What is the Browns’ plan at QB after Deshaun Watson’s injury? The answers are unclear for the present and future

CLEVELAND – The afternoon began with a strategic placement of Cleveland Browns starting quarterback Deshaun Watson at No. 10 on the team’s pregame introduction list. That put him one spot ahead of the returning Nick Chubb, hoping that cheers for the running back, a longtime fan favorite, would quickly drown out the home crowd’s boos for Watson.

That worked. Nothing else did.

At the end of Sunday’s 21-14 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, which didn’t feel as close as the final score suggested, Watson had likely suffered a season-ending Achilles injury. Tests will confirm that, but the team believes Watson tore his Achilles tendon in the second quarter.

Dorian Thompson-Robinson was Watson’s replacement and he made several bad passes to players in brown and white jerseys for nearly two full quarters before suffering a finger injury. That forced the Browns to go back to their inactive list and emergency quarterback Jameis Winston, who had been the No. 2 QB for the first six weeks of the season but was demoted for this game.

And Winston still had to play. He led the Browns to a touchdown and a two-point conversion to set up an onside kick in the final 90 seconds, but it failed and the Browns’ 1-6 losing streak reached five. Afterward, Thompson-Robinson wore a wrap around his finger. Winston spoke more about his anger at the cheering fans when Watson went down than about his performance early in the game or the team’s future prospects.

Winston had to report to the head referee as part of NFL protocol for an emergency quarterback to take part. The Browns now have a quarterback emergency that isn’t as easy to deal with as going through a list of players to be featured.

The team’s quarterback for Wednesday’s practice and next Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens: TBD.

The quarterback to add to the practice squad and possibly the 53-man roster in the next 30 hours: TBD.

The team’s quarterback for the rest of the season: TBD.

The team’s quarterback for next year, even though Watson has signed a fully guaranteed contract through 2026: TBD.

Winston, the 2015 No. 1 draft pick who has made 80 career starts, makes the most sense if the Browns still somehow believe they can salvage something this season. Given the state of the offense — they had scored two touchdowns in 41 possessions since Week 4 before Winston’s touchdown toss to David Njoku — the Browns probably should be in the mix next year, which brings its own set of complications.

With cash outlays totaling more than $337 million, per Spotrac, this is the most expensive roster in NFL history. Even with something like a fire sale before the Nov. 5 trade deadline and ahead of the start of the 2025 league year in March, the Browns can’t simply sell players without incurring significant dead money — and therefore without careful planning, like with trades and other deletions should be carried out.

Status of absolutely everything: pretty bleak and still open. The Browns still have more than $170 million in cap space on Watson, who played in 19 games for Cleveland. He has rushed for more than 200 yards in just six of them, including none this season.

Last year, the Browns ended up having to use five different quarterbacks. The fifth-place finisher, Jeff Driskel, played in a meaningless game in Week 18 because the fourth-place finisher, Joe Flacco, led a four-game winning streak in December and clinched a playoff spot. Flacco took over in early December after Thompson-Robinson was injured in his third start.

Thompson-Robinson hadn’t played all season because on most teams, the emergency quarterback doesn’t do that. But sometime last week, the Browns decided to move him up to No. 2. The second-year player didn’t get any reps in practice with the No. 1 offense because, as Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said, “our backups aren’t coming through.” No. 1 rep.” Whatever that putrid Browns offense is in the practice has done, it has only done so with Watson and Watson alone.

So Thompson-Robinson went into the second quarter with the Browns on Sunday and helped continue the drive. Chubb, in his first game action since Week 2 last season, scored on a 1-yard run in the final minute of the first half, capping a 12-play drive. After a missed point-after attempt, the Browns only trailed 7-6.

After some wild – and extremely bad – throws in the second half and a 34-yard scramble, Thompson-Robinson hit his throwing hand on another player’s helmet in the fourth quarter and had to leave the field for X-rays. After the game he was asked if he thought he would be able to grab and throw a ball in time to play next week.

“I have no idea,” Thompson-Robinson said.

DTR off to the races 😲#CINvsCLE on CBS and NFL+ pic.twitter.com/CEjJt5kogn

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) October 20, 2024

Stefanski said after the game that Thompson-Robinson was the main replacement this week because he felt it was the “right thing” for this game, and he didn’t comment on who or what might be next until the Browns had clarity about the injury situation.

“We kind of went into the season thinking those two guys (Winston and Thompson-Robinson) were No. 2,” Stefanski said. “We felt like some of the (offensive) packages we had today, we didn’t really have Jameis in the short-yardage packages that we had before, so we felt like it was the right fit for it was.” Game.”

Winston was used for quarterback sneaks and other short-yard situations. After his only appearance in Week 6 turned into an end-around with a third-and-1 loss, it felt like he was demoted for not changing that game. But we don’t know for sure because Stefanski doesn’t answer many questions as his team continues to lose.

Based on the considerations leading up to this game and the dropped season, it might make sense to play Thompson-Robinson if he’s healthy. He’s just 24 years old and has a cheap contract through 2026. One of the few ways the Browns could escape this Watson era with a contending team would be to find a real answer at quarterback through the draft or some other means . They selected Thompson-Robinson in the fifth round in 2023 and obviously like him, but they’ve already had to play him more often than they intended. They saw that he was probably too small and too prone to turnover to really give them a chance.

Winston had run the No. 1 offense during the spring and summer when Watson was unavailable. He had been the primary backup player for the first month and a half of the season, and although Stefanski said the team was using her as co-No. 2 quarterbacks, that was never obvious.

Winston was signed because the Browns knew Watson couldn’t stand having Flacco around – and also because he’s seen a bit of everything in the NFL. He would be the easiest pick if the Browns were still playing for something in 2024, but they really aren’t. You have reached the worst case scenario.

What happens next? This is TBD. And in any case, it’s not promising at all.

(Photo of Jameis Winston and Deshaun Watson: Peter Casey / Imagn Images)