Jameis Winston has proven that the Browns should move on from Deshaun Watson for good

Since Deshaun Watson became the Cleveland Browns' full-time starter on December 4, 2022 – going 12 of 22 for 133 yards and one interception – the team has used four different starting quarterbacks. During the 2023 season, PJ Walker started two games and Dorian Thompson-Robinson started three before the team traded to Joe Flacco for a playoff berth late in the season.

This is what this route from DTR and Walker looked like:

Dorian Thompson Robinson:

• 19 of 36, 121 yards, 3 INTs.
• 24 of 43, 165 yards, 1 INT.
• 14 of 29, 134 yards 1 TD.

PJ Walker:

• 18 of 34, 192 yards, 2 INTs.
• 15 of 31, 248 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs.

But after the Browns handed the ball to a veteran quarterback, this is what the offense looked like under Flacco, including a wild-card loss to the Houston Texans.

• 23 of 44, 254 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT.
• 26 of 45, 311 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 INT.
• 28 of 44, 374 yards, 2 TDs, 3 INTs.
• 27 of 42, 368 yards, 3 touchdowns, 2 INT.
• 19 of 29, 309 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 INT.
• 34 of 46, 307 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs.

On Sunday, we got another look at the Browns' offense with a non-Watson veteran starter under center, with Jameis Winston making his first start of the season. This happened against the Baltimore Ravens, a defense with a strong recent history that has slipped a bit in the passing game but is one of the teams with the better run defense in the NFL.

Winson's stats in the 29:24 win: 27 of 41, 334 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Winston's game marked the fourth time in a seven-game stretch that a veteran QB threw for at least 300 yards and three touchdowns in this offense. The last time Watson did this was in a loss to the Tennessee Titans…in January 2021, his final game as a member of the Houston Texans.

If you're a Browns fan and you're getting ready to complain that this is over the top or beating a dead horse, then that's not my point. The Watson tradecoupled with the subsequent contract the Browns gave him is absolutely and unequivocally the worst move in NFL history. And while it may be important for the sake of history to keep ringing that bell, lest anyone forget that the team has mortgaged its entire future A player facing dozens of allegations of sexual assault and misconductand turned into tiny yes-man pretzels defending him at every turn, the fact that this offense was great without him may also be true.

Patrick Mahomes hasn't had a single game with more than 300 yards and three touchdowns this year or last. Tua Tagovailoa, who helmed arguably the NFL's most explosive offense a year ago, had three of those games in 2023. Josh Allen has 13 of these games…in his entire 101-game career. And a combination of Winston and Flacco did it four times, in about the time it takes someone to get a passport.

Winston did it after the Browns traded their best wide receiver (Amari Cooper) before the deadline.

A few weeks ago, We challenged Kevin Stefanski to bench Watson and force the Browns to choose a side. His patience with Watson, while confusing, seems to have only underscored the central point: When he has capable quarterback play, he is one of the best offensive designers in the NFL. Last year the team was red hot when Stefanski worked with OC and quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt. Now that Ken Dorsey has taken over the game management, the Browns are once again one of the best pass offenses in the league.

While I'm not as versed in analytics as Cleveland's front office claims, and the Browns' front office might find this an incomplete sample size or largely meaningless based on their own calculations if they delve deeper into the fallacy of the Cost advances, this week would seem to me to be another glaring example of why the team should just sprint in the other direction. Let Stefanski pick his own quarterback while Watson stays home and collects his paycheck. Give the team and the city a chance to harness what was truly lovable about this franchise during a three-season stretch in which its Q rating rivaled that of a voting telemarketer and step into the light of day. Allow them to take the brutal dead cap hits as they put up the Texas Tech numbers of the 1990s and bring some of those exhausted, fed up, disgusted and bleary-eyed fans back to their seats as they rally to build one new stadium. Allow them to win like the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers won while also soaking up the remnants of expensive contracts for quarterbacks who are no longer in the lineup.

That has to sound better than the alternative. Stefanski and his offensive staff are now making a bulletproof case for a new direction by giving the people above them who orchestrated the Watson trade no choice.