Sports

In our current climate, I don’t use the word “addiction” lightly.

But it’s apt in this situation. Oh, Lord — it’s apt!

I don’t take my Cleveland Browns lightly, either. So when I the former to prove a point about the latter, I really feel that when the Browns cure their addition, they’ll fix their problems.

Their addiction is: Multiple Quarterbacks.

Not Bad Quarterbacks. Not Bad Quarterback Play.

Multiple Quarterbacks.

I’m writing this in Week 9 of the 2017 NFL season – with the Browns already having gone through DeShone Kizer, Kevin Hogan and Cody Kessler, none of which has an NFL win. But this could easily apply to 2003 with Tim Couch vs. Kelly Holcolmb or 2009 with Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson or 2014 with Johnny Manziel vs. Brian Hoyer. The last time a Browns quarterback has started all 16 games was Couch in 2001.

The only thing consistent about each of those other seasons is that – aside from 2001 – Thad Lewis started against Pittsburgh in the final week of the season and lost.

You’ve heard this rhetorical question before: “How is it possible to be this bad for this long?” Regimes, coaching staffs, even ownership has changed. And yet the losing continues.

What is the common denominator?

The obvious answer is that the Browns were never able to find a quarterback – and that’s a big reason. But they’ve also never outlasted their addiction long enough to find out. The musical chairs routine has plagued the Browns in 16 of their first 17 years since returning. And Hue Jackson is riding No. 18 right out the door at the end of this campaign.

A quarterback controversy divides the locker room because it illustrates the indecision of the head coach. And it confirms the Bill Parcells axiom: If you have two quarterbacks, you have none.

Instead of yanking DeShone Kizer in and out of the lineup all season – a season which was supposed to be about growth – Hue Jackson might’ve been better served to stand at the podium and tell everyone that he’s sticking with the rookie, win or lose.

Kizer passes the eye-test. The Browns spent a second round pick on him. Let’s see what the kid can do. (Or can’t do – being that next year is supposedly a “quarterback-rich” draft.) We already know what Kevin Hogan and Cody Kessler are.

I don’t know if Kizer is the answer. But neither do the Browns. Play the kid the rest of the way. Find out what you have this season or you’ll screw yourself into the next one.

End the addiction.

And give Jabril Peppers some snaps on offense.