Eventually, the Cleveland Browns will name a QB1. That doesn’t mean they actually have one.
Someone has to take the snaps, and right now that appears to be Deshaun Watson. All the messaging, both internally and externally, has signaled Watson as the presumptive starter since Todd Monken was hired as head coach in January. Monken has been hinting at Watson as his starter for weeks while acknowledging the “race” has been close enough that Shedeur Sanders has earned the right to start this weekend’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills. While Sanders prepares for his biggest test this week at the joint practice with the Bills, Watson is already being fitted for his cap and gown.
If either quarterback is going to have even a modicum of success this season, it will likely be because of the playmakers around him. This isn’t a quarterback room good enough to carry a franchise; instead, the franchise has to carry it. To that extent, KC Concepcion has arrived in Cleveland right on time.
Despite the evolution of football and the explosion in passing over the past 25 years, this remains an organization whose leading receiver is a tight end drafted in the 1970s. That isn’t a slight on Ozzie Newsome, who is a Hall of Famer. It’s an indictment of a franchise that has struggled to identify elite playmakers at receiver for generations.
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Concepcion can start changing all of that while mitigating the Browns’ poor quarterback play. He is one of the few players who doesn’t need the quarterback situation to be resolved before making an impact. He is explosive enough to run some of the quick screens and jet sweeps that sputtered in Cleveland for years. He can simplify reads and thrive in space. His 72 all-purpose yards on five touches in the preseason opener on the road against the Chicago Bears is an outline for how to make this offense functional while the Browns continue to sort through their quarterbacks.
Watson is the longest-tenured player on the offense despite so little relevance and production over the past four years. A $230 million guaranteed contract brings incredible job security. The Browns are onto their second head coach and fourth offensive coordinator searching for the old Watson. That’s probably because he’s not here.
Nobody can throw good money after bad quite like the Browns. Most teams eventually accept a sunk cost. The Browns keep trying to make theirs float. So here we go again.
Watson wasn’t terrible in the Browns’ preseason opener, and his box-score numbers certainly looked passable. But 43 of Watson’s 126 yards came on a simple screen to Dylan Sampson, and the final three possessions under Watson ended with a lost fumble and two punts, including a disastrous two-minute drive that lasted only 30 seconds.
Sanders has his own problems. He gave the full Shedeur Experience — the terrific 35-yard strike to Luke Floriea, followed by a fumbled snap, a pass batted down at the line of scrimmage, and finally an interception on a badly overthrown pass.
Sanders creates just enough big plays to keep you interested and makes just enough fundamental mistakes to keep the offense unreliable. The Browns aren’t asking him to improve on his rookie year. That isn’t enough. For him to be considered in their long-term quarterback plans, he needs to vault from the bottom of the league (Sanders ranked 35th out of 35 quarterbacks on Mike Sando’s preseason tiers piece) into at least the middle — and he has to do it in less than a full season if Watson is indeed named the Week 1 starting quarterback.
It’s an unrealistic ask for any quarterback, given where Sanders ended last season, which is what makes this feel like an enormous waste of time.
Concepcion and Denzel Boston will at times save the offense, but they can’t always save the quarterbacks from themselves.
That’s the challenge for Monken. He can shrink the field, move the pocket and manufacture touches. He can send Concepcion in motion to reveal coverages, widen defenders with jet action and make the quarterback’s job a little easier.
Eventually, however, one of these guys will have to stand in the pocket and drive the ball consistently. Sanders will have to master passing lanes and stop having balls tipped or batted at the line of scrimmage — I counted nine last year and a 10th in the preseason opener.
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The Browns spent the first three years of Watson’s contract trying to build an offense around what he used to be. This one should be built around what Watson and Sanders actually are: flawed quarterbacks who require protection, defined reads and playmakers capable of turning ordinary throws into extraordinary gains. That places the burden on Concepcion, Boston, Harold Fannin Jr. and Quinshon Judkins to produce what the quarterbacks won’t necessarily create.
It’s a path to at least being functional. Concepcion can steal yards on screens and sweeps while flipping the field with explosive punt returns. Boston is a big target who can stretch the field. Judkins is a powerful runner who can keep the Browns on schedule.
Eventually, they’ll need the quarterback to make plays to win, and then it will be up to Watson and Sanders to deliver or move on.
Monken will name his starter perhaps as early as next Monday because someone has to do it. Someone has to be QB1. We’ll know sooner rather than later whether they actually have one.