Cleveland Browns Ripped for Controversial Strategy

The Cleveland Browns are being taken to task for the controversial strategy they may be employing entering their season finale against the Baltimore Ravens.

Dec 29, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Bailey Zappe (2) throws the ball during warm ups before the game against the Miami Dolphins at Huntington Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Scott Galvin-Imagn Images / Scott Galvin-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Browns are just 3-13 entering their season finale against the Baltimore Ravens this Saturday, and at this point, the Browns surely just want to put this campaign out of its misery.

Cleveland will be starting Bailey Zappe at quarterback versus the Ravens after the Dorian Thompson-Robinson experiment failed miserably over the last couple of weeks.

So, are the Browns clearly tanking?

One can make that argument, seeing as how it's hard to justify starting Zappe over Jameis Winston if you are actually trying to win games, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has taken them to task over their controversial (but not really) strategy.

"If the goal is to win, the quarterback should be Winston," Florio wrote. "But the Browns seemingly don’t want to win. Not in the usual way. For them, losing now leads to winning later, with better and cheaper ingredients for two more years of chicken salad, thanks to the worst trade-and-sign in NFL history."

But here is the thing: why would Cleveland care all that much about winning during the final week of the regular season with nothing but draft positioning at stake?

Beating the Ravens does not benefit the Browns in any way, shape or form other than attempting to spoil Baltimore's chances of winning the AFC North.

Winston is not the quarterback of the future. That much is clear. So it actually makes perfect sense for Cleveland to have given Thompson-Robinson—and now Zappe—a chance just for the heck of it.

The Browns are hardly the only team in NFL history to not care about emerging victorious in a meaningless season finale.