Where’s Winston?

Jameis Winston, that is.

He will be starting quarterback for the Browns in Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens at Huntington Bank Field.

With this, then, there is reason again to watch the Browns, even — and especially — their offense.

And perhaps not even General Manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski, the two guys responsible for putting the 1-6 Browns, mired in a five-game situation, into this dicey situation, especially at quarterback, can mess it up.

For if he plays well — and there’s evidence that he will do so since, in his decade-long NFL career, he has thrown 143 touchdown passes with 99 interceptions — then Winston, 30, could save the jobs, or at least the job security, of Berry and Stefanski, who don’t appear to have any confidence in him at all with the way they have treated him. He was the Browns’ best quarterback in training camp and the preseason, yet he entered the regujsr season as No. 3, behind starter Deshaun Watson and young Dorian Thompson-Robinson. When Watson kept struggling mightily — to historical lows — as the season wore on and nosedived, taking the Browns out of playoff contention., there was never even a hint of a thought of giving Winston a try. That continued last Sunday in the 21-14 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals when, after Watson was lost for the season after rupturing his Achilles tendon, the Browns first went to DTR. Only when DTR had to leave with an injured hand did the team finally send in Winston. There was no one else. Ditto for Sunday since DTR is still sore.

But the Browns are in desperate need of a competent quarterback, and Winston needs a job. So, like it or not, Berry and Stefanski may be stuck with Winston for the rest of the season. With what has happened thus far in this Sad Sack-like 2024 season for the Browns, that’s a very good thing.

Steve King