Why Joe Flacco and the Browns’ Offense Are Holding Cleveland Back

Is this Freaky Friday or just another week of Cleveland Browns football? Sunday’s matchup with the Detroit Lions felt eerily similar to a week two road loss to the Ravens, except the offensive collapse happened a little bit earlier.

After a surprise come-from-behind win against an elite Green Bay Packers team, morale was as high as it could be with a trip to Detroit on the schedule. Unfortunately, the game had to be played, and it quickly fell apart.

The Browns started the day with a near three-and-out and an excellent drive for the offense, where they moved the ball 88 yards for a touchdown. Stefanski actually let Flacco throw the ball downfield in their scripted drive, and it’s the only time all day the offense looked competent.

The offense, as it’s currently constructed, has so many holes in it. The most problematic area is probably the offensive line; however, you could complain about everyone who’s not Quinshon Judkins.

Cornelius Lucas is the worst offensive tackle in football and was eaten alive by Aidan Hutchinson. Obviously, Hutchinson has made many better tackles than Lucas look foolish, but every time he’s been out on the field this year, it’s been brutal for the Cleveland offense. He gives Joe Flacco no time, eliminating any possibility for a play-action offense, and essentially makes it so you can’t run the football in his direction either.

Speaking of Flacco, besides keeping Dillon Gabriel from being murdered behind this pathetic offensive line, why is he still running this offense? I recognize the receivers drop a ton of his passes, and the line looks horrific, but Flacco looks precisely how you’d imagine a 40-year-old quarterback to look: slow, lessened arm talent, and poor decision-making.

Stefanski’s West Coast offensive system relies so heavily on the ability to run play action, and as awful as this line is, Flacco doesn’t seem mobile enough to help out this bad line play. Flacco isn’t in your plans in 2026 or beyond, so I’m begging this team to move on to Gabriel. Just see what you have!

Cleveland has the worst offense in football, but they have the worst special teams unit, too. They’re horrible on kick-offs, they’re awful in punt protection and coverage, and Andre Szmyt is, at best, a very average kicker. With how bad two of your three units are, it’s truly incredible how this defense can even keep you in games.

It’s truly pathetic how you continue to waste the career of Myles Garrett. There’s no immediate fix for this mess, and even going into next season, there’s just so much to fix on this team. Garrett means way too much to this city to move on from him, but without some key free agent signings and nailing some skill positions in the draft, NFL fans will only be able to see Myles Garrett play in the playoffs at two points in his career.

At least next week's game will be over even earlier in the day, as the Browns will play in London against the Vikings. I know the NFL sends teams overseas to grow the game, but with how this Browns’ offense looks, they might make people overseas never watch American football again.