Now that Deshaun Watson has been cleared from his suspension to start at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, the odd man out is Jacoby Brissett — the erstwhile backup who completed 236 of 368 passes for 2608 yards, 12 touchdowns, six interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 89.1 in his 12-week stand-in role. Brissett is in his first year with the Browns after bouncing around the league from the New England Patriots, to the Indianapolis Colts, to the Miami Dolphins, and then the Browns on a one-year, $4.65 million contract.
What makes Brissett’s future especially interesting is not the body of the season; it’s what he did in the second half of his time with the Browns. From Week 7 through Week 12, he completed 112 of 162 passes for 1,282 yards, six touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 102.4 — eighth-best in the league. Brissett also rounds out his starting tenure this season ranked sixth in the NFL in Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted DVOA metric among quarterbacks, and sixth in DYAR. As DVOA is more of a play-to-play efficiency metric, and DYAR is more cumulative, that pretty much covers it all.
