Tag: jerry jeudy

A Winston Air Show Gets Grounded Late Monday

The Cleveland Browns put up a lot of points Monday night, but they gave up a lot as well, and yes, they also gave Denver two touchdowns in a 41-32 loss in Colorado to drop their record to a still disappointing 3-9.

Many folks painted the game as the full Jameis Winston experience because he threw two interceptions that resulted in Bronco touchdowns. We get it, his history shows he throws picks.

You know who didn’t throw passes to the other team? Deshaun Watson. He also never threw for 300 yards in a game (heck, not even 200 this year), he couldn’t pick up first downs, he couldn’t keep the offense on the field, and he made the wide receiver positions into glorified blockers.

We would rather have a QB that threatens the defense. Winston does that. Six different Browns’ receivers caught passes that gained 13 yards or more. Jerry Jeudy looked like a terrible deal for Cleveland until Winston was at the helm. Monday night, he caught 9 passes for 235 yards and Elijah Moore had a 100 yard game at well.

Yes, the interceptions are an issue. So is having to put the ball in the air 58 times because the Browns simply don’t have a running game right now. They did run it 23 times but gained just 77 yards.

It’s not just Nick Chubb coming off an injury either. We are 12 games into the season and Cleveland’s leading rusher is Jerome Ford with a paltry 339 yards. Ford has the longest run this year (36 yards) and the second longest run is by backup QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson with a 34-yard scamper.

The third longest? D’Onta Foreman, who can’t even get on the field anymore with a 25-yard carry.

Whether or not the Browns stay with Winston in 2025 or not, what the last five games has shown is that Watson was the problem, something that many people (including us) thought after the first couple of games this season, and some of those folks had their doubts before that.

You have to think if Winston had replaced Watson earlier, the Browns may not be 3-9 right now, and throw in the incredible decision to have Thompson-Robinson be the backup against Cincinnati, the game Watson got hurt, and could the team have a 5-7 record right now?

We don’t think that would be a reach.

And while Winston does throw picks (his interception % is 7th in the league, FYI Jordan Love of Green Bay is 3rd), he also 10th in the NFL in average yards per pass attempt, which is an important statistic.

The leader in this category is Detroit’s Jared Goff, and others in the top ten are Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson, but Winston ranks ahead of Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, and C.J. Stroud.

Those guys are pretty good.

Besides the turnovers, the defense was problematic as well, allowing 28 points and 400 yards of offense to a team led by a rookie quarterback. It was the third time Jim Schwartz’ group has allowed at least 400 yards, all of them in the last eight games.

In the season’s first four contests, the most yards allowed was 340 by the Giants of all teams.

The loss of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Za’Darius Smith have hurt, but outside of Denzel Ward, who is having a tremendous season, the secondary has been shaky as well.

What is frustrating is there are periods when they absolutely shut teams down, and other possessions it is just big play after big play.

Oh, and Dustin Hopkins missed another field goal, his seventh miss of the year. He ranks second last in field goal percentage after being 11th a year ago.

The Browns should probably add kicker to the list of needs in 2025.

We would keep Jameis Winston as the starter going forward and if people really want to see Thompson-Robinson, start him in the last two games, at home vs. Miami and on the road against the Ravens.

Our guess is you will see he is nothing more than a backup.

Free Agent Week For Browns? Meh.

Every year, Browns’ fans wait for the legal tampering period and beginning of the new league year to see if their football team will make a big splash in free agency. This year, those people were probably underwhelmed.

What GM Andrew Berry did this year was mostly under the heading of keeping the band together. The biggest move was keeping DE Za’Darius Smith, who was second to Myles Garrett in sacks last year for Cleveland at 5.5.

The Browns also kept DT Maurice Hurst and Shelby Harris, two key members of last year’s top ranked defense.

In terms of bringing in outside help, it was more like a plop in the bathtub than a big splash.

Before the period started, Berry traded two low draft picks to Denver for former first round pick Jerry Jeudy, who is more name than productive to date. He had a reputation in Denver for being a guy who was more proud of his draft status than having a willingness to work.

His high in yardage in his four years with the Broncos was 972 in 2022.

Look, it’s not a bad trade because giving up a 5th and 6th round pick for decent wide receiver isn’t a high price, but expectations that Jeudy will be a big threat for Deshaun Watson at this point are likely unfounded.

Jordan Elliott went to San Francisco in free agency, so the Browns signed Quinton Jefferson, who was with the Jets last season to fill that gap. As of right now, Jefferson is the likely starter with a career high six sacks last season. However, this is his fifth team in the last five years, so he would be considered a journeyman.

That doesn’t mean he isn’t productive, or can’t help.

Cleveland lost linebackers Sione Takitaki and Anthony Walker and replaced them with Jordan Hicks, who started 13 games for Minnesota last season (he’s 32-years-old) and former Steelers’ first round pick Devin Bush.

Probably the signing that received the most scrutiny though was bringing in QB Jameis Winston to back up Watson. Winston, a former Heisman Trophy winner and first overall draft pick, will replace the popular Joe Flacco as the top reserve.

Many people who cover the Browns have noted the team seemed to want to move on from Flacco because of his popularity with the fan base and quite frankly, the lack of that for Watson.

Winston isn’t a bad choice to be the backup though. He has started 80 games in his NFL career, and in 2019, threw for over 5000 yards and 33 touchdowns. Unfortunately, he also led the league with 30 interceptions, and has been prone to that in his pro career.

But in New Orleans, where he spent the last four seasons, he started 10 games and fired 20 TD passes against just 11 interceptions. Still, his INT rate didn’t drop drastically.

It is difficult to see where the Browns are a better football team than they were at the end of the 2023 season. Even though this time of the year gets a lot of press, there is still plenty of time before training camp starts at the end of July.

And don’t forget there is a little thing at the end of April called the NFL Draft, where moves can be made and of course, you can draft players out of college.

We also doubt Berry is done manipulating the salary cap either, so some “big splash” moves could still be made.

Also, remember, the Browns are already a good football team. They did win 11 games last season.

The most interesting move is hiring former Titans coach and Walsh Jesuit grad Mike Vrabel as a consultant. To us, you can never have enough smart football guys in an organization and Vrabel has shown to be one of the best coaches in the NFL.