Cleveland Browns' problems go beyond quarterback and continue to expand | Michael Arace
When I discovered that working out in a gym can cause hemorrhagic strokes, I shifted my regimen. Who wants to expire in a gym? Too much irony. Walking became my exercise of choice.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to figure out how to fit in the daily constitutional. Sunday, it was easy. I was watching the Cleveland Browns game. They were beating the Buffalo Bills. Then, they gave the ball back to the Bills with 2 minutes left in the first half.
I rose from my chair and said, “Time for a walk.” Maybe you did, too, because you knew what was going to happen next. The Bills were going to march down the field, punch one into the end zone and take the lead before halftime. Of course they were.
The Bills scored on seven consecutive possessions and posted an easy 31-23 victory at Ford Field in Detroit.
The cool part of the story is on the Buffalo side. Seven feet of snow fell on “The City of Good Neighbors” over the weekend and the game was moved from Orchard Park to Detroit. In order to assemble the Bills for the flight to Motown, it took scores of good neighbors with tractors, plows, snowblowers and shovels to clear the driveways of Bills players so they could get to the airport. I love that city.
The Bills, who’d practiced just once during the week, looked rusty in the early going. Then they started running the ball at the Browns. Devin Singletary and James Cook rushed for 86 yards apiece, marking season highs for both.
These are your 2022 Browns: They can’t stop the run; of late, they can’t run the ball themselves, not even with Nick Chubb; their special teams are awful; and they turn the ball over at a far greater rate than they take it away (minus-8).
The Browns (3-7) have lost six of seven and dropped to last place in the AFC North. They’ve been blown out of the playoff race before Thanksgiving. Given the talent they have on paper, on both sides of the ball, they are a soaring disappointment.
In March, when the Browns sold their soul and three first-round draft picks to acquire accused serial sexual predator Deshaun Watson, their plan was to hold the fort until Watson had served his 11-game suspension. The fort has not held, and Watson is still two weeks away from trotting on the field.
Watson is eligible to return Dec. 4, when the Browns travel to Houston to play the Texans, his former team. By then, Watson will have gone 23 months and a day without taking a snap. And he will have averaged more than one lawsuit a month.
Meanwhile, backup Jacoby Brissett has overachieved. Obviously, he is not the answer to any Super Bowl dreams, but he has the league’s sixth-best quarterback rating (62.4). His QBR isn’t better than that of Tua Tagovailoa, Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen. But it’s better than that of Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow and Matthew Stafford.
Brissett is something like problem No. 5 for the Browns. Way down the list. And to correct this problem, the Browns sold their soul for Watson. Got to have a quarterback, right? The Browns thought they were a quarterback away from contending for a Super Bowl title. Remember? They needed something Burrow-like, and then they’d be on their way. Watson is a three-time Pro Bowl pick. Done.
That thinking – get a QB and shoot for the Super Bowl – is now warped.
After Sunday’s meltdown in Detroit, safety Grant Delpit was talking about how the defense lacks trust (“... and in order to have trust, you have to know what you’re doing”) and defensive end Myles Garrett was talking about accountability (“... we’ve got to make sure that we don’t waste the talent that we have in its prime right now”).
By the time you read this, defensive coordinator Joe Woods may be looking for another job. Problem No. 2 or 3 may have been addressed. But to what end?
It’s a lost season without reward, as Browns fans don’t even have a first-round pick to look forward to, not in 2023, and not in 2024. Finding time for a walk will not be a problem.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Is Deshaun Watson the answer to Cleveland's problems? Not anymore
