Why the Cleveland Browns QB situation is best in the AFC North

5. AFC North QB Summary

There are four franchise quarterbacks in the AFC North. In general, Browns fans don’t realize how good each of them are, especially their own guy, Baker Mayfield.

In terms of ability, let’s start with Roethlisberger. The big guy is a future Hall of Famer, and he still has it. This fan is not a doubter or disparager of his talent, even at age 39. The read here is that the 2020 Steelers got old and banged up on the offensive line, and their running game was not all that talented. That is what led to their tailspin at the end of the season.

Roethlisberger has one of the quickest releases in the NFL without ever really getting enough credit for it. Mostly people notice that he is big and strong. But he was able to save his offensive line by unloading the leather in two seconds time and again and hitting passes of ten yards or less. Consequently, Pittsburgh had the lowest sack percentage in the NFL with only 2.1% on only 13 sacks in 608 attempts. But that’s a misleading stat.

Be assured of two factoids: (1) Roethlisberger is not a scrambler, and (2) Pittsburgh’s offensive line was decrepit by the end of the season. But Ben could stand there in the shotgun (or spread, as you young ‘uns call it), survey the field in half a second, and shot-put a wounded duck to the open receiver. Quack, quack, THUNK! Seven-yard completion.

Statistically it looked like Pittsburgh’s offensive line was blocking great, but they were not. It was mainly Roethlisberger’s lightning-fast decision making that took the pressure off the offensive line. Anyway, that’s what I saw at the end of the year. Pittsburgh fans, feel free to question my sanity.

I further believe that Roethlisberger lost velocity on his throws late in the season, but the week off helped him, and his intermediate-deep ball was much more dangerous in the playoff game against Cleveland. That had been missing on the tape from the loss to Washington.

Therefore, it’s reasonable to believe that if his load is managed better, he can be his Hall of Fame self. But they cannot ask him to launch 50 times a game like they were doing, or the baling wire holding his elbow together is going to come flying apart.

Lamar Jackson was the NFL MVP two years ago, and yet the Ravens seem to be unhappy with the formula that got him there. Namely, the Ravens played a lot of two tight end formations and made liberal use of blocking from Pro Bowl 300-pound fullback Patrick Ricard to gain 3,000 yards plus on the ground, led by Jackson, who set an NFL record with 1206 rushing yards.

Well, perhaps they are worried about Jackson’s long-term health, so they are now trying to encourage him to be a pocket passer and have drafted six wide receivers in the past three years including two number ones, Marquise Brown (2019/1st), Rashod Bateman (2021/1st), Miles Boykin (2019/3rd), Devin Duvernay (2020/3rd), Tylan Wallace (2021/4th) and James Proche II (2020/6th).

They also signed Sammy Watkins. We have to suspect that they may be getting away from the two-tight end thing that frustrated the Browns (and the rest of the NFL) so much. Will it make Jackson more invincible or less?

There’s no way that anyone can claim to have a player that can consistently outplay the NFL MVP, except for the suspicion that the Ravens may be planning to take themselves out of their game to some extent, by not letting Lamar Jackson be Lamar Jackson.

If there is an additional tiebreaker, it might be the second-string quarterback. Case Keenum went 11-3 with Kevin Stefanski as his quarterback coach in Minnesota. Keenum’s game is very much like Mayfield’s, and the Browns can stay in the same offense without much difficulty. If the Ravens need to replace Lamar Jackson, there are any number of plays that only Lamar Jackson can run, and they would have to install an entirely new offense, for Trace McSorley.

No offense, but is McSorley really the best that they can do? The Ravens had been keeping Robert Griffin III, on the grounds that he has (or had) a similar dual threat game, but they may have grown disenchanted with his level of athleticism, which may not really match Jackson’s at this point. There really is no Plan B if Jackson goes down. Hand the ball off to Dobbins 40 times a game, Trace.

As for the Bengals, Joe Burrow was All-Universe when he was drafted first overall by the Bengals, so he should still be All-Universe now. The Bengals offensive coordinator is Brian Callahan, who happens to be the son of Browns offensive line coach Bill Callahan. Brian has good bloodlines, that is for sure.

The fact of the matter is that Burrow was scary good until he went down despite the lack of a running game, and a below average offensive line. With an ineffective running game, Burrow had to put the ball in the air far more often than you would like to see a rookie pass the ball, yet his interception percentage was an unbelievably low 1.2%.

He also averaged 268 yards per game in the process. Think about how hard it is to avoid interceptions while you are running for your life on every play. That confirms for this analyst that Burrow is an outstanding talent. He played for a terrible team and made them respectable, at least on offense.

The Bengals have done what fans want to do — draft a quarterback, then draft wide receivers and worry about the offensive line later. They drafted Ja’Marr Chase in the first round, eschewing the opportunity to bring top talent to the offensive line. They already had Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins. They added depth on the offensive line though not necessarily monster talent.

However, their idea of upgrading the running game was to release Giovanni Bernard and to really hope hard that whatever is wrong with Joe Mixon’s foot fixes itself so that he can gain 1,000 yards again. Much like the Steelers, the Bengals are unbalanced and are asking too much from their quarterback, to the point where it is literally not very healthy.

Burrow probably has the equivalent talent to the Hall of Famer in Pittsburgh, the MVP in Baltimore, and our guy in Cleveland. However, his situation is not as favorable because of what he is asked to do, namely everything. The Steelers at least drafted Najee Harris, whereas the Bengals are hoping for a miraculous contribution from sixth-round draft pick Chris Evans, a Pro Day stud from That School Up North. Who knows?

There are a number of talented offensive players that cannot perform for Jimmy Harbaugh, who make it once they get to the NFL. Maybe that will work out for the Bengals. In any case, Burrow is so good that he might actually will his team into the playoffs. even without a running game and with an average offensive line at best.