The Browns need a QB change to salvage the remainder of their season

LANDOVER, Md. – It's the first week of October and the Browns' season is over before the Guardians' season.

At 1-4 the time has come. It feels like it's over long before the leaves change, before the bye week begins, before a pumpkin is carved, before the NBA season begins and before the Guardians' baseball fate is decided.

Even by Brown's standards, this is awfully early for an obituary.

But here was their final resting place: a lousy team buried 34-13 in a lousy stadium 12 miles outside the nation's capital.

Go deeper

Jayden Daniels shines as Commanders beat Browns 34-13: Takeaways

There are fires everywhere and there aren't enough hoses. The defense is a mess. The offense is completely broken, with no identity or idea of ​​how to move the ball effectively in this new scheme that the personnel doesn't fit into.

The Browns couldn't even line up properly on both sides of the ball, a coaching crime of the first degree. They have been marked twice on defense for too many players on the field on the same drive, and the offense couldn't attack on fourth-and-goal from the 2 because they had too many players in the huddle. They had to take a penalty and kick a field goal instead. This is coaching.

Scoop City Newsletter

Free, daily NFL updates delivered straight to your inbox.

Free, daily NFL updates delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign in

They couldn't protect, especially on the right side of the attack line. Dawand Jones has been poor at right tackle all year, and Wyatt Teller picked a bad time on the schedule due to a knee injury.

Rookie Zak Zinter could be a very good guard in the NFL at some point, but right now he's a rookie being worn down by a tough line-up of excellent NFC East defensive tackles: Dexter Lawrence of the Giants, Daron Payne of the Commanders, and next week too Jalen Carter of the Eagles.

All of this is important context. It's not just one player.

And yet something has to change. They can't last another three months like this or no one will survive.

It's time. It's time to end the Deshaun Watson disaster. That is the only word that describes every part of this transaction. The trade that brought him to Cleveland was a complete failure, the contract a nuisance, a stranglehold on a franchise running out of oxygen.

Let me be clear: Watson is not the only problem on this team. But it's definitely not the solution either. We now have enough evidence.

Watson was a disaster against the Washington Commanders: 15 of 28 for 125 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked seven more times and the offense didn't convert on a third down until the fourth quarter.

Stefanksi is NOT happy with Watson.

Kudos to him for keeping his mouth shut…he handled it pretty well, all things considered pic.twitter.com/1lLZJYokIX

— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) October 6, 2024

In a league with 32 quarterbacks, he is 33rd in pass EPA (expected points added) per dropback. He ranks 28th in passer rating. He has been sacked a league-leading 26 times, nine more times than any other quarterback.

Even when he had time on Sunday, he left clean pockets. Jerry Jeudy dropped a touchdown in the end zone, even though the game was already decided at that point. I try to be sensible and realistic at the same time.

A franchise quarterback is supposed to help an offense and a team overcome some of these obstacles.

Watson makes it worse.

He doesn't help this offense. He's not helping this football team.

Of course, Kevin Stefanski isn't ready to have this conversation.

“We don’t change quarterbacks,” Stefanski said after the game.

Even if he wanted to, how could he not do it at this point? – The property wouldn’t allow it. The Haslams are still scooping water and paddling furiously on the SS Watson, determined to get her to the bottom of the ocean.

We're almost there.

Last year showed what Stefanski's offense could look like with a legitimate quarterback as Joe Flacco revitalized the team. Instead of using this as a blueprint to show Watson how good Stefanski's offense can look when executed correctly, they instead ran the offense and the offensive coordinator. They broke something that didn't need to be fixed to appease their quarterback.

According to Stathead, the offense is now averaging 3.8 yards per play through five games, the worst of any NFL offense since 2018. This offense is close to the Browns' 1999 expansion (3.65). It's worse than bad. It's unfortunate.

Go deeper

NFL Week 5 Takeaways: Who's Best in the NFC West? Does a Davante Adams/Jets trade still make sense?

It's not all Watson's fault, but he's the reason they're stuck with a system that doesn't suit their players' abilities, and Stefanski is clearly uncomfortable with it. I wrote a few weeks ago about how the Browns have some of the slowest receivers in the league who struggle to create separation. That doesn't mean you can't win with them, but it clearly means you can't win when they play like that The.

Watson has become an infection in the franchise for which there is no cure. You can't cut it. You can't trade him. They refuse to bank him and let him cash his checks anonymously. So they keep him running outside on Sundays while the rest of the body dies.

The fact that this all came against the Commanders' rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels, was a little ironic. Daniels is playing exactly like the quarterback the Browns expected with Watson. Daniels is balanced, he escapes the pressure. He can roll out of the pocket and toss coins down the field, as he did on a beautiful 66-yard strike to Terry McLaurin in the first quarter.

Daniels revived a desperate franchise. He covered the sins of poor defense. The Commanders have already matched their wins from last year, largely because their quarterback is playing at an elite level. The good guys can do that.

The Browns don't have a good one. You have an infection. And the body slowly dies.

(Photo by Deshaun Watson: Timothy Nwachukwu / Getty Images)