Week 8 resulted in a win over the Baltimore Ravens some Browns fans are ambivalent about. It’s great to see the team win. But is that a benefit knowing the level of play they put on tape Sunday isn’t good enough to win eight of their nine remaining games, which is likely what it would take to get into the dance?

Cleveland’s brass has worked for the past few years at shoveling the organization out of the cesspit that’s been a culture of losing and perpetual incompetence and discomfiture. Finishing the season badly enough to draft in the top two would represent a risk of undoing those positive steps.

There’s a case to be made that it wouldn’t be worth it. But the alternative is to have no particular plan at quarterback moving forward. The entire purpose of trading for Deshaun Watson was to finally have the answer to that question which has plagued the Browns since 1999 like a never-ending swarm of hapless locusts.

Whether the trade originally made wise football sense or not, I can’t imagine anyone has an argument that it’s worked to solidify the position, nor should it seem in any way solved moving forward.

Rarely do excellent QBs become available on the trade market. The last three times it’s 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘥 to have happened are examined below.

Russell Wilson went 4-11 in 2022 after being dealt to the Denver Broncos, lost five of the first six games there last season and was eventually benched for Jarrett Stidham.

Aaron Rodgers was traded to the New York Jets in 2023 and was expected to be their savior; his Achilles tendon failed him four snaps into game one. And somehow this season seems even worse, with the Jets sporting the same 2-6 record as the Browns.

Watson’s struggles are well chronicled since landing in Cleveland for a haul of picks and a bag of loot that Blackbeard the pirate would need a steam shovel to bury. And he too has now suffered a torn Achilles.

For anyone who believes “you are what your record says you are,” the Broncos, Jets and Browns are all better without the high-priced trade acquisition. So how else can clubs accomplish team construction?

Part 2 will explore exactly that right now.

—@PoisonPill4