00:00In 2023, the Cleveland Browns went 11-6 and made the playoffs with Deshaun Watson and Joe Flacco as their quarterbacks.
00:07They did so because they had one of the NFL's best defenses under Jim Schwartz, and it didn't matter that the team ranked 28th in offensive DVOA because they also ranked 2nd in defensive DVOA behind only the Baltimore Ravens.
00:19In 2024, injuries greatly affected that defense, and the Browns went 3-14 because the offense ranked dead last in DVOA with Deshaun Watson, him again, and Jameis Winston as the primary quarterbacks.
00:33Through three games in the 2025 season, the 1-2 Browns were in the same bag they were in 2023, a great defense being dragged back to mediocrity by a horrid passing game.
00:42The Browns ranked 3rd in defensive DVOA behind only the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings, and the offense ranks 29th in offensive DVOA ahead of only the Carolina Panthers, the Joe Burlis, Cincinnati Bengals, and the Tennessee Titans.
00:56Flacco is back as the main quarterback, and so far the 40-year-old veteran has looked like a 40-year-old veteran.
01:02He's completed 77 of 126 passes for 631 yards, two touchdowns, four interceptions, and a pass rating of 65.9, the NFL's worst among starting quarterbacks at this time.
01:16Flacco also has the league's second-worst EPA per dropback at minus 0.35.
01:21Only Jake Browning, Burroughs' replacement in Cincinnati, has been worse.
01:25This obviously can't hold if the Browns hope to be competitive this season.
01:28Flacco, the problem here with Flacco is he's turning down and failing to make completions that you need NFL quarterbacks to make, and it shows up over and over on the tape.
01:38With quarterbacks, after a while, you start to see, and yes, the tapes of the plays that are made and the metrics of the plays that are made are important,
01:47but you start to see the throws they turn down, and that is one of the disconcerting things you're seeing here.
01:53Before they outlasted the Packers 13-10 last Sunday, the Browns became the second team in pro football history to start a season 0-2,
02:01despite allowing fewer than 400 total yards in those two games combined.
02:06The other team was the 1994 Arizona Cardinals, who finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs under head coach Buddy Ryan,
02:12one of the greatest defensive coaches of all time, but not a guy known for his love of the quarterback position.
02:17Those Cardinals ranked 27th in points scored and 4th in points allowed, a very Buddy Ryan split.
02:23Also, unfortunately, a very Cleveland Browns split.
02:27On Tuesday, the New York Giants announced that rookie Jackson Dart would replace Russell Wilson as their starting quarterback,
02:33because Wilson gave them no choice.
02:35I would posit that this was the right thing to do.
02:37I would also posit that it's time for the Browns to do the same thing.
02:40Head coach Kevin Stefanski has that guy and rookie third-round pick Dylan Gabriel out of Oregon.
02:47In his first preseason, Gabriel completed 25 of 37 passes for 272 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and a pass rated an 86.8.
02:57If you want to disregard those stats because it was the preseason and disregard the tape because it was the preseason,
03:03check out this eight-yard touchdown pass to rookie halfback Dylan Sampson against the Ravens in week two of the regular season.
03:08This was a simple choice route for Sampson out of the backfield, choice route meaning I go this way or that way depending on the coverage,
03:17but Gabriel made it special with the touch pass he threw over the heads of cornerback TJ Tampa and safety Reuben Lowry.
03:24Flacco's touch throws this season have not had the same touch, and this is where a lot of the problems come.
03:29Those sideline throws, the fade throws, all these different throws you expect a quarterback to make, he's just not making.
03:35Dylan Gabriel would certainly go through the normal rookie strollers as a starter,
03:40but Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry have been saying all along since the draft how well Gabriel fits in Stefanski's ideal offense.
03:48Goodness knows it's time to test the theory because the Browns cannot keep wasting great defenses
03:53with offenses that can't even get out of the garage before the car crashes start to happen.
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