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

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

At 1-4 the time has come. It looks 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 set.

Even by Brown's standards, this is very 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.

There are fires all over the place and there aren't enough hoses. The defense is a multitude. The offense is totally broken, with no identity and no idea of ​​how one can move the ball effectively on this recent scheme that the personnel doesn't fit into.

The Browns couldn't even line up properly on either side of the ball, a training crime of the primary degree. They have been marked twice on defense for too many players on the sphere on the identical drive, and the offense couldn't attack on fourth-and-goal from the two because that they had too many players within the huddle. They needed to take a penalty and kick a field goal as an alternative. This is coaching.

They couldn't protect, especially on the suitable side of the attack line. Dawand Jones has been poor at right tackle all 12 months, and Wyatt Teller picked a nasty time on the schedule due to a knee injury.

Rookie Zak Zinter could possibly be a superb guard within the NFL sooner or later, but right away he's a rookie being worn down by a difficult stretch of fantastic 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 very important context. It's not only one player.

And yet something has to vary. They can't last one other three months like this or nobody will survive.

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

Let me be clear: Watson shouldn’t be the one problem on this team. But it's definitely not the answer 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 3rd down until the fourth quarter.

Stefanksi is NOT joyful with Watson.

Kudos to him for keeping his mouth shut…he handled it pretty much considering all of the circumstances pic.twitter.com/1lLZJYokIX

— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) October 6, 2024

In a league with 32 quarterbacks, he’s thirty third in pass EPA (expected points added) per dropback. He ranks twenty eighth in passer rating. He has been sacked a league-leading 26 times, nine more times than some other quarterback.

Even when he had time on Sunday, he left clean pockets. Jerry Jeudy dropped a touchdown in the long run zone, regardless that the sport was already decided at that time. I attempt to be sensible and realistic at the identical time.

A franchise quarterback is speculated to help an offense and a team overcome a few 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 able to have this conversation.

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

Even if he desired 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 underside of the ocean.

We're almost there.

Last 12 months showed what Stefanski's offense could appear to be with a legitimate quarterback as Joe Flacco revitalized the team. Instead of using this as a blueprint to point out Watson how good Stefanski's offense can look when executed appropriately, they as an alternative ran the offense and the offensive coordinator. They broke something that didn't should 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 hovering near the Browns' 1999 expansion (3.65). It's worse than bad. It's unlucky.

It's not all Watson's fault, but he's the rationale they're stuck with a system that doesn't suit any of their talented players, and Stefanski is clearly uncomfortable with it. I wrote just a few weeks ago about how the Browns have a few of the slowest receivers within the league who struggle to create separation. That doesn't mean you’ll be able to't win with them, but it surely clearly means you’ll be able to't win once they play like that The.

Watson has turn out to be an infection within the franchise for which there is no such thing as a cure. You can't cut it. You can't trade him. They refuse to bank him and let him money his checks anonymously. So they keep him running outside on Sundays while the remaining of the body dies.

The incontrovertible fact that this all got here against the Commanders' rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels, was just a little ironic. Daniels is playing exactly just like the quarterback the Browns expected with Watson. Daniels is balanced, he escapes the pressure. He can roll out of the pocket and throw coins across the sphere like he did with a phenomenal 66-yard strike to Terry McLaurin in the primary quarter.

Daniels revived a desperate franchise. He covered the sins of poor defense. The Commanders have already matched their wins from last 12 months, largely because their quarterback is playing at an elite level. The good guys can do this.

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