as the No. 4 pick in last year’s draft. The 4-4 team owed it to the entire organization and the fans to play their best option at the moment, Joe Flacco.
You can do it, Cleveland Browns.
After watching the Browns beat the Baltimore Ravens last week in Jameis Winston’s first start, I wanted to celebrate a team reborn with Winston at quarterback, and why the team will draft Deshaun Watson at the end of the season. There must have been anger as if he had absolutely failed in that decision. It spins and moves away. Since the end of last season, the Browns are 5-1 in games in which Flacco or Winston have started. During that span, Watson started and went 1-6. Flacco threw for 300 yards in four straight games to end last season with the Browns, and Winston threw for 334 yards on Sunday. Watson hasn’t thrown for 300 yards since the 2020 season and hasn’t even eclipsed 200 yards in a game this season. Still, it took Watson’s season-ending Achilles injury to finally make a difference.
Everyone knew the Browns needed to make a move. they didn’t. And now they can see what life could have been like all season long with the play of a capable quarterback.
“I don’t think so,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said Monday via The Associated Press when asked about keeping Watson. “I thought Jameis did a good job yesterday. I know he feels he can play better, but I don’t see it that way.”
He may not be thinking about it, but the fans who spend a lot of money on tickets and the players in the locker room who don’t have unlimited chances to be part of a playoff team should be. Winston is not good. But like Flacco, he’s much better than Watson. He gives us hope. And he could have given hope a few weeks ago.
Why didn’t the Browns do this sooner?
There’s no clear answer as to who made the final decision to keep Watson, although Stefanski steadfastly denied the idea throughout the season. Stefanski speaks to the media every week, so he had to answer questions. But the lack of action with Watson is so egregious that it leaves everyone wondering if owner Jimmy Haslam had a say. He’s the one paying Watson $230 million in guaranteed contracts, and the team signed him after one of the truly disastrous trades in the NFL. history.
What’s more, the Browns lost their sixth game of the season when Dorian Thompson-Robinson, not Winston, came off the bench to replace the injured Watson in Week 7. Thompson-Robinson, who had a 51.1 passer rating last season, rotted in 11 games. The losses were 24 yards, 82 yards, and 2 interceptions. Another bad coaching decision and another wasted week.
What we saw with the 2024 Browns was systemic cheating. The Browns punted the season, and for what? Should you be desperately chasing sunk cost return on investment as a quarterback? Is it to make Watson feel better? Given his past off the field, he probably can’t afford that kind of consideration.
The Browns’ newfound hope only masks the franchise’s failure to get into this hole.
“We need wins like this to change the season,” Winston said, via The Associated Press. “We still have a long way to go.”
It didn’t have to be that way.
The Browns face a big challenge in making the playoffs.
Do you have season tickets for the Browns? Are you a veteran player for the Browns who haven’t had too many shots in their deep playoff run? Are you a coach or executive for the Browns and a winning season? Does job security depend on it? You might be entitled to complain forever about something that happened nearly half way through this season.
The NFL is fast-moving for players and coaches alike. There aren’t many chances to be a playoff team, but Cleveland knows that. The Browns could have been a playoff team if they had someone else starting this season. It was the same with Flacco last season, and it was the same on Sunday when the Browns defeated one of the best teams in the NFL. Again, going back to last season when Flacco took over, the team is 5-1 in games started by a professional-level quarterback. If the Browns had stopped Watson in early September when it was clear he was beyond repair, would they have gone 4-4 (or even better)? probably.
There is a world where the Browns are still in the playoffs. You have to really squint to see it. Winston started and the Browns defeated the Baltimore Ravens last week, improving the team to 2-6. Assuming 10 wins are needed to earn a wild card in the tough AFC, that means Cleveland will have to go 8-1 for its remaining games. At least 7 to 2. That’s a big question.
There will be games where Winston will make terrible mistakes and cost the Browns. (He nearly did so against the Ravens, but Kyle Hamilton made the game-clinching interception.) That’s who he was as an NFL quarterback. But the Browns will continue to be a good team for the rest of the game. They will be playing at a playoff level. They did the same with Flacco, who was on the couch until last November. They will work with Winston, just like they did on Sunday.
And that would be even more frustrating. The team must take some responsibility for making the decision to end the season before being forced to do the right thing as a quarterback.
