Yesterday was cutdown day in the NFL, and one of the developments which caught my eye was the Browns keeping four quarterbacks. It's sometimes said that if you have two quarterbacks you don't have any. Cleveland keeping four also fits that profile.
Deshaun Watson will open as the starter. He'll probably either struggle or get hurt, at which point Shedeur Sanders will take over. Dillon Gabriel is opening on IR with some sort of back injury (I expect the league will be looking into some situations involving players landing on IR yesterday). And Cleveland also kept Taylen Green, its sixth-round pick. Would it be surprising if one or both of those guys started games this season? It would not.
Cleveland has been trying to solve the quarterback position for quite some time now. Since they re-entered the league, really, not that it was so great even when guys like Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde had a year or two of success.
Since I didn't want to get too historical, I thought I'd look at quarterback play from just the last 10 years. What's interesting is that most of the best games have been produced by guys who are still in the league -- they're just either starting for, or backups for, other teams. Seems like Cleveland should have tried harder to keep one of those guys around.
Using the search tools at pro-football-reference.com, I looked for all games in the past 10 years where a Cleveland quarterback passed for at least 250 yards and threw 1 touchdown pass. It's a pretty low bar; Matthew Stafford did it 11 times last season. But Cleveland, in the last 10 years, has only had a quarterback do it a total of 39 times, so an average of just under 4 games per season with 250 passing yards and 1 TD pass.
More than half of those 39 games (22) were quarterbacked by guys who will start for other teams this year: Baker Mayfield, and Jacoby Brissett. (Hey, both of those guys are in contract years, so maybe Cleveland will bring one of them back for 2027.) Nine of them were started by guys who will be backups on other rosters: Jameis Winston, and Joe Flacco. Cleveland maybe should have brought one of those guys back.
Just three were quarterbacked by incumbents Watson and Sanders. Table shows all 39 games, sorted by passing yards.
| CLEVELAND QBS W/ 250 YDS, 1 TD PASS IN A GAME (2016-2025) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Opp | Pass | TD |
| 2024 | Jameis Winston | at Den. | 497 | 4 |
| 2018 | Baker Mayfield | at Hou. | 397 | 1 |
| 2024 | Jameis Winston | at N.O. | 395 | 2 |
| 2018 | Baker Mayfield | at Bal. | 376 | 3 |
| 2023 | Joe Flacco | Chi. | 374 | 2 |
| 2023 | Joe Flacco | at Hou. | 368 | 3 |
| 2025 | Shedeur Sanders | Ten. | 364 | 3 |
| 2020 | Baker Mayfield | Bal. | 343 | 2 |
| 2019 | Baker Mayfield | at Bal. | 342 | 1 |
| 2018 | Baker Mayfield | Bal. | 342 | 1 |
| 2016 | Josh McCown | NYJ | 341 | 2 |
| 2016 | Cody Kessler | at Ten. | 336 | 2 |
| 2020 | Baker Mayfield | at Ten. | 334 | 4 |
| 2024 | Jameis Winston | Bal. | 334 | 3 |
| 2019 | Baker Mayfield | Mia. | 327 | 3 |
| 2019 | Baker Mayfield | at NYJ | 325 | 1 |
| 2022 | Jacoby Brissett | at Buf. | 324 | 3 |
| 2016 | Josh McCown | NYG | 322 | 1 |
| 2017 | DeShone Kizer | at Pit. | 314 | 2 |
| 2023 | Joe Flacco | Jac. | 311 | 3 |
| 2023 | Joe Flacco | NYJ | 309 | 3 |
| 2021 | Baker Mayfield | at LAC | 305 | 2 |
| 2018 | Baker Mayfield | K.C. | 297 | 2 |
| 2020 | Baker Mayfield | at NYG | 297 | 2 |
| 2020 | Baker Mayfield | at Cin. | 297 | 5 |
| 2018 | Baker Mayfield | at Rai. | 295 | 2 |
| 2025 | Joe Flacco | Cin. | 290 | 1 |
| 2023 | Deshaun Watson | Ten. | 289 | 2 |
| 2029 | Baker Mayfield | Ten. | 285 | 1 |
| 2018 | Baker Mayfield | Cin. | 284 | 3 |
| 2019 | Baker Mayfield | at Cin. | 279 | 3 |
| 2022 | Jacoby Brissett | Cin. | 278 | 1 |
| 2022 | Deshaun Watson | at Cin. | 276 | 1 |
| 2019 | Baker Mayfield | Den. | 273 | 1 |
| 2022 | Jacoby Brissett | N.E. | 266 | 1 |
| 2016 | Josh McCown | Bal. | 260 | 2 |
| 2018 | Baker Mayfield | at Cin. | 258 | 4 |
| 2020 | Baker Mayfield | at Jac. | 258 | 2 |
| 2023 | Joe Flacco | at LAR | 254 | 2 |
I'm not confident Watson will be adding to that total this season. At least he has a few nice young receivers, so maybe. Sanders is young and developing, maybe he'll take a step up, if he gets in the lineup.
Green is interesting. He was a productive dual-threat guy at Arkansas the last two years, averaging about 235 passing yards and 55 rushing yards, with 34 touchdown passes and 16 TD runs in 25 games. Minimal work in the exhibitions (5 of 7 for 27 yards in his one game, while also running 8 times for 66 yards). He's a project, but he'd be fun to watch, and that's a fantasy-friendly game. Moreso than Watson, Sanders, or Gabriel, based on what we've seen to this point.
I'm rooting for you, Cleveland. Maybe one day. At some point they'll both hit on a quarterback, and keep him around for a while. Right?
--Andy Richardson

