LANDOVER, Md. — It’s the first week of October, and the Browns’ season ends before the Guardians’ season.
1-4, that’s it. It feels like it’s all over, long before the leaves turn green, before the bye week, before the pumpkins are carved, before the NBA season begins, before the Guardians’ baseball fate is sealed.
Even by Brown’s standards, this was too early for an obituary.
Yet here they rest, a bad team with a 34-13 record buried in a bad stadium 12 miles from the nation’s capital.
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There were fires everywhere but not enough hoses to go around. The defense is a mess. The offense was completely broken, without any identity and any concept of how to move the ball effectively in a new scheme with personnel that didn’t fit.
The Browns couldn’t even line up properly on both sides of the ball, which is a Level 1 coaching felony. they are marked twice The defense has too many players on the field on the same play and the offense can’t get going on fourth down from the 2 because they have too many players packed together. They had to take a penalty and then kick a field goal. This is coaching.
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They couldn’t defend, especially on the right side of the offensive line. Dawand Jones has been terrible at right tackle all year, and Wyatt Teller is dealing with a knee injury at a bad time in the schedule.
Rookie Zack Hint could end up being a very good back in the NFL, but right now he’s just a rookie being stymied by the NFC East’s elite defensive tackles: Giants’ Dexter Lawrence, Commanders ’s De’Aaron Payne and next week it’s Jalen Carter of the Hawks.
All of this is important context. It’s not just a player.
But something has to change. They couldn’t survive another three months like this, or no one would survive.
It’s time. It’s time to end the Deshaun Watson disaster. That’s the only word that describes every part of this deal. The trade that brought him to Cleveland was a complete failure, and the contract is a dead weight and a suffocation for a team that’s losing its oxygen.
Let me be clear: Watson isn’t the only problem with this team. But he is definitely not the solution either. We now have enough evidence.
Watson was a mess against the Washington Commanders: 15 of 28 for 125 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked seven more times and it took until the fourth quarter offense to tie the game at three.
Stefanksi is not happy with Watson.
Kudos to him for covering his mouth…very well handled, all things considered pic.twitter.com/1lLZJYokIX
— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) October 6, 2024
In a league of 32 quarterbacks, he ranks 33rd in pass EPA (expected points) per dropback. His passer rating ranks 28th. He was sacked a league-high 26 times, nine more than any other quarterback.
Even with time on Sunday, his pocket was clean. Jerry Jeudy scored a touchdown in the end zone, even though the game was decided by that point. I try to be rational but also realistic.
A franchise quarterback should help the offense and team overcome some of those hurdles.
Watson made it worse.
He didn’t help this offense. He didn’t help this football team.
Of course, Kevin Stefanski isn’t ready to have this conversation.
“We’re not changing quarterbacks,” Stefanski said after the game.
Even if he was willing──how could he not be now? -Ownership not allowed. The Haslams were still frantically scooping and paddling the SS Watson, intent on dragging it all the way to the bottom of the sea.
We’re almost there.
Last year, when Joe Flacco revitalized the team, it became clear what Stefanski’s offense would look like with a quality quarterback leading the way. Instead of using this as a blueprint to show Watson how good Stefanski’s offense can be when executed correctly, they executed the offense and the offensive coordinator. They broke something that didn’t need fixing to appease their quarterback.
The offense is now averaging 3.8 yards per play through five games, which is the worst offense in the NFL since 2018, according to Stathead. This is worse than bad. How sad.
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It’s not entirely Watson’s fault, but he’s the reason they’re stuck running a system that doesn’t lend itself to any skill player, and Stefanski is clearly not willing to make the call. I wrote an article a few weeks ago about how the Browns have the slowest receivers in the league and how they struggle to create separation. That doesn’t mean you can’t win with them, but it obviously means you can’t win with them this.
Watson has been infected by the series, and there is no known cure. They couldn’t cut him down. They can’t trade him. They refused to bench him and asked him to cash the check anonymously. So they’ll keep kicking him out on Sunday and the rest of the body will die.
The fact that this is all directed at Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels is a bit ironic. Daniels performed exactly like the quarterback the Browns thought they were getting in Watson. Daniel was calm and shrugged off the pressure. He can tumble out of the pocket and throw a dime down the field, as he did on Terry McLaurin’s nifty 66-yard field goal in the first quarter.
Daniels elevated a desperate team. He covered up his defensive deficiencies. The Commanders have matched last year’s win total, largely because their quarterback is playing at an elite level. That’s what good people can do.
The Browns don’t have a good player. They have an infection. And the body is slowly dying.
(Deshaun Watson Photo: Timothy Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
