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For all intents and purposes, the Cleveland Browns' 2024 season began before it even started. Saddled with an expensive, deteriorating, and wildly unpopular starting quarterback in Deshaun Watson, there was little hope that this season would yield any sort of positive result. Even after Watson went down with a season-ending achilles tear, the options behind him on Cleveland's depth didn't provide much hope.
While there are certainly high highs with Jameis Winston at the helm, those moments are fleeting compared to the lows. Winston tossed 12 interceptions in just seven starts, only four off the NFL high, and as a result, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has decided to move on to Dorian Thompson-Robinson, a second-year UCLA product who hasn't inspired much confidence in his young NFL career.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson played in eight games last season and went 1-2 as the starter. He just under 54 percent of his passes for 440 yards, 1 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. This season, in a smaller sample size, the second-year QB hasn't been any better, throwing three interceptions in his 34 attempts on the season. The bulk of his work came in relief of Deshaun Watson back in Week 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Now, DTR gets a shot to start against those very same Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday afternoon, and he's ready to make the most of the opportunity.
“I mean, super excited, obviously. Finally getting another opportunity at this thing. And just happy to be up there. Be able to get a full week of reps, of practice, and then go out there in the game and lead these boys the right way,” Thompson-Robinson explained to reporters on Wednesday.
Perhaps a full week of practice as a starter will allow Thompson-Robinson to play better than he did the last time he stepped on the field against the Bengals. Back in Week 7, DTR completed just 11-of-24 passes for 82 yards and threw a pair of interceptions against a Bengals defense that is bottom-five in the league in both passing yards and passing touchdowns allowed.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski set on taking things ‘week to week'
While Thompson-Robinson could in fact be auditioning for a starting job, Kevin Stefanski remained noncommittal as to whether the 25-year-old would be Cleveland's starter over the final three weeks of the season.
“We just look at it week to week,” Stefanski told reporters. “You want to give your team the best chance to win. Obviously, we want to see Dorian out there, want to give him a week’s worth of preparation to get ready. But this is the greatest team game there is. And I know so much gets put on the quarterback and a lot of discussion about the quarterback and we understand that. But this is about the Cleveland Browns.”
A big part of the reason why so much discussion is about the quarterback, specifically in Cleveland, is that the Browns have had no luck in finding a franchise guy. Unless you want to make a case for Bernie Kosar or Brian Sipe, the last franchise quarterback of the Cleveland Browns would've been Otto Graham, whose peak predates Jim Brown.
Over the last 25 years, the Browns have swung and missed on five 1st round quarterbacks — Tim Couch, Brady Quinn, Brandon Weeden, Johnny Manziel, and Baker Mayfield — and even worse, they decided to pay Watson an enormous sum of money in the midst of off-the-field troubles that have contributed to making him public enemy #1 in Northeast Ohio. So forgive Browns fans if they aren't too optimistic about what the next chapter of the Dorian Thompson-Robinson era is going to produce.
