NBC crew says Browns quarterback change is overdue

Deshaun Watson hasn’t passed for 290 yards since Jan. 3, 2021. He hasn’t even reached the Mendoza Line in five starts this season. The Browns are 1-4 after their 34-13 loss at Washington on Sunday, off to their worst start since going 0-16 seven years ago. Is it time for a quarterback change in Cleveland?

“A hundred percent,” said NBC analyst and former NFL quarterback Chris Simms Sunday on Football Night in America. “I feel like if this was any other team that doesn’t have the Deshaun Watson $230 million guaranteed contract, the trade and all the assets and picks that went to Houston there, that he would’ve already been benched by this point. But they’re stuck and they’re a little bit handcuffed in this situation right now.”

Head coach Kevin Stefanski, who inserted backup Jameis Winston late in Sunday’s loss, said after the game Watson will start next week at Philadelphia.

“We’re not changing quarterbacks,” he said of Watson, who was 15 of 28 for 125 yards with a touchdown, no interceptions and seven sacks. “We need to play better. I need to coach better. That’s really what it is.”

What it is, however, is a “ball and chain on them right now,” according to co-host and former NFL coach Jason Garrett.

“If you sit back and evaluate the quarterback play, and how the team has played, you can’t keep him in there,” Garrett said.

Garrett reminded viewers that last season, with Watson out with a season-ending shoulder injury, Joe Flacco wound up leading the Browns to the playoffs, creating a spark that Winston could give them this year.

“The move doesn’t have to be forever,” Garrett added. “If we make this, we don’t say, ‘We’ve got to go get rid of him now. We’ve got to go win a game next week; we’ve got to keep this season alive.’ And if it goes for a couple weeks, Deshaun gets refreshed and he gets an opportunity to go play again. We’ve got to figure this out and we’ve got to play the best players on the team. They owe that to everybody.”

Including the defense, which the NBC crew agreed is likely feeling as though its efforts, no matter how strong, are futile when the offense continues to lose games.