The Coaching Staff couldn't possibly have been so stupid as to promote DTR to QB2 in Game 7 for no reason. It cost the Browns a victory over the Bengals. Only an impatient owner could sit down an experienced veteran for a chance to see a young 6th round quarterback play.
Then, suddenly Coach Kevin Stefanski discovers Jesus and decides to let Offensive Coordinator Ken Dorsey call plays in Game 8.
You could possibly build a case that Stefanski wasn't doing Deshaun Watson any good, and you have to be willing to resort to desperate measures to save Watson. So maybe you play that card for Watson's sake at some point. But with Watson out of the picture, there is no reason to so it unless the owner is threatening to fire the coach.
Taking away the coach's authority to run the offense makes no sense. We went through this when supposedly Dee Haslam was made the CEO of Haslam Sports Group and reorganized the roles of staff positions, which had become a total mess under her husband You can't give the OC more power than the Head Coach to make decisions, or if you do, you might as well make him the Head Coach. Just like in the Military, you don't have enlisted guys tell officers what to do. Sorry, it just doesn't work.
The idea that DTR is somehow better than Winston at this point is stupid. Winston threw for 5000 yards in 2019, when he broke the thumb on his throwing hand and couldn't grip the ball. He played most of his career for lousy teams and accepted the blame for them, much like Jacoby Brissett or Joe Flacco with the Jets. Winston only played for a good team once, the New Orleans Saints, and went 5-2 in 2021. At age 30, he is experienced enough to actually know how to play quarterback. He is not too old to play quarterback. Aaron Rodgers will be 41 in six weeks. That is too old to play quarterback.
So why would you demote him? Well, he is not a "franchise quarterback. Perhaps someone up the chain of command was having fantasies of discovering the "next Brock Purdy" and finding an easy way out of the Deshaun Debacle. If they were to find someone with All-Pro ability and under contract for less than 1% of Deshaun's money, perhaps a Wild Card might happen.
Now, I do like DTR as a backup quarterback, a guy similar to Joshua Dobbs and who could maybe start by his late 20's. But why start DTR now over Jameis Winston? Trying a quarterback for a game, losing patience and demoting him, well, that sounds like an owner who has no idea what he is doing.
It's hard to believe it was a football decision to demote Winston. More likely it is JH3 back to his old tricks. How long before Ben Zappe starts?
