Lessons Learned: What the Browns Can Take Away from a Lost Season
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but they are some key lessons to have learned from 2024
The Cleveland Browns are the definition of being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
They’re on their way to a potential 3-14 season in which they missed the postseason, lost their starting quarterback to injury, had to bench their backup quarterback because of poor play, and saw another injury happen to their former star running back.
But, to fix those problems ahead of 2025 is impossible without hitting on every single drafted player in 2025. They have essentially no cap space to work with because of Deshaun Watson, need to negotiate a new deal with Nick Chubb, and also need to assess what their greatest needs in the draft are with their projected top-5 pick.
So, again, rock and hard place – rock being cap space, and hard place being so many needs to fix the team.
This was an avoidable mess, and it’s just one of many lessons the Browns should be taking away from the 2024 season as they approach a long offseason.
Learn to pull your starters faster – even if they’re your starting QB
Cleveland is stuck with Watson, whether that’s just in money alone or with playing him next season is hard to say or specify. The team is willing to have him come back and compete for a starting job, which signals that they’re not convinced of his ability to just swoop back in and take the job once again from whoever else is competing for the spot.
But, this argument about Watson and whether he warrants another year – he doesn’t – could’ve been avoided had the team had the gumption to pull him as a starter when it was obvious he was struggling deeply with playing even the simplest of downs. Cleveland’s one win against the New York Giants bought him time, and that shouldn’t have been the case.
Players like Watson, Jameis Winston, or even Nick Chubb needed to be pulled a lot quicker than they were when it was obvious they had lost their way. Next season, hopefully, the Browns have learned to take that initiative and don’t wait for another catastrophic injury to do so. Depending on who they grab to act as a bridge quarterback and potential new replacement for Watson, they won’t need to.
Honorable mention for this lesson: never trade away multiple first round picks and dole out the biggest non-guaranteed contract in NFL history to a player who had never proven he could be a consistent winner in the league.
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