This is a huge preseason game on Saturday afternoon at Huntington Bank Field.
Certainly not for the Buffalo Bills, though. Sure, they will indeed have some critical games this year, but they will come in the regular season. The Bills have a new head coach, a new defensive coordinator, a new offense and even a new stadium as they have completely remade themselves in a last-ditch effort to get to the Super Bowl before their window of opportunity closes — is slammed shut — right on their hands, causing them to scream out in anguish. They have, in Josh Alien, a guy who a lot of people — not me, however, for those of you keeping score at home — think is the best quarterback in the game even though he can be considered that only in the regular season. But greatness is measured totally in the postseason, and it is there that he can’t win the big one no matter how hard he tries.
Rather, it is the Browns for whom Saturday’s game is huge. In fact, you could make the case — and you’d be right as rain — that this is their biggest preseason game at least in the modern era if not also all-time, dating back 80 years to that first season of 1946, though that might be stretching things a bit. More on that in my next post.
The Browns are at the other end of the food chain when it comes to NFL quarterbacks. They have been looking for just decent quarterback play, let alone great, for any length of time throughout the quarter-century-long expansion era. It is why the Browns are knee-deep in yet another quarterback competition. Browns fans are weary of going down this road yet again, but first-year head coach Todd Monken is a smart guy — he knows quarterbacks and offense inside and out — and as such he fully realizes that he has absolutely no chance to turn this team around until he turns around the situation at quarterback, the most important position in team sports.
This is not just any ol’ quarterback derby, though. This one involves two guys who are extremely well-known throughout the league — but not for all the right reasons in one instance.
Deshaun Watson, who is at the end of a five-year, fully-guaranteed $231 million contract, appears to have the edge right now. He got the start in last Saturday’s 34-10 loss to the Chicago Bears in the opener, and will play in a backup role against Buffalo. But there are those fans — many, many, many more than the Browns would ever care to admit, and you’ll hear their big and loud chorus of boos on Saturday — who would rather see anyone but Watson quarterbacking their team because of his lewd, seedy, perverted past, the likes of which the league — and moreso even the pro sports world overall — has never come even close to seeing. The quarterback is the face of a pro football team, and if he wins the job, then Watson would be that guy. Talk about a ugly, embarrassing, humiliating, pathetic, sickening look that would be, again even if the Browns will not admit it in public, and understandably so because it’s a public relations disaster. Browns fans are smart — they see exactly what’s going on — and they love their football team with an unmatched passion.
On the other hand, there is Shadeur Sanders, who relieved against the Bears but will start against Buffalo. He is as popular as Watson is unpopular. He is the people’s choice. You will hear that as well on Saturday. They would like nothing better than for him to win the job, but for that to happen, he has to be lights-out against Buffalo to have even a chance to do that.
Going into the season with a young guy who should only get better the more he plays woujd be the way the Browns would much more prefer to go. It woujd give the club a much-needed fresh, clean, fun and exciting look, and start to the Monken era. But his decision, which likely would come in the days immediately after the game can’t be contrived. Monken has to pick the guy who has truly had the better training camp and preseason, or else he will lose the locker room. Those players are here to win, and so is Monken. And if they don’t, then they both will eventually be gone.
The Browns need to start moving dramatically forward. They’re going to be moving into their new indoor stadium in three years. They can’t stagger into the place. They’ve got to do so on a dead run, riding a wave of hope and enthusiasm.
What happens on Saturday could be the first significant move in that direction.
So, then, a huge game on Saturday, one that doesn’t count in the standings but coujd end up counting for a whole heckuva lot more in the future of this franchise, this community jewel?
Oh, you bet!
Steve King
