Cleveland Browns Decision No. 1: Not adding a QB at the deadline
And then after making the decision to trade Dobbs, seeing what the team has when Watson isn’t the starter, and still seeing Berry pass on making a trade before the deadline was also puzzling. It certainly would have cost the Browns some sort of draft capital to get Dobbs or Jacoby Brissett back, but both would have been upgrades to Walker or DTR.
Here we are a few weeks later and Watson is out for the season and the trade deadline has passed meaning the options are next to zero for the Browns to bring in another starter at this point. Maybe the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze for Berry at the time, but there's a zero percent chance he doesn’t regret the way this all played out.
After overreacting on Wednesday about the news the DTR would be the starting quarterback vs. the Steelers even I can admit I see where the coaches are coming from. The circumstances of him getting his last start were awful, he’s had another six weeks of practice, and Stefanski is seeing something that makes him want to at least get a shot.
I can promise you that everyone in this organization knows how big of a game this is vs. the Steelers. And between wanting to make the playoffs and having no reason to get a better draft pick (no first-round pick in 2024), the move to start DTR is because they think it gives them the best chance to win. Even though these three items are haunting the Browns, it doesn’t mean they can’t overcome them. All we can do now is sit back and see how it unfolds.