Cleveland Browns: Studs and duds following the comeback over the Jets

Dud: Hue Jackson

Yes, the Browns won on Thursday night, resulting in Browns head coach Hue Jackson’s second win in his tenure as Cleveland’s head man. But had he done his due diligence during training camp and the preseason, this could have been his third or fourth win.

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Ever since the Browns drafted Mayfield with the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, Jackson has led the charge saying that this was Taylor’s team and that there will not be a quarterback competition.

But had the Browns held a quarterback competition during training camp, it likely would have become fairly obvious that Mayfield was the best option at quarterback to lead the Browns to victory during the regular season – despite him being a rookie.

Once Mayfield entered the game late in the second quarter, it seemed like the entire team rallied around the rookie quarterback, and every Browns player stepped up their game.

Even with every player stepping up their game, it became fairly obvious that the Browns offense was able to execute better with Mayfield under center.

If Jackson would not have handed the quarterback job to Taylor during the preseason, this all could have been avoided. Instead, the Browns had to wait until they did not win two winnable games and were about to lose a third until Mayfield was put into action and won the Browns a game.