After an embarrassing 34-13 loss to the Commanders dropped the Browns to 1-4, head coach Kevin Stefanski insisted that Deshaun Watson would remain the team’s starting quarterback despite his struggles to begin to the season.
“We’re not changing quarterbacks,” Stefanski said, via ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi. “We want to play higher. I would like to educate higher.”
But lots of the Browns’ problems seem to begin with Watson, who has posted a league-low 23.9 Total QBR (amongst current starters) this season while averaging fewer than 175 passing yards per game. The high-priced QB has thrown five touchdown passes and two interceptions, but his 26 sacks are a league-high. Cleveland has yet to attain greater than 20 points in a single game this season.
The Browns’ turmoil under center for the past 20 years could have conditioned them to poor quarterback play, but Watson is reaching a brand new low in Cleveland. He began last 12 months with a -0.20 EPA per dropback through Week 5, the bottom of any Browns QB to begin the season since 2000, based on The Ringer’s Austin Gayle. That number has dropped to -0.30 EPA per dropback in 2024, severely hindering a Browns offense that remains to be without Nick Chubb as he recovers from last 12 months’s season-ending knee injury.
But Stefanski is adamant that replacing Watson wouldn’t be a cure-all for the anemic offense, despite the presence of viable veteran backup Jameis Winston on the roster. Watson’s latest rough outing got here as emergency Browns 2023 substitute Joe Flacco, who desired to re-sign but was not a part of Cleveland’s 2024 plans, posted a 359-yard passing day in a shootout loss to the Jaguars. The Browns didn’t make Flacco a proposal and didn’t have a Watson benching on their radar despite his poor start through three games. While this latest effort will only intensify the calls for Winston to have a likelihood, Stefanski intimated this problem is beyond merely his QB1.
“This just isn’t a one-person issue on offense,” Stefanski continued. “Now we have the fellows. Now we have the coaches. We are going to get it fixed.”
Stefanski repeatedly emphasized the necessity for higher coaching after Sunday’s loss, but his comments leading as much as Week 5 indicate that he’ll remain the team’s play-caller moving forward. The Browns appeared to have multiple miscommunications on offense against the Commanders, and TV cameras caught Stefanski and Watson exchanging words after the quarterback walked off the sphere on fourth-and-goal. Stefanski confirmed this summer he would remain the play-caller, installing Ken Dorsey as a non-play-calling OC.
Watson is under contract in Cleveland for 2 more fully guaranteed seasons, with cap hits of $72.9MM in 2025 and 2026. The Browns’ second restructuring of his contract ballooned those numbers past that $72MM point, which might shatter an NFL record. The previous first-round pick is facing one other allegation of sexual assault after serving an 11-game suspension in 2022 for violations of the NFL’s personal conduct policy stemming from several lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault. Barring a suspension that might allow the Browns to void Watson’s future guarantees — provided the QB didn’t inform them of this incident — they continue to be stuck with this contract.
