Taking a look at some of the Flacco-esque elements that Winston brings to Cleveland’s passing game
The Cleveland Browns are hosting the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, and they’ll be doing so with a new starting quarterback due to Deshaun Watson’s season-ending injury against the Bengals.
It looks like the team has officially named Jameis Winston as the starter against Baltimore this weekend and there’s a good chance that, aside from the Watson contract baggage, he should’ve been the starter all along.
When it comes to the types of offenses that Kevin Stefanski has always been associated with in his career, especially in Cleveland, Winston seemingly fits the type of player that he wants at quarterback. The Browns brought in Ken Dorsey during the offseason to try and implement a more effective RPO-heavy passing game but it hasn’t been as consistent as it should be.
Jameis Winston is going to bring a lot of “Joe Flacco” vibes and elements to the passing game going forward which is probably a good thing at this point.
Winston is excellent when it comes to recognizing personnel mismatches at the LOS.
He saw Njoku on that outside corner and trusted him to out-fight the DB for the ball. #Browns #DawgPound
pic.twitter.com/zL3eECZpBo— Matt Wilson (@CoachWilson66) October 23, 2024
Aside from having an absolute cannon for an arm with the ability to make every NFL throw, Winston is a much better pre-snap reader than Watson when it comes to recognizing personnel matchups. It’s one thing to check for defensive formations and coverages at the line of scrimmage but realizing that the defense has a smaller defender lined up on your tight end or bigger wide receiver is another.
That’s exactly the different type of added element that Winston brings to the pre-snap read process.
It’s been lobbied for over the past few weeks, but now is when Cleveland fans could truly witness Kevin Stefanski getting back to some of the things that made the offense so successful last season. There’s a decent chance that we’re going to see this offense gravitate toward some of the play-action-reliant passing concepts that led to Joe Flacco being so successful over the back half of the season in 2023.
Understandably, the common worry of a Joe Flacco or Jameis Winston-led passing offense is the occasional “Y.O.L.O.” balls that they’ll throw from time to time. Neither of them are afraid to take chances for their team, and even though some of them could end up in interceptions, they could also end up in game-winning touchdowns.
Are you confident that the passing game will be better with Jameis Winston? Join fellow Browns fans in the comment section below.
