Browns mock draft: 3 QBs who can take the reigns from Jameis Winston

Say this for the Jameis Winston experience in 2024: It's never boring. The veteran has injected some desperately needed life back into the Cleveland Browns offense since taking over for an injured Deshaun Watson, leading wins over two divisional rivals and helping the team get a better look at young talent like receivers Cedric Tillman and Jerry Jeudy. But he's also already 30, and for every big downfield throw, there's an equal and opposite head-smacking mistake.

The Full Jameis Experience was on display in Cleveland's Monday night loss to the Denver Broncos. Winston threw for nearly 500 yards and four touchdowns ... but he also threw two pick-sixes and three INTs overall, the last of which short-circuited a potential game-winning drive with less than two minutes to play.

The Browns are stuck with Watson's egregious contract for at least one more season — cutting him this offseason would incur a dead cap hit of nearly $100 million — but after watching him play this season, it's clear that Cleveland needs to find another answer at quarterback moving forward. And while Winston has offered some entertainment amid a lost season, he'll be 31 next season and hasn't shown enough to merit a long-term commitment in free agency.

Which means that, if the Browns want to finally put themselves on a stable path forward, they'll need to solve their QB conundrum in the 2025 NFL Draft, where the team is currently scheduled to pick eighth overall. This isn't the strongest class of quarterbacks, but there are some names that could interest Andrew Berry (or whoever is running Cleveland's front office next spring).

3. Kurtis Rourke could be a development option

The most likely scenario is that Cleveland uses its top-10 pick to take one of the top QB prospects (more on them in a second). But let's say that the team's braintrust is understandably not so smitten with the likes of Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward, Jalen Milroe or Quinn Ewers, all of whom have shown considerable warts this season in the college ranks. The Browns could use their first-rounder to fill some of the other holes on this roster while taking a shot at quarterback later on, and if so, Rourke might be an ideal fit.

An unheralded recruit out of Canada, Rourke starred at Ohio before transferring to Indiana for the 2024 season, where he's partnered with Curt Cignetti to turn the Hoosiers into one of the best offenses in the country. He's not going to wow you with his phyiscal tools, but he's more athletic than you think, and he's accurate to all areas of the field. He's succeeded everywhere he's gone in his career, and he'd come a lot cheaper than the bigger names on the Browns' board.

2. Jalen Milroe is the ultimate boom-or-bust prospect

How much do you trust your coaching staff? Milroe is a truly electrifying athlete, capable of making plays on a football field that not many people alive can make; watch him run in the open field, and the Lamar Jackson comparisons are tough to avoid.

Pure arm talent isn't the problem either, as Milroe throws an awfully nice deep ball. His decision-making, however, can border on disastrous: For every touchdown Milroe puts on the board, he might hand one to the other team with one of the most baffling throws you've ever seen. Kevin Stefanski would seem to be the sort of coach who could temper Milroe's worst impulses while building an offense around his strengths, and his physical tools are such that his ceiling is the highest in this class. Just be ready for a bumpy ride at first, with tons of incompletions and interceptions.

1. Shedeur Sanders would be the Browns' best-case scenario

Sanders doesn't have the strongest arm, and he isn't the best athlete. He's taken a ton of sacks during his two years at Colorado, and that's not all on the Buffaloes' sketchy offensive line. But despite being under almost-constant duress, he's just kept making good decisions and accurate throws, and he's likely the most fundamentally sound passer in this draft class. If you want someone who can read a defense and put a ball on the money, Sanders is your man, and he'd be the ideal trigger for Stefanski's Shanahan-tree offense.

The only real question is whether Sanders would fall to the Browns in the back half of the top 10, and if not, whether Cleveland would be able to engineer a trade up to get him. But if Cleveland leaves the 2025 draft with Sanders in tow, it'll have to be considered a success.