The NFL’s quarterback cycle has a way of humbling every bold prediction. For a league that still lives by the idea that the right coach, the right play caller and the right quarterback can solve everything, the passing game has spent the last decade making that feel a lot less certain.
That’s where the Browns find themselves. Cleveland believes it has the first two pieces in place with HC Todd Monken, but there’s plenty of skepticism about whether Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel or Taylen Green fit the franchise-quarterback mold. With the 2026 season about to begin, Watson gets the first chance to prove a lot of people wrong.
And with college football’s Week 1 underway on Saturday, the next wave of quarterback talk is already creeping into view. A historic quarterback class is expected in 2027, which naturally leads to the same question every team asks when it doesn’t have a clear answer under center: will the Browns be bad enough, lucky enough, or able to bundle enough draft picks to land their guy? There’s no way to know that yet, and way too much will happen between now and then.
What is clear is that the NFL has changed again. The league once went 24 seasons between Dan Marino becoming the first quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards and Drew Brees doing it next.
Since Brees’ 2008 season, that benchmark has been hit 13 times, but the most recent came in 2002 by Patrick Mahomes. Over the last two seasons, only six quarterbacks topped 4,000 passing yards.
CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco dug into the slide in explosive passing, laying out five reasons “ the explosive NFL passing game has plummeted over the past decade ” and asking “will it ever return?” The explanations point to shell coverage, more inventive defenses, and the fact that college football isn’t producing offensive linemen and quarterbacks the way it once did. Coaches can control one piece of that more than the others, but even the offensive minds quoted in the piece admit the task has gotten tougher.
The answer, at least in part, is that the league adapts. More teams are leaning into bigger personnel packages, including 13 personnel - 1 running back, 3 tight ends, 1 wide receiver - and the Los Angeles Rams have already made that shift. Teams are also reworking what counts as an explosive play.
“If I am going to throw the ball 40-45 yards down the field one-on-one, my quarterback has to put it in a perfect spot. That’s hard to come by. So find different ways to create explosives.”
“It’s like a 20-yard in cut, so you bet your ass this is an explosive play now. Look at the defense.
They are just sinking with no vertical threat. So if you want to throw a go-ball here, you can’t.
So you attack the middle of the field as they get width. You take advantage of what you can win with and what I took away from our self scout was our quarterback’s good at throwing seams and ins, and he’s really good at it.
For Cleveland, that leaves the same old tension. The Browns need someone who can manage the game, hit the big throws and give both the defense and the offense confidence. But with passing production coming down around the league, the bigger question is whether they should swing hard and mortgage the future to chase that quarterback, or stay ahead of the curve by building the roster and finding the answer at the position along the way.
In Other News...
Browns Linked To Unexpected QB Move That Would Shake Up Depth Chart
The Browns quarterback picture has already been murky with Deshaun Watson entrenched as the starter and Dillon Gabriel currently on injured reserve, but a new speculative idea from Bleacher Report would make it even more interesting. In the mock deal, Cleveland would go after Tua Tagovailoa in a trade with the Falcons, sending Gabriel and a conditional 2027 seventh-round pick the other way, a proposal that immediately stands out because it would alter the depth chart in a hurry.
It is the kind of thought experiment that gets attention precisely because it is not rooted in anything confirmed, but it does force a look at how Cleveland wants to handle the position going forward. Trading for Tagovailoa would signal a major shift in how the Browns are thinking about their quarterback room, and even as a hypothetical, it underscores how unsettled the situation still feels behind Watson. [Read more 🡒]
Browns Just Added Backfield Depth That Could Matter Faster Than Expected
Clevelands practice squad took on a little more relevance with the addition of running back Jaleel McLaughlin, a familiar NFL name who was recently released by the Broncos. For a Browns team still shaping its backfield hierarchy, the move gives the club another experienced option in a room that already includes Quinshon Judkins, Dylan Sampson and Raheim Sanders, while also rounding out the kind of depth every offense needs once the season starts grinding forward.
McLaughlin lands in a spot where opportunities can open quickly if the Browns need a call-up or a different look behind the top backs. Practice squad additions are often filed away as housekeeping, but this one carries a little more intrigue because of where Cleveland is at in building out its running game and how fast a backup can become part of the conversation when injuries or game-day needs change. [Read more 🡒]
Browns QB Chaos Just Fueled A Veteran Trade Debate
With Deshaun Watson still listed as the starter and Dillon Gabriel already on injured reserve, the Browns quarterback room has become the kind of unsettled situation that naturally invites outside ideas. One recent mock-trade concept pushed that uncertainty even further, floating a scenario in which Cleveland would send Gabriel and a conditional 2027 seventh-round pick to Atlanta for Tua Tagovailoa.
It is purely a thought experiment, not a confirmed report, but it taps into the bigger conversation around how Cleveland should handle its long-running QB uncertainty. For a team that has spent plenty of time trying to stabilize the position, even an off-the-wall proposal like this lands because it speaks to a very real need for answers, and the next move remains anything but settled. [Read more 🡒]