Last season, more than a dozen Browns’ starters suffered injuries during the year and forced the team to play without its best lineup for the majority of the 2023 campaign.
In perhaps an overreaction to keep players healthy, Cleveland’s coaching staff opted to play this season’s starters very little or not at all during this year’s preseason games.
While the health part may have been addressed, the team’s ability to work as a cohesive unit was not – at least in the first game of the season.
Analyst Jimmy Watkins believes the Browns’ ineptitude on offense is to blame on Cleveland’s mismanagement of its roster during the preseason.
In an article for Cleveland.com, he noted that the Browns looked like a team that had not practiced together enough in the 33-17 loss to Dallas on Sunday.
“Because (Cleveland) fans deserved to feel angry, leave early and curse loudly at how unprepared their favorite team looked on Sunday,” Watkins wrote, adding, “And that’s being nice.”
Much of his focus centered around how ill-prepared quarterback Deshaun Watson looked in the new-look offense, often appearing to be out of sync with his wide receivers – especially newcomer Jerry Jeudy.
While Watson completed a touchdown pass to Jeudy, the quarterback-receiver duo connected on only three of the eight times Jeudy was the target.
Watkins said Watson looked like a quarterback who could have used some reps during a preseason game to experience the flow of the offense first-hand before the game against Dallas.
“We don’t know how much it would’ve helped or hurt to thrust (Deshaun Watson) into the preseason fire, but it doesn’t look like it helped him at all to watch from the sidelines,” Watkins wrote.
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