The Cleveland Browns are on to their fourth quarterback this season, one who wasn't even on an NFL team when the year began. Somehow, despite that, they are 9-5, currently the No. 5 seed in the AFC, and have the inside track to playoff football where all bets are off.
Can the Browns actually, improbably, win a Super Bowl with Joe Flacco at the helm?
Cleveland has wins over both current No. 1 seeds — the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens — and Deshaun Watson played in only one of those games (59.2 PFF passing grade).
This team has been riding the dominance of the league’s best defense all season, and that doesn’t seem likely to change if they make it to the postseason.
The Browns have by far the league’s best defense by expected points allowed per play, scoring rate and successful play rate. They allow a whole play less per opposing drive than any other team, which is as big a gap between them and the second-best team in the league as the gap between the second- and 32nd-ranked teams.
With a defense as good as Cleveland’s, the team is going to be in most games, and they don’t need elite quarterback play.
They also have a supporting cast on offense that can help a limited quarterback. Despite being down three starting-caliber tackles for the season, Joe Flacco was still under pressure on less than 40% of his dropbacks against the Chicago Bears this past week. Even without star running back Nick Chubb, the team is still finding success on the ground. Jerome Ford is averaging more than four yards per carry on the season, and he and Kareem Hunt have combined for 11 rushing scores.
Joe Flacco | 2023
It would be a mistake to call the offensive line and running game in their current guise as strengths, the way it would have been if we were looking at a fully healthy group in both cases, but it’s enough to complement the passing game and at least ensure that the entire responsibility for offensive success doesn’t rest on Flacco’s shoulders.
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