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 workforce 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 every single place 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 an alternative kick a area objective. That’s teaching.
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They couldn’t shield, significantly on the suitable facet of the offensive line. Dawand Jones has been unhealthy all 12 months at proper sort out, and Wyatt Teller picked a nasty time on the schedule for a knee harm.
Rookie Zak Zinter would possibly finally be an excellent guard within the NFL, however proper now he’s a rookie getting chewed up by a tough stretch of wonderful NFC East defensive tackles: the Giants’ Dexter Lawrence, the Commanders’ Daron Payne, and subsequent week is the Eagles’ Jalen Carter.
All of that’s necessary context. It isn’t only one participant.
And but one thing has to alter. 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 shedding oxygen.
Let me be clear: Watson isn’t the one drawback on this workforce. However he’s positively not the answer, both. Now we have sufficient proof now.
Watson was a large number in opposition to the Washington Commanders: 15-of-28 for 125 yards and a landing. He was sacked seven extra occasions 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 nicely contemplating all issues pic.twitter.com/1lLZJYokIX
— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) October 6, 2024
In a league of 32 quarterbacks, he’s thirty third in cross EPA (anticipated factors added) per dropback. He’s twenty eighth in passer ranking. He has been sacked a league-leading 26 occasions, 9 greater than some other quarterback.
Even when he had time on Sunday, he left clear pockets. Jerry Jeudy dropped a landing ultimately zone, though the sport was already determined at that time. I’m attempting to be cheap whereas additionally being real looking.
A franchise quarterback is meant to assist an offense and a workforce 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 workforce.
Kevin Stefanski, after all, isn’t able to have this dialog.
“We’re not altering quarterbacks,” Stefanski mentioned after the sport.
Even when he wished to — how might he not at this level? — possession wouldn’t enable 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 practically there.
Final 12 months confirmed what Stefanski’s offense can seem like with a reputable quarterback when Joe Flacco resurrected the workforce. Quite than utilizing that as a blueprint to indicate Watson how good Stefanski’s offense can look when executed accurately, they as an alternative 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 via 5 video games, in line 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 unhealthy. It’s deplorable.
GO DEEPER
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It isn’t all Watson’s fault, however he’s the explanation 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 wrestle at creating separation. That doesn’t imply you’ll be able to’t win with them, but it surely clearly means you’ll be able to’t win with them enjoying like this.
Watson has turn out to be an an infection within the franchise with no identified remedy. They’ll’t reduce 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 in opposition to 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 good looking 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 enjoying at an elite stage. That’s what the great ones can do.
The Browns don’t have one. They’ve an an infection. And the physique is slowly dying.
(Photograph of Deshaun Watson: Timothy Nwachukwu / Getty Photographs)
