(by Ross Jacobs)
This is one of the rare cases where a preseason score actually means something. The Bills are simply much, much better than the Browns top to bottom. Their backups completely destroyed Cleveland’s backups but with the two potential starting QBs. Everyone in Cleveland already knows this is a sunk season before it even begins. Even ignoring all their other problems, the QB play is simply atrocious and totally inexcusable. This is a dumpster fire if I’ve ever seen one.
Consequently there is hardly anything to take away from this game unfortunately.
Player Notes...
-- Shedeur Sanders got the “start,” but even though he played a thousand times better than Deshaun Watson, the team announced after the game that Watson would be the starter Week 1.
It makes sense and is something we predicted months ago. If the Browns roll out Shedeur to start, it’s obviously not going to work and then they would have to pull him for Watson…which won’t go any better. But if they reverse the order and throw Watson to the wolves, he can embarrass himself one last time and they can wash their hands of him for good. Shedeur would then come in with a little spark of hope, a glimmer of young potential. Nobody will be expecting miracles, but perhaps he can show enough to keep things interesting.
And as we’ve discussed many times, Shedeur is not a total nothing. When he’s protected well, he can throw a very, very accurate and catchable ball. Where he gets into trouble is obviously he doesn’t get that kind of time behind a shoddy offensive line very often, and because he doesn’t see the field well and has to wait for receivers to come wide open, he holds the ball for an inordinately long time to make the pressure situation even worse. And when he’s under pressure it’s usually a disaster although he can occasionally make some miraculous plays.
Shedeur is a roller coaster ride every time he’s out there, and at least that will be somewhat fun to watch compared to the disaster that is Watson.
Deshaun must not have any sense of the situation he’s in, no perspective at all. To come out and criticize the fans for booing him after everything he’s been given and how little he’s given back is just astounding. He is as entitled and hated an athlete as I’ve ever seen, and he’s brought it all on himself and he can’t and won’t see that. NFL fans are going to revel at his final downfall in a few weeks.
-- On the other side of the field, Kyle Allen was quietly better than both Shedeur and Watson combined. The Browns could have signed or traded for Allen multiple times over the years for pennies, but instead they gave Watson $250 million guaranteed and drafted both Shedeur and Dillon Gabriel for who knows what reasons. All three of those decisions are fireable offenses on their own, and yet somehow Andrew Berry still has a job.
-- The player that got the most interest, outside the Cleveland QBs, in this game was UDFA Ja’Mori Maclin, cousin of former Eagles 1st round pick Jeremy Maclin. Ja’Mori isn’t anywhere close to his cousin as a player though. He caught 2 passes for 108 yards and a TD, 71 of it coming on one long play where he beat a cornerback I’ve never heard of on a crossing route and then a safety I’ve never heard of took a poor angle and crashed into the corner leaving Maclin to casually stroll into the endzone.
It was an ok play but context is important. Most importantly, the two players he beat won’t make the worst 53-man roster in the entire league. But on top of that Maclin is small, had one good season at North Texas and was completely out of his depth at Kentucky, and he’s not even that fast or athletic. He ran a 4.51 at his Pro Day which means he’s probably closer to a 4.55. He definitely looked like a 4.5 guy on this play as well. Sorry Bills fans, but there’s nothing to see here.
-- Raheim “Rocket” Sanders got the start at RB and didn’t do anything to impress for more touches. He’s firmly behind Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson.
-- But the most interesting item for me wasn’t who played in this game but who didn’t play.
Rookie WR Denzel Boston played. His fellow rookie KC Concepcion did not, along with Jerry Jeudy. That’s a massive hint that Concepcion and Jeudy are the two primary starters and Boston will start off a little slower and rotate in. Concepcion has been rising for me. I previously dismissed him, but he’s definitely better than I originally thought and he’s going to play a big role here. Whether that will matter for fantasy on this awful team is up for debate, but he’ll be out there at least and he’s going to see the ball through the air and also on the ground. It’s possible he has a Zay Flowers esque rookie season. That would be a really good outcome for him.
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