The afternoon began with a strategic placement of Cleveland Browns starting quarterback Deshaun Watson 10th on the team’s pregame introduction list. That was one spot ahead of the returning Nick Chubb, in hopes that cheers for the running back, a longtime fan favorite, would quickly drown out the boos the home crowd had for Watson.
That worked. Nothing else did.
By the end of Sunday’s 21-14 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, which didn’t feel as close as the final score indicated, Watson had suffered a likely season-ending Achilles injury. Tests will confirm that, but the team believes Watson suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in the second quarter.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson was Watson’s replacement, and he sprayed several errant passes to players in both brown and white jerseys for nearly two full quarters before suffering a finger injury. That forced the Browns to go to their list of inactive players and emergency quarterback, Jameis Winston, who had been the No. 2 QB for the season’s first six weeks but was demoted for this game.
And Winston still had to play. He actually led the Browns to a touchdown and two-point conversion to set up an onside kick in the final 90 seconds, but it failed and the 1-6 Browns’ losing streak hit five. Afterward, Thompson-Robinson wore a wrap on his finger. Winston talked more about his anger with fans cheering when Watson went down than he did about his performance when entering the game or the team’s outlook going forward.
Winston had to report to the lead referee as part of the NFL’s protocol for an emergency quarterback to be allowed to participate. The Browns now have a quarterback emergency that’s not as easy to navigate as sorting through a list of players to be introduced.
The team’s quarterback for Wednesday’s practice and next Sunday’s game versus the Baltimore Ravens: TBD.
The quarterback who will need to be added to the practice squad and possibly the 53-man roster in the next 30 hours: TBD.
The team’s quarterback for the rest of the season: TBD.
The team’s quarterback for next year despite Watson being signed to a fully guaranteed contract through 2026: TBD.
Winston, the 2015 No. 1 overall pick who’s made 80 career starts, makes the most sense if the Browns still somehow believe they can salvage something this season. Given the state of the offense — they’d scored two touchdowns in 41 possessions dating back to Week 4 before Winston’s touchdown throw to David Njoku — the Browns probably should be on to next year, which brings its own set of complications.
With cash spending totaling more than $337 million, per Spotrac, this is the most expensive roster in NFL history. Even in something resembling a fire sale ahead of the Nov. 5 trade deadline and continuing into the run-up to the start of the 2025 league year in March, the Browns can’t just sell off players without taking on significant dead money — and therefore without careful planning on how to proceed with trades and other deletions.
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Status of absolutely everything: Pretty bleak, and also TBD. The Browns still have more than $170 in cap commitments to Watson, who has played in 19 games for Cleveland. He’s gone over 200 yards passing in just six of them, including none this season.
Last year, the Browns ended up having to start five different quarterbacks. The fifth, Jeff Driskel, played in a meaningless Week 18 game because the fourth, Joe Flacco, led a four-game December win streak to clinch a playoff spot. Flacco took over in early December after Thompson-Robinson was injured in his third start.
Thompson-Robinson hadn’t played all season because, well, on most teams the emergency quarterback doesn’t. But at some point last week, the Browns decided to bump him to No. 2. The second-year player had no reps with the No. 1 offense in practice because, as Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said, “our backups don’t get No. 1 reps.” Whatever this putrid Browns offense has been doing in practice, it’s been doing it with Watson and Watson alone.
So Thompson-Robinson entered Sunday’s second quarter with the Browns driving, and he helped the drive continue. Chubb, in his first game action since Week 2 of last season, scored on a 1-yard run to cap a 12-play drive in the final minute of the first half. Following a missed point-after attempt, the Browns trailed only 7-6.
After some wild — and wildly bad — throws in the second half plus a 34-yard scramble, Thompson-Robinson hit his throwing hand on another player’s helmet in the fourth quarter and had to leave the field for X-rays. After the game, he was asked if he thought he’d be able to grip and throw a ball in time to play next week.
“No clue,” Thompson-Robinson said.
DTR off to the races 😲#CINvsCLE on CBS & NFL+ pic.twitter.com/CEjJt5kogn
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) October 20, 2024
Stefanski said after the game that Thompson-Robinson was this week’s primary backup because he felt it was the “right thing” for this game, and he had no comment on who or what might be next until the Browns get clarity on the injury situation.
“We kind of went into the season thinking both those guys (Winston and Thompson-Robinson) were the No. 2,” Stefanski said. “We felt like with some of the (offensive) packages that we had up today, we didn’t have really Jameis in the short yardage (packages) that we’ve had up before, so felt like it was the right thing for this game.”
Winston had been coming in for quarterback sneaks and other short-yardage situations. After his lone appearance in Week 6 turned into an end around for a loss on third-and-1, it felt like he may have been demoted for not changing that play. But we don’t know for sure, because Stefanski doesn’t answer many questions as his team continues to lose.
Based on the thinking ahead of this game and the sunken season, playing Thompson-Robinson if he’s healthy might make sense. He’s just 24 and is under a cheap contract through 2026. One of the few ways the Browns could escape this Watson era with a competitive team would be to stumble upon a real answer at quarterback through the draft or some other way. They picked Thompson-Robinson in the fifth round in 2023 and clearly like him, but they’ve already had to play him more than they intended to. They’ve seen that he’s probably too small and too turnover-prone to truly give them much of a chance.
Winston had run the No. 1 offense in the spring and summer when Watson wasn’t available. He’d been the primary backup for the first month and a half of the season, and despite Stefanski saying the team viewed them as co-No. 2 quarterbacks, that was never evident.
Winston was signed because the Browns knew Watson couldn’t handle having Flacco around — and also because he’s seen a little of everything in the NFL. He’d be the easy choice to take over if the 2024 Browns were still playing for something, but they’re really not. They’ve reached the worst-case scenario.
What happens next? That’s TBD. And in any case, it’s not at all promising.
(Photo of Jameis Winston and Deshaun Watson: Peter Casey / Imagn Images)
