Analyzing the many assets the Browns invested in the NFL's saddest QB room

The Cleveland Browns made a decision on the saddest quarterback competition in the NFL this week when they announced Deshaun Watson as their Week 1 starter. It is a grim outlook after a brutal preseason showing that saw him get booed off the field and then call out the fans for voicing their justified displeasure with, well, everything regarding the state of the franchise. Specifically its quarterback room.

The entire quarterback situation is also another harsh reminder as to how many assets the Browns have thrown away over the years in assembling what is one of the most underwhelming and lackluster quarterback rooms in the entire NFL.

The Browns have spent a lot of assets trying to find a quarterback

There is an argument to be made that it makes sense for an NFL team to keep taking quarterbacks in the draft, or searching for trades and free agents, every single season until they find an answer at the position.

It is the most important spot in the league, and you cannot compete for a Super Bowl without having a good one. 

The Browns are one of the teams that have not had a good one, and they have spent years and a ton of assets in the pursuit of fixing that problem.

It has failed spectacularly. 

Let's just for a minute look at all of the investments they have made in quarterbacks since the start of the 2022 season. 

• They traded three first-round picks, a third-round pick and two fourth-round picks to the Houston Texans for Watson, and then signed him to a fully guaranteed $230 million contract that has quickly become one of the worst contracts in NFL history. Some of those draft picks were used (after additional trades) to select players like Jordan Davis, Jahmyr Gibbs and Brian Thomas).
• One year later, they used a 2023 fifth-round pick on Dorian Thompson-Robinson. 
• Just two years after that, they traded Thompson-Robinson and a 2025 fifth-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles for quarterback Kenny Pickett.
• That same year, they used two selections in the 2025 Draft on Dillon Gabriel (third round) and Shedeur Sanders (fifth round).
• This year, in the 2026 NFL Draft, they used a sixth-round pick on Taylen Green. 

All of that since just 2022. 

Count up the assets there.

That is three first-round picks, two third-round picks, two fourth-round picks, three fifth-round picks and a sixth-round pick all used to draft or acquire quarterbacks. 

All in just four years. 

All to acquire six different quarterbacks via the draft or trade.

What has the return on that investment been for the Browns? 

Not only have they managed only a 26-42 record, Browns quarterbacks have also combined for a 74.2 passer rating. That is the lowest mark in the NFL over that stretch, and it makes them one of just two teams two teams with a collective passer rating under 80 over that stretch (the New York Jets are the other). 

It somehow gets even worse when you start to dig even deeper into it. 

Watson is getting the start this season, despite the fact he has not been an effective or productive quarterback in almost six years. He has been so bad, and so rarely available since then, that his most recent 300-yard passing game came in Week 17 of the 2020 season. 

Since then, there have been 462 instances of a quarterback passing for at least 300 yards in a single game.

Watson has had none of them.

There have been 65 individual quarterbacks who have accounted for those 300-yard passing games over that stretch.

Shedeur Sanders is one of them.

Watson is not. 

Joe Flacco (four times), Jameis Winston (three times), Baker Mayfield (two times), Jacoby Brissett and Sanders (one time each) are the Browns quarterbacks who have done it since then. 

What is perhaps the most astonishing thing out of all of this is that Gabriel, a player the Browns used a third-round pick (No. 94 overall) on just one year ago, and two rounds before they selected Sanders, did not even seem to be a serious consideration to win this year's quarterback competition. 

It is just a rancid, ugly run of asset management, scouting and quarterback play that has put the Browns in a position to be one of the worst teams in the league yet again, potentially investing another premium pick in a quarterback.

Maybe this time they will get it right. Recent history suggests they won't. 

Data in this post via Pro-Football-Reference StatHead Database.