“When I’m at my best, I’m a great starter in the NFL,” Jameis Winston told reporters last week.
On Sunday, October 27, Winston made his first start for the Cleveland Browns – and his first NFL start since September 2022 – and backed up those comments in a 29-24 victory over the visiting Baltimore Ravens. Winston displayed competent quarterback play – something that couldn’t be said of Deshaun Watson, who ruptured his Achilles tendon in Week 7 – and impressed with 334 yards and three touchdowns on 27-of-41 passing.
Winston almost threw a game-ending interception to Ravens All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton, but Hamilton dropped it. During the next play, Winston threw a 38-yard laser to Cedric Tillman for a go-ahead touchdown to give Cleveland a 29-24 lead with less than a minute left in regulation.
The streak encapsulates the Jameis Winston experience since Tampa Bay made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2015. The former Heisman winner has always been capable of leading the league in touchdowns or leading the league in interceptions. (He literally led the NFL in passing yards and interceptions in 2019.) But what matters now is how Winston could move Cleveland forward.
The Browns improved to 2-6 with their win over Baltimore (5-3), making the easiest argument against Cleveland to make the playoffs for a second straight year. the first time since the late 1980s. The AFC North is a war of attrition every year, but the core of these Browns is battle-tested.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski won 2023 Coach of the Year because he did the impossible with Joe Flacco, the 2023 Comeback Player of the Year, after Watson suffered a serious injury. end of season on pitching shoulder. Not to mention that the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Myles Garrett, is still Myles Garrett. And, oh yeah, running back Nick Chubb is only going to get healthier — and more motivated than ever – after returning in Week 7 from a brutal knee injury suffered in September 2023. Of course, Cleveland was 7-4 when a 38-year-old Flacco took over under center – which made it easier for the Browns to claim the fifth seed in the AFC – but the AFC isn’t as intimidating this season.
And Winston is not a 38-year-old fresh off the couch. (No disrespect to Flacco or thirty-somethings everywhere.)
Winston also spoke last week on how sitting behind Drew Brees for his final season in 2020 in New Orleans taught him to “know the plays not to make instead of knowing the plays I’m capable of making.” In other words, Winston is a more mature quarterback – and one more willing to work within a structure. Luckily for Winston, Stefanski is a fun offensive architect.
The Browns don’t feel like they’re in the same 2-6 as the Las Vegas Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots or New York Jets. While it’s not ideal that Cleveland traded Amari Cooper, its most talented receiver, to Buffalo earlier this month, Winston — like Flacco, who coincidentally now serves as Indianapolis’ unexpected savior — fits the plan aggressive and potentially explosive Stefanski’s favorite, as explained. by ESPN’s Mina Kimes.
I just finished watching CLE and it’s so funny how much it resembles Flacco’s offense. Deep shots under center play action in 12 pp, aggressive throws (i.e. Ravens should have picked Winston on multiple occasions). High variation, but when it happens it’s a lot of fun.
-Mina Kimes (@minakimes) October 28, 2024
If the playoffs started tomorrow, the AFC field would be filled by Kansas City (7-0), Houston (6-2), Pittsburgh (6-2), Buffalo (6-2), Denver (5-3 ), Baltimore. (5-3) and the Los Angeles Chargers (4-3).
Good thing the playoffs don’t start tomorrow.
The Browns will face the Chargers in Week 9, which could be a crucial Wild Card tiebreaker, before their bye week. Week 13 brings the Browns to Denver, and Cleveland is scheduled to host 2-5 Miami in Week 17 – two more potentially decisive matchups will arrive in the postseason. Cleveland’s four remaining division games, including two against Pittsburgh, also work in their favor.
Juan Thornhill explains why the 2-6 #Browns really believe the playoffs are still possible: pic.twitter.com/jbPRc7D5kp
–Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) October 28, 2024
The AFC mirrors last season’s NFC, which saw the 2-5 Green Bay Packers emerge as the seventh seed and upset Dallas, and the 3-6 Los Angeles Rams gave Detroit all that ‘They could handle as the sixth seed. But, outside of the back-to-back defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs, this year’s AFC looks even more like a anyone’s game as the regular season approaches the halfway point.
Watson has dug the Browns into a hole, and he may be too deep, but Winston has always embodied a cartoonish optimism. Why stop now?
Why did the 2-6 Browns fail to make the playoffs when they gave struggling Watson the worst contract in league history?
It’s the NFL.
