5 best Cleveland Browns cap moves of the 2022 offseason

3. Signing Jacoby Brissett

Jacoby Brissett costs the Browns only $4.7 million in total cap hit this season and is a closer match to the skill set of Deshaun Watson than Case Keenum — who also was more expensive to employ. Brissett is going to be able to use more of the same game plan as Watson than Keenum would have.

Not to trivialize anything about the hardest game on earth, but playing quarterback for Cleveland shouldn’t be that complicated. Hand the ball off to Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt, and D’Ernest Johnson — then throw high percentage passes to the running backs and tight ends plus Amari Cooper. Once in a while take a shot with Donovan Peoples-Jones and they should score enough points to win some games.

When Andrew Luck played for Indianapolis, everyone could see clearly that it was a case of a great quarterback being held back by a lousy team. That’s why he got sacked all the time and ultimately contributed to his decision to retire early. Everyone in the sports world understood that. However, when Brissett stepped in for Luck, no one saw a good quarterback held back by a lousy team. Nope, it was all Brissett’s fault.

Perhaps Brissett isn’t so good that he can win with a bad team. But the prediction here is that he will post a .500 or better record in Cleveland with a strong team behind him. The Browns have a roster that can win with Clark Kent. They don’t need Superman.

As mentioned earlier, they already had a top five defense in terms of yards allowed last season. The Browns made very poor decisions on offense last season that made them among the league leaders in sacks allowed, not to mention the unofficial stat of self-extinguished drives on third down. I expect them to be improved compared to last season regardless of whether it’s Brissett, Watson, or even third-string Joshua Dobbs under center.