Here are three thoughts on the sad state of affairs as the Cleveland Browns begin their first work week of the 2024 season without Deshaun Watson.
1. I’m expecting Jameis Winston to be the starting quarterback this week against the Baltimore Ravens. And I’m expecting Winston to help deliver the best offensive performance of the season.
Extremely low bar? Well, yes. And I’m not saying Winston is any kind of savior — or even that it will be good enough for the 1-6 Browns to beat the 5-2 Ravens. However, Winston is experienced, has run the No. 1 offense throughout the spring and parts of the summer, and can at least push the offense to levels of functionality that have only been seen in short spurts so far.
That low bar? Embrace it. It’s awkward because Winston was demoted to the team’s No. 3 quarterback in Week 7 without a clear explanation, and because there’s still some uncertainty. Coach Kevin Stefanski has made no definitive announcement on the starting quarterback, but Dorian Thompson-Robinson has a finger injury that could require Cleveland to start Winston.
With Watson out for the season and Thompson-Robinson somewhere in the range of uncertain to unlikely, the Browns had to sign Bailey Zappe off the Kansas City Chiefs’ practice squad.
Throughout training camp, Winston was the best and most consistent thrower among the Browns’ four quarterbacks (Thompson-Robinson was next). In the preseason finale, Winston played with the No. 1 offense and pushed the ball downfield — specifically over the middle — to Cedric Tillman. I’m expecting that’s where the most immediate and noticeable change will be: Watson either couldn’t make those intermediate to deep throws over the middle, or he didn’t want to. Winston will come out firing.
Will he throw interceptions? History says yes. Do the Browns probably know what Winston is at this point of his career, and did that opinion potentially keep them from playing him earlier? Maybe. There have been a lot of layers to this mess, obviously. And I don’t know what will happen a week from now or what situation the Browns will be in past their early November bye week. But I think he’ll give the offense a chance to at least get past the first block of a game plan and challenge defenses via the air.
Winston has made 80 career starts, but he’s only started three games over the past three seasons. His only significant action with the Browns came in the final five minutes on Sunday. I don’t think we can take too much from that, but I think Winston can involve multiple pass catchers and benefit from a little bit of the unknown with the Ravens having little film on Winston with Cleveland.
Let’s see what happens. But considering a case could easily be made that Winston should have been starting a couple of weeks ago to try to spark this offense, I expect at least some decent results with him in the game.
2. I remain less than sure that the Browns could trade all-world defensive end Myles Garrett before the Nov. 5 deadline — or even before next season. Garrett is a weather-changing force who, even at 28 and in his eighth NFL season, can still deliver top-level performances for years to come.
But with each passing week, I think the Browns have to be open to discussions about Garrett’s future — both internally about where this whole thing is headed and any external offers they might receive with contending teams believing the Browns will be sellers at the deadline.
The Browns are facing a multiyear rebuild. They’re tied to around $170 million in salary-cap commitments to Watson regardless of how the team decides to alter or stretch them out. There are still eight likely Browns starters this week who are 30 or older, even after the Amari Cooper trade, and the future dead money involved with Cooper and pending moves over the coming weeks will force Cleveland to get younger and cheaper. This is what happens when an all-in season is embarrassingly over before the leaves change.
Can the Browns get a first-round pick plus more for Garrett? Sure. But trading Garrett would bring $36 million more in dead money for next year, and even getting close to a Garrett trade would require organizational continuity on how to both tear down the current roster and plot a path for the future. Saying it’s nice to have an extra late first-round pick (or picks) is one thing. Making a plan to maximize those picks is more important.
If the Browns are going to trade Garrett, they’re probably going to ask not only for multiple premium picks but potentially for a young player with multiple seasons left on his rookie contract. They’re entitled to ask for anything they want, really. But it’s still going to be difficult to find a real meeting place between what the Browns would need to actually let Garrett move on and what a team could give.
There’s also this: Would ownership even allow a Garrett trade before the deadline? The Browns are facing crucial, expensive and franchise-altering decisions on many levels in the coming months. It remains possible that the Haslam family isn’t sure who will be in charge of the roster in February and March, and that could add one extra layer of complication to potentially trading the most gifted player of the team’s new era.
Stay tuned. I’ve shifted from thinking there’s almost no way a Garrett trade happens to believing the Browns have to at least participate in the varied discussions surrounding it.
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3. Who’s definitely going to be on this team next year? There really aren’t a lot of locks, and counting them out makes for a great exercise around the trade deadline. So come back then. Who’s going to be in this front office next year? That’s a valid question, too.
Why would anyone’s job be safe right now? The Browns can’t get lined up correctly, haven’t challenged defenses vertically, haven’t made kicks, have given up a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown, haven’t reached 20 points and have even mixed in several temporary demotions (Winston and Elijah Moore on Sunday) with poor tackling, false starts and multiple 12 men on the field penalties on the defense in Washington.
The early 2024 extensions for Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry were deserved. And though I’m neither endorsing nor predicting firings at this still-early moment, it would be silly to think the Browns keep things intact as they begin to pick up the pieces of this disastrous season, the disastrous Watson trade and piles of money wasted on various contracts, re-worked deals and missed evaluations.
Even if the season goes further sideways, there are still players playing for jobs — here or elsewhere the rest of the year — and each week remains an evaluation point as the Browns move past the trade deadline and eventually into the back half of a season with no certainty on who might be playing quarterback, running back, left tackle, right tackle or wide receiver next year.
The list of needs is long. The list of questions and uncertainties is longer. For now, let’s take all the salary-cap gymnastics, picks given up for Watson and the doubling down on this roster as a reminder not to confuse activity for achievement. The Browns are facing a long, long road to respectability.
(Photo: Jeff Bottari / Getty Images)
