Browns stay with Winston after being eliminated

BEREA, Ohio — Despite being officially eliminated from playoff contention, the Cleveland Browns are sticking with Jameis Winston as the starting quarterback for this week’s home game against the Kansas City Chiefs, coach Kevin Stefanski said Monday.

“Our focus right now is just trying to find ways to get a win,” Stefanski said after being asked why he wouldn’t use the final four games to evaluate backup quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, the 2023 fifth-round pick.

Winston helped lead a pair of upset victories over the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers after taking over in Week 8 for Deshaun Watson, who suffered a ruptured right Achilles tendon. Winston, however, has thrown the most interceptions (9) in the NFL since, including two in the loss to the Steelers.

The Browns (3-10) are 2-4 in Winston’s starts this season.

Winston, who signed a one-year deal worth $4 million, said in late November that he was open to returning to Cleveland. Watson, for whom the Browns traded three first-round picks and gave a fully guaranteed $230 million contract before the 2022 season, is still owed $46 million in each of the next two seasons and has cap hits of $72.9 million in 2025 and 2026.

Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry have been noncommittal on Watson’s standing as the starting quarterback when he is healthy. Watson has made just 19 starts in Cleveland — he served an 11-game suspension in 2022 for violating the league’s personal conduct policy and missed the final eight games of the 2023 season after undergoing shoulder surgery — and has posted the lowest QBR in the NFL since making his Browns debut.

Thompson-Robinson started three games as a rookie and entered in Week 7 when Watson was injured but later left with a thumb injury. The only other quarterback on the active roster is Bailey Zappe, whom the Browns signed off the Chiefs’ practice squad in late October.