Jameis Winston has made two starts for the Cleveland Browns after they lost Deshaun Watson to a season-ending Achilles tear, and they have gone as expected, with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Despite the issues that come from having Winston start games, the Browns absolutely must keep him in that role.
While many will clamor for Cleveland to turn to second-year quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, this would be a complete waste of time. When it comes to assessing young quarterbacks, there are certain traits to look for to see if someone has a meaningful future in the NFL, and DTR lacks all of them. It would be different if the Browns were a team lacking talent across the board and did not have multiple highly skilled players on their roster. Since that is not the case, turning to Thompson-Robinson at this time would be unwise.
Speaking of talent, the Browns must evaluate the players on their roster and determine who is going to fit into their plans moving forward. Having an unproven quarterback in Thompson-Robinson take over rather than stick with Winston could very well produce inaccurate results and assessments, a result that this team cannot afford to risk at this time. Those in charge, assuming they stay in charge, must acknowledge that in order to have the best possible evaluation of their roster over the rest of the season, only one quarterback gives them that chance, and that is Winston.
Are there going to be some ugly moments in Winston that will result in people shaking their heads and being unhappy with how a play or game turned out? Sure, but that is not the point here. It is about acquiring the most accurate evaluation of this team and what steps need to be made in the future to put the most competitive team on the field. Winston may have a high amount of variance in his performance, but he does provide an offensive high point that only Joe Flacco has been able to reach since Watson was acquired.
There is even the possibility of Winston being Cleveland's quarterback beyond this season should the team move on from the disaster that has been the Deshaun Watson experience. Is this the most exciting suggestion? Not necessarily, but it would allow the Browns to keep the majority of this roster intact and still compete while avoiding the complete and total tear-down they seemed destined to make earlier this year.
This would be the preferred route instead of sticking with Watson or drafting a rookie quarterback with the intention of him being the team's starter. The Browns are not in a position on their competitive timeline to turn to a rookie. If the intention is to stick the core of the current roster, having Winston start the rest of the year to provide them with the best possible analysis of this group is the only way to go, for better or worse.
