A week ahead of the NFL’s trade deadline and six games into a crucial season, the 4-2 Cleveland Browns have to consider making a deal for Washington Commanders quarterback Jacoby Brissett.
This is neither an endorsement of that potential move nor a call for it to happen. Frankly, that column might come soon. But a Brissett trade has to be explored, and in doing so we must also explore why it might not happen.
Advertisement
First, the Browns are all-in on Deshaun Watson. If Watson is healthy, he has to play. If Watson is mostly healthy and able to fight through a shoulder injury over the next two weeks, he has to play. That’s just the beginning of the complications here.
We don’t know the extent of Watson’s shoulder injury — or if it was worsened when he took a stiff shot early in the Browns’ Week 7 win over the Indianapolis Colts. On Monday, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski offered no update on Watson’s status and said Cleveland was protecting him when it removed the quarterback from the game. Before the big hit, we saw nothing that indicated Watson could throw at full velocity or operate at full confidence and comfort level.
Watson twice went into the medical tent, first to have the shoulder examined and later to be checked for a concussion. It was determined that he did not have a concussion and was cleared to return, but Stefanski held Watson out.
“I just felt the right thing for the team was to protect him,” Stefanski said.
Because of Watson’s injury, the Browns have had to play practice-squad quarterback P.J. Walker in seven of their last eight quarters. They’ve won both of those games in dramatic fashion, but Walker has shown little to indicate he can operate the offense at a high enough level to keep the wins coming.
Walker had to play because the Browns spent the days leading up to their Week 4 game against Baltimore believing Watson would start. Though Watson didn’t throw much in practice the week after he initially hurt his shoulder against the Tennessee Titans, he wasn’t officially ruled out versus the Ravens until the morning of the game. Rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson played that day and was overmatched. The Browns were dominated, but both Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry said in the days following the game that they believed Watson had a short-term injury and would be back after the team’s bye.
Advertisement
Watson was not on the practice field at all ahead of the Browns’ Oct. 15 game against the San Francisco 49ers. He missed one practice last week but was a full participant by Friday, and he started against the Colts. After the game, Watson said he was not sure if he’d suffered further injury or if he would start the Browns’ next game Sunday in Seattle.
If the Browns think they need a quarterback at any point for the next, say, four games, acquiring Brissett makes sense. He is beloved in the locker room, knows the offense and has experience throwing to most of the Browns’ top pass catchers.
GO DEEPER
Lloyd: The Browns have a QB crisis Jacoby Brissett can help fix
Cleveland signed Brissett after acquiring Watson in March 2022. With a potential suspension for multiple violations of the NFL’s personal conduct policy looming for Watson, Brissett knew he would be the placeholder. He started all 11 games when Watson was suspended and posted his best season in terms of completion percentage (64.0) and quarterback rating (88.9). The Browns were 4-7, but several of those losses could be pinned on defensive failures.
This year’s defense is revamped, improved and has been one of the league’s best. Can the Browns afford to waste it? Don’t the folks in charge owe it to the defense — and to the locker room — to do whatever is necessary to give this team the best possible chance at quarterback given the uncertain and disappointing circumstances?
Any discussion on the next steps has to start with the exact prognosis for Watson’s injury, which is currently unknown outside of the Browns’ facility. It probably only makes sense for the Browns to pursue Brissett if Watson has to go on injured reserve, which would mean he’d miss a minimum of four games. Unless Watson is out for the season, the Browns have to take into account both the status of his shoulder and his mental state. How would Watson and the rest of the locker room respond to Brissett potentially playing well and the chances that another Brissett-Watson transition late in the season would be awkward — or even controversial?
Advertisement
There’s also the question of whether the Commanders would even make Brissett available. At 3-4, Washington is likely headed for an offseason rebuild and potential organizational revamp under new owner Josh Harris. Brissett, who turns 31 in December, is only under contract for this season. Commanders starter Sam Howell is struggling, but he’s a second-year player. If they could realistically win anything this season, they might make the switch to Brissett. But they’ve lost four of their last five and should be realistic about entertaining a trade offer. They certainly wouldn’t just give him away, but if the Browns deem Brissett as their best option to keep another season afloat, they should be willing to part with a future third-day draft pick and potentially a young player — maybe even Thompson-Robinson — in hopes of stabilizing their quarterback situation.
Because the Browns are paying Watson so much money — his five-year, $230 million contract is fully guaranteed — and preparing for record salary-cap hits of almost $64 million in each of the next three seasons, they needed to go the inexpensive route at backup quarterback and let Brissett leave ahead of this season. Brissett’s one-year deal with Washington included $7.5 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $4.5 million. If the Browns re-acquired Brissett, they’d be on the hook for the remaining amount of his $3 million base salary, which is currently a little less than $2 million. The NFL’s trade deadline is Oct. 31.
How quickly could Brissett be ready to play? That’s a bit of an unknown, but the answer seems to be that Brissett could be ready much sooner than any other outside quarterback because he spent last season in Cleveland. If anyone could play on short notice, it’s Brissett. Could he play at a high enough level to make the Browns actual AFC contenders? That’s part of this discussion, too.
Until Watson shows he’s able to make every throw and play in every game, the Browns are stuck using at least somewhat of a condensed playbook and game plan regardless of who’s at quarterback. Walker has essentially had more game time with the Browns than he’s had practice time with the starters, and unless Watson would have to be shut down for the season, that further complicates any pending quarterback decision. Who’s getting the practice reps and how can Cleveland better get its starter ready? What’s the dynamic inside the locker room and quarterback meeting room if an addition is made?
