Cleveland Browns Free Agent Review: QB Jacoby Brissett

It’s time to go rapid fire over the weekend on all of the Browns’ pending free agents.

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Free agency is about quickly approaching and the Cleveland Browns have a lot of players set to hit the open market. We will be looking at each of those free agents in the coming days, starting with QB Jacoby Brissett.

How and When He Joined the Browns: After spending the first six years of his career with the Patriots, Colts, and Dolphins, Brissett signed a 1-year deal, $4.65 million deal with Cleveland.

Productivity Level Last Season: For all intents and purposes, Brissett was the Browns’ starting quarterback in 2022. He started in Week 1 and started 11 games total, far exceeding my expectations. He completed 64% of his passes for 2,608 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions. He also ran the ball pretty well, having 243 yards rushing and 2 additional touchdowns.

Even though he went 4-7 at the team’s starter, he played way better than the record would indicate, and should’ve had at least two or three other wins. It was a crime when Deshaun Watson came back and couldn’t muster any touchdowns, only for the defense to step up and help win some games — where were they when Brissett was balling?

Why Keeping Him Could Make Sense: Teams still often have veterans behind their highly-paid franchise quarterbacks, like what Chad Henne was doing behind Patrick Mahomes. Given his well Brissett played, it’d be a no-brainer to want him to return as a backup if it made sense for him.

What the Browns Should Do: That’s where the problem is: last year, it made sense for Brissett to sign with Cleveland because he knew he’d get plenty of starts. Next year, Watson is 100% the guy, and I don’t think Brissett is at the stage of his career year where he’ll want to sit back and collect a paycheck. Yes, he did it for a couple of years in Indianapolis, but he knows he put on a solid season and will want to earn an opportunity elsewhere. Where could that be? I’m not sure, but I think there will be a few suitors for him, such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He probably also looks at how Geno Smith resurrected his career in Seattle last year, and knows he can do the game.

From the Browns’ perspective, I think they’ll want to use their cap space elsewhere and will cheap out on the backup quarterback position.

Let us know below whether or not the team should try to re-sign Jacoby Brissett.