With Deshaun Watson out for the year, the Browns have Jameis Winston at quarterback. This is a big boost for the passing game and the receivers, obviously, as shown in the upset over Baltimore last week. But I believe the Browns will still be a fine matchup for opposing fantasy defenses, like the L.A. Chargers this week.
The Ravens had 2 sacks and recovered a fumble off Winston last week. That's not great production; they'd have likely done more against Watson. But the larger body of work suggests that teams will be getting plenty of good numbers from Cleveland's current starter.
Using the search tools at pro-football-reference.com, I looked at all quarterbacks to start at least 60 games in the last 10 years (that's the length of Winston's NFL career, and slightly fewer starts than Watson has made since entering the league). The opportunities are slightly different, but the overall results are similar.
Among the 33 quarterbacks to fit the criteria, Watson had the highest sack percentage -- sacked on nearly 10 percent of his pass plays. But Winston has the highest interception percentage (3.4 percent). The Chargers may not be getting as many sacks against Winston, but they look pretty good for takeaways. Winston, by the way, is also slightly worse than average in terms of sack percentage among those quarterbacks -- 19th out of the 33 eligible passers.
| QB SACKS AND INTS, 2015-PRESENT | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | GS | Int | Int% | Sk | Sk% |
| Aaron Rodgers | 129 | 55 | 1.2 | 289 | 6.07 |
| Tom Brady | 126 | 69 | 1.4 | 201 | 3.95 |
| Drew Brees | 85 | 49 | 1.6 | 120 | 3.73 |
| Justin Herbert | 69 | 43 | 1.6 | 145 | 5.25 |
| Alex Smith | 62 | 33 | 1.6 | 152 | 6.92 |
| Russell Wilson | 142 | 80 | 1.8 | 413 | 8.46 |
| Kirk Cousins | 144 | 98 | 1.9 | 303 | 5.67 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 103 | 72 | 1.9 | 160 | 4.03 |
| Joe Burrow | 60 | 40 | 1.9 | 167 | 7.18 |
| Derek Carr | 148 | 99 | 2.0 | 276 | 5.20 |
| Matt Ryan | 124 | 92 | 2.0 | 300 | 6.19 |
| Jared Goff | 124 | 86 | 2.0 | 234 | 5.17 |
| Dak Prescott | 121 | 82 | 2.0 | 253 | 5.77 |
| Carson Wentz | 93 | 67 | 2.0 | 239 | 6.74 |
| Kyler Murray | 73 | 49 | 2.0 | 160 | 6.08 |
| Lamar Jackson | 85 | 47 | 2.0 | 181 | 7.16 |
| Matthew Stafford | 136 | 100 | 2.1 | 330 | 6.46 |
| Deshaun Watson | 72 | 48 | 2.1 | 244 | 9.57 |
| Daniel Jones | 67 | 45 | 2.1 | 204 | 8.56 |
| Joe Flacco | 75 | 66 | 2.2 | 151 | 4.86 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 89 | 80 | 2.3 | 135 | 3.73 |
| Josh Allen | 101 | 79 | 2.3 | 185 | 5.21 |
| Andy Dalton | 104 | 84 | 2.4 | 235 | 6.29 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 103 | 73 | 2.4 | 276 | 8.17 |
| Eli Manning | 67 | 59 | 2.4 | 131 | 4.96 |
| Philip Rivers | 96 | 87 | 2.5 | 179 | 4.92 |
| Marcus Mariota | 74 | 55 | 2.6 | 187 | 8.02 |
| Baker Mayfield | 94 | 83 | 2.7 | 230 | 6.89 |
| Cam Newton | 82 | 69 | 2.7 | 180 | 6.59 |
| Blake Bortles | 60 | 58 | 2.7 | 140 | 6.09 |
| Jimmy Garoppolo | 63 | 51 | 2.7 | 132 | 6.60 |
| Sam Darnold | 63 | 61 | 3.1 | 170 | 7.83 |
| Jameis Winston | 81 | 99 | 3.4 | 198 | 6.32 |
Winston's presence in the lineup is a great thing for Cedric Tillman and David Njoku, and a negative I guess for Joey Bosa and the Chargers pass rush. But the secondary should get some opportunities to make plays on the ball. I'll be using the Chargers defense where I can this week.
--Andy Richardson