These are things we don’t know, but things the Browns must weigh. They gave Watson the keys to everything in large part because they wanted to end the quarterback carousel and decades of uncertainty at the game’s most important position. That makes everything about the current situation both so delicate and so disappointing. The Browns might not know when Watson will play again this season, and based on what they’ve seen over the last two years, they can’t know if he’ll ever play at a high level again.
Watson has played a couple of good games in his 10 Browns starts, but he otherwise has been somewhere between average and awful. He played his best game with Cleveland in Week 3 versus Tennessee when he suffered the injury, but he’s only logged two practices and two game series since. It was clear before Watson left the field on Sunday that the pass offense wasn’t anywhere near where it needed to be in terms of timing or explosion.
The Browns gave three first-round picks to the Houston Texans and punted on 2022 in order to acquire Watson. In August, they traded veteran backup Joshua Dobbs to the Arizona Cardinals to acquire a fifth-round pick. That was a risk then given the stakes of this season, but it also was an endorsement of Thompson-Robinson, a fifth-round pick who played well early in the preseason. Now, it appears Thompson-Robinson is not considered any kind of real option for 2023. The Browns got Walker at the end of the preseason because the Chicago Bears cut him despite owing the quarterback $2 million in guaranteed money. Now, Walker has reached his maximum of three practice-squad elevations, so he’ll need to be signed to the 53-man active roster.
Advertisement
If Watson was injured again in Indianapolis or is still hurt, Walker is almost certainly the Browns’ starting quarterback at the moment. If they think Watson is going to be healthy, they probably can’t trade for a quarterback and should focus on keeping Watson healthy — and getting him much-needed reps, both in games and in practice, in hopes of pushing the offense forward. The Watson trade was supposed to be about leaving hypotheticals in the past.
There’s no easy solution here for the Browns, but it’s highly unlikely Kirk Cousins would be the answer. Cousins is in the final year of his contract with the Minnesota Vikings, who have been in a salary-shedding situation this season and appear to be playing for the future. Cousins played under Stefanski in Minnesota in 2018 and 2019, so there’s a natural connection there. Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah went to Minnesota in 2022 after two years of working under Berry with the Browns.
But Cousins, 35, has a no-trade clause, and he might only waive it to go to a team willing to sign him to a long-term, high-dollar extension. That won’t be the Browns, because Watson’s contract is fully guaranteed.
Also, Cousins has played well in two consecutive Vikings victories that have them at 3-4 and at least on the fringe of playoff contention. At this point, there are only assumptions about the future of Cousins and the organization, and few certainties. In an upset of the 49ers Monday night, Cousins posted the 50th 300-yard passing game of his career. If the Vikings really wanted to trade Cousins, there might be other suitors who could offer more than the Browns. Cousins’ base salary for 2023 is $10 million, so any team that managed to get him as a rental for the rest of the season would take on a cap hit of around $6 million.
GO DEEPER
NFL trade deadline: Why have teams been so much more aggressive lately?
As for other veteran quarterback options who could potentially give the Browns some semblance of a chance to survive in December, Andy Dalton is the backup on a winless Carolina Panthers team. He wouldn’t cost the Browns much this year, but half of his $4 million 2024 salary is guaranteed. The Titans might be ready to move toward the future while Ryan Tannehill is dealing with an ankle sprain. Tyrod Taylor has started the last two games for the New York Giants with Daniel Jones injured, and it’s hard to imagine New Orleans trading Jameis Winston because the Saints are in playoff contention despite their offensive struggles. The pickings are slim.
Financially, the Browns can make a deal — for a quarterback or another player — work. They have around $34 million in available 2023 salary-cap space, though they created that much so they can roll it over into next season to be able to afford Watson, a highly paid defense and their experienced offensive line. The Browns have regularly adjusted player contracts, frequently using void years to space out cap hits into future seasons. Even if Cleveland didn’t amend a new player’s deal, it could make necessary cap adjustments by shifting money in a current player’s contract.
The Browns haven’t been afraid to make a trade. In August, Berry made a mistake in giving away Dobbs, but he also made two deals to acquire contributors. Kicker Dustin Hopkins is probably going to be the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for the second time and is currently on an NFL record streak of five straight games with a field goal of 50-plus yards. Another August swap brought the Browns second-year running back Pierre Strong Jr., who’s been good on special teams and now will feature in the offensive game plan for at least this week due to Jerome Ford’s ankle injury.
Advertisement
In May, the Browns acquired edge rusher Za’Darius Smith from the Vikings for a late-round pick swap that involved the Browns sending fifth-rounders in each of the next two drafts. The Browns still have a 2024 fifth-round pick to potentially give in a trade from their previous deals involving Dobbs and Baker Mayfield. They don’t have first- or fourth-round picks in 2024 from the end of the Watson trade with the Texans.
All of this — trade scenarios for the next seven days and the health of the franchise — comes down to Watson’s status, his availability and his ability to play at a high level. Right now, we’re playing the waiting game on what’s next with Watson’s shoulder. If he isn’t going to be back soon, all of these hypothetical discussions turn into a real focus on Berry and Cleveland’s ability to develop a quarterback situation that would give this current team a chance.
(Top photo of Jacoby Brissett: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
