LANDOVER, Md. — It’s the primary week of October and the Browns’ season has ended earlier than the Guardians season.
At 1-4, that is it. It feels prefer it’s already over, lengthy earlier than the leaves change, earlier than the bye week, earlier than a pumpkin is carved, earlier than the NBA season begins and earlier than the Guardians’ baseball destiny has been decided.
Even by Browns requirements, that is awfully early for an obituary.
But right here is the place they have been laid to relaxation, a awful crew buried 34-13 in a awful stadium 12 miles outdoors of the nation’s capital.
GO DEEPER
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There are fires in all places and never sufficient hoses to go round. The protection is a large number. The offense is totally damaged, void of any identification and any idea of the right way to transfer the ball successfully on this new scheme that the personnel doesn’t match.
The Browns couldn’t even get lined up correctly on both facet of the ball, a first-degree teaching felony. They have been flagged twice on protection for too many gamers on the sphere on the identical drive, and the offense couldn’t go for it on fourth-and-goal from the two as a result of that they had too many gamers within the huddle. They needed to eat a penalty and as a substitute kick a area purpose. That’s teaching.
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They couldn’t shield, notably on the best facet of the offensive line. Dawand Jones has been dangerous all 12 months at proper sort out, and Wyatt Teller picked a nasty time on the schedule for a knee harm.
Rookie Zak Zinter may finally be an excellent guard within the NFL, however proper now he’s a rookie getting chewed up by a tough stretch of fantastic NFC East defensive tackles: the Giants’ Dexter Lawrence, the Commanders’ Daron Payne, and subsequent week is the Eagles’ Jalen Carter.
All of that’s vital context. It isn’t only one participant.
And but one thing has to vary. They’ll’t go one other three months like this or nobody will survive.
It’s time. It’s time to finish the Deshaun Watson catastrophe. That’s the one phrase to explain each a part of this transaction. The commerce that introduced him to Cleveland was a whole failure, the contract an albatross, a choke maintain round a franchise that’s dropping oxygen.
Let me be clear: Watson isn’t the one drawback on this crew. However he’s positively not the answer, both. We’ve got sufficient proof now.
Watson was a large number towards the Washington Commanders: 15-of-28 for 125 yards and a landing. He was sacked seven extra instances and the offense didn’t convert a 3rd down till the fourth quarter.
Stefanksi NOT pleased with Watson.
Kudus to him for masking his mouth…dealt with it fairly effectively contemplating all issues pic.twitter.com/1lLZJYokIX
— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) October 6, 2024
In a league of 32 quarterbacks, he’s thirty third in move EPA (anticipated factors added) per dropback. He’s twenty eighth in passer ranking. He has been sacked a league-leading 26 instances, 9 greater than another quarterback.
Even when he had time on Sunday, he left clear pockets. Jerry Jeudy dropped a landing in the long run zone, though the sport was already determined at that time. I’m making an attempt to be affordable whereas additionally being practical.
A franchise quarterback is meant to assist an offense and a crew overcome a few of these obstacles.
Watson is making it worse.
He isn’t serving to this offense. He isn’t serving to this soccer crew.
Kevin Stefanski, in fact, isn’t able to have this dialog.
“We’re not altering quarterbacks,” Stefanski mentioned after the sport.
Even when he needed to — how might he not at this level? — possession wouldn’t permit it. The Haslams are nonetheless bailing water and paddling furiously on the S.S. Watson, hell-bent on taking all of it the best way to the underside of the ocean.
We’re almost there.
Final 12 months confirmed what Stefanski’s offense can appear like with a official quarterback when Joe Flacco resurrected the crew. Slightly than utilizing that as a blueprint to point out Watson how good Stefanski’s offense can look when executed appropriately, they as a substitute executed the offense and the offensive coordinator. They broke one thing that didn’t want fixing to placate their quarterback.
Now the offense is averaging 3.8 yards per play by way of 5 video games, in keeping with Stathead, the worst for any NFL offense since 2018. This offense is hovering within the neighborhood of the 1999 enlargement Browns (3.65). It’s worse than dangerous. It’s deplorable.
GO DEEPER
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It isn’t all Watson’s fault, however he’s the rationale they’re caught operating a system that doesn’t match any of their talent gamers and one Stefanski is clearly uncomfortable calling. I wrote a few weeks in the past about how the Browns have a number of the slowest receivers within the league who battle at creating separation. That doesn’t imply you’ll be able to’t win with them, nevertheless it clearly means you’ll be able to’t win with them taking part in like this.
Watson has turn into an an infection within the franchise with no recognized remedy. They’ll’t minimize him. They’ll’t commerce him. They refuse to bench him and let him money his checks in anonymity. In order that they’ll proceed operating him on the market on Sundays whereas the remainder of the physique dies.
The actual fact this all got here towards Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels was a bit ironic. Daniels performs precisely just like the quarterback the Browns thought they have been buying in Watson. Daniels is poised, he glides away from strain. He can roll out of the pocket and throw dimes down the sphere, as he did on a ravishing 66-yard strike to Terry McLaurin within the first quarter.
Daniels has uplifted a determined franchise. He has lined the sins of a flawed protection. The Commanders have already matched their win complete from final 12 months primarily as a result of their quarterback is taking part in at an elite stage. That’s what the nice ones can do.
The Browns don’t have a very good one. They’ve an an infection. And the physique is slowly dying.
(Photograph of Deshaun Watson: Timothy Nwachukwu / Getty Photographs)
