Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders and Bailey Zappe have the same levels of fan support as the mayoral candidates in New York City--violent disagreement.
A persistent theme in the fan base is that it's time to give up on the season so that we can "find out about" our quarterbacks, Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders and Bailey Zappe and make a decision about drafting a quarterback in 2026. This mentality that it's time to give up after just a few games is absurd.
In the NFL, you play to win every game, first of all. You don't make lineup changes based on next year's agenda until such time as you are mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. You owe that to your players.
Otherwise, Mr. and Ms. Fan, I am assigning YOU the task of explaining to Mr. Myles Garrett why you want to tank the season, and yet you expect him to stay in Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Haslam will hire you to represent the fan base, assign you to a conference room at 76 Lou Groza Blvd in Berea and you can go one-on-one with Mr. Garrett and explain the ingeniousness of your plan to just give up and start testing rookie quarterbacks.
What exactly do you think you're going to find out? First of all, the problems with the Browns offense are not related to Joe Flacco. The offensive line has gotten old, and will not get younger if you install a rookie quarterback. There is only one wide receiver, Jerry Jeudy, The second guy, Cedric Tillman, only had 339 yards last year, and is off to a slow start this year.
Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady both talk openly about the need to gain head smarts by studying the first year. Some college quarterbacks, particularly mobile ones, have been able to have success their first year, notably Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels, C.J. Stroud Baker Mayfield and a few others.
If the offense is struggling under Joe Flacco, if the offensive line can't provide pass protection or run blocking, if there is no WR2 to take pressure off Jerry Jeudy, the offense is certain to continue to struggle. what exactly is the rookie quarterback supposed to do?
By the way, no matter which quarterback you pick, it will be the wrong one. The preseason showed us that Shedeur likes to go off script and scramble, and this was very effective in college. He made a lot of spectacular improvised plays but also took a lot of sacks. He is probably the People's Choice, but is far from transitioning to the Pro game.
Dillon Gabriel impresses with head smarts and moxie, and played in a pro-style offense at Oregon under Dan Lanning. However, the combination of small size and slow foot speed may be detrimental for the spectacular NFL success that Browns fans crave.
Bailey Zappe is also slow but agile and has NFL experience. Nobody thinks of him as a starter after not being the answer in post-Brady New England. However, he threw for a record nearly 5,967 yards and 62 touchdowns in his senior year at Western Kentucky. Yikes.
If Flacco had to miss a game, Gabriel is the second string, though Zappe would merit some consideration to start. Zappe started one game for the Browns last year.
Now let's ask this: why is it flat out impossible to compete for the AFC North or at least a Wild Card? At the time of the composition of this article, only the Bengals are above .500, and their first string quarterback is out, possibly for the entire season, with Jake Browning in. If you're going to tell me that the qb doesn't matter, why are we having this discussion? The Bengals can be caught.
Do you think that the Steelers are invincible now that they have Aaron Rodgers on their team? Just like the New York Jets last year nearly went to the Super Bowl, right? Not.
The Ravens figure to be the most formidable competition, but they lost one game and should have lost to the Browns. Not unbeatable. Currently one game ahead of the Browns, and many of our fans want to give up.
Good grief, this is football. Just as Tom Hanks said "There is no crying in baseball," I say, "There is no giving up in football." Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over till it's over." I say the same thing. When you're mathematically eliminated, then you can sit down the veterans who you think might not be with the team next year, not before.
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