{"id":77390,"date":"2024-01-04T07:46:57","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T07:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/?p=77390"},"modified":"2024-01-04T07:46:57","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T07:46:57","slug":"browns-make-final-call-on-starting-qb-for-finale-vs-bengals-kieu-linh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/browns-make-final-call-on-starting-qb-for-finale-vs-bengals-kieu-linh\/","title":{"rendered":"Browns Make Final Call on Starting QB for Finale vs. Bengals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Cleveland Browns\u00a0navigated a plethora of injury issues in 2023 and have decided not to risk QB\u00a0Joe Flacco, the season\u2019s savior, in Week 18 against the\u00a0Cincinnati Bengals.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/GettyImages-1845408829-e1702372985734.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" alt=\"Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has had to navigate a plethora of injuries this season, with the latest being to safety Grant Delpit.\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Head coach\u00a0Kevin Stefanski\u00a0officially announced on Wednesday, January 3, that Flacco will watch from the sideline Sunday while veteran\u00a0Jeff Driskel\u00a0gets a shot to cement his status as the Browns\u2019 backup quarterback heading into the playoffs.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Browns?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#Browns<\/a> coach Kevin Stefanski said Jeff Driskel will start at QB<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MaryKayCabot\/status\/1742607080874184944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">January 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201c#Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said Jeff Driskel will start at QB,\u201d\u00a0Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported via X Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>The Browns are 11-5 and have already locked up a Wildcard berth. Cleveland can no longer win the AFC North after the\u00a0Baltimore Ravens\u00a0dismantled the\u00a0Miami Dolphins\u00a0last weekend, which means the Browns have nothing on the line in their season finale.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Cleveland loses and the\u00a0Buffalo Bills\u00a0win, but don\u2019t surpass the Dolphins for the AFC East title, the Browns can not fall out of the top wildcard slot as the No. 5 seed. As such, there is no reason to risk the health of Flacco or any other potentially meaningful contributor to the team\u2019s looming playoff run.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the lack of stakes offer Cleveland a chance to see what it has in Driskel who gets the start Sunday over third-string quarterback\u00a0PJ Walker. Walker will serve as Driskel\u2019s backup in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n<h2>Browns QB Jeff Driskel Has Started Games for 4 NFL Teams<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_4650041\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-inline wp-image-4650041 visible\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/GettyImages-1776616756-e1703890707231.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=782\" alt=\"The Cleveland Browns signed quarterback Jeff Driskel to the active roster on Friday.\" width=\"782\" height=\"439\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4650041\" data-lazy-load=\"\" data-src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/GettyImages-1776616756-e1703890707231.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=782\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Browns plucked Driskel from the\u00a0Arizona Cardinals\u2018 practice squad at the end of last week to round out a quarterback room that traded away\u00a0Josh Dobbs\u00a0ahead of the season opener then lost starter\u00a0Deshaun Watson\u00a0and fifth-round rookie backup\u00a0Dorian Thompson-Robinson\u00a0to season-ending injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Driskel has 10 starts to his name, the first coming as a member of the Bengals back in 2018. It was in Cincinnati that Driskel (1-9) earned his only win as an NFL starter. He has also started games for the\u00a0Detroit Lions,\u00a0Denver Broncos\u00a0and\u00a0Houston Texans.\u00a0The\u00a0San Francisco 49ers\u00a0selected Driskel in the sixth round of the 2016 draft out of Louisiana Tech, though he never logged a regular-season snap in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n<p>Driskel, now 30 years old, has completed 59.2% of his 365 career pass attempts for 2,228 yards, 14 TDs and 8 INTs, per\u00a0Pro Football Reference (PFR). He has also recorded 384 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns on the ground.<\/p>\n<h2>Browns QB PJ Walker Has Struggled with Turnovers this Season<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_4585511\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-inline wp-image-4585511 visible\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1763949625-e1698628873849.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=782\" alt=\"P.J. Walker, Cleveland Browns\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4585511\" data-lazy-load=\"\" data-src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1763949625-e1698628873849.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=782\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Walker has been in and out of the Browns organization this season, though he picked up experience with the current roster as a two-game starter who also played significant snaps in two other contests.<\/p>\n<p>The Browns are 1-1 with Walker as the starter and 3-1 in games that he has taken at least 13 snaps. However, despite a bright spot here and there, Walker has struggled to protect the football in Cleveland this season.<\/p>\n<p>The QB has thrown 5 interceptions compared to 1 touchdown and has also fumbled the football 4 times,\u00a0according to PFR. The Browns offense will be in legitimate trouble if it is forced to turn to a backup at any point during the playoffs, though the hope is that Driskel can establish himself as a better caretaker of the football against the Bengals in Week 18 than Walker has been throughout his time in the lineup over the past season.<\/p>\n<div id=\"AdThrive_Content_7_desktop\" class=\"adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-7 adthrive-ad-cls\" data-google-query-id=\"CMrTwc6ew4MDFf5TwgUddagPsw\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Cleveland Browns\u00a0navigated a plethora of injury issues in 2023 and have decided not to risk QB\u00a0Joe Flacco, the season\u2019s savior, in Week 18 against the\u00a0Cincinnati Bengals. Head&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}