NFL 2024 Season - PS4
Picksfootball
 

Headline Play

Articles published multiple times per week, offering insights and picks on upcoming games.
 
SEASON:

Article Archive

Super Bowl
Double Digits
Double Digits
Take No Chances
Winner to Follow
Experience Counts
Just Winning
Really Have Something
Obvious
Entertainment First
Pull the Rug
Bad Calls
Pick to Follow
Time to Buy
Conference Championships
Books Edge
Top-Flight QB Duel
Looking for a First
Cold Reality
Three and One
Divisional Playoffs
Winter Wonderland
Yes We Can
Getting Better
Three-Peat Begins
Correction
Challenge Accepted
Wild Card Weekend
Early Celebration
QB matchup
Starting and Ending Spots
Wild Card Trend
What to Like
Rookie Quarterbacks
Broken Fever
That's That
Week 18
Checking the Boxes
Needs and Wants
Four and Out
One or the Other
Point Spread Clouds
Fix It
Hollow Revenge
To Win or Not to Win
Week 17
All Knowing
Complicated Made Simple
Advanced Calculus
Glow Dimmed
Brink of Elimination
Game of Survival
Pleading for the Fifth
Need over Nothing
Christmas Grinch
Week 16
Numbers, Numbers, Numbers
Vintage 2018
Penix Debut
Dog Day
Playoff Position
Rest of the Story
Different Sundays
Run Some Tests
Without and With
Week 15
Two Tonight
Playoff Chances
Wild Card Challenge
Best of the Best
Next
Dire Straits
And It's Good
Bloated Lines
Week 14
Running up the Score
Challenge Me
Finding Reasons to Win
Crab Feed
Week Off
Good Enough
Buyers Regret
Pulled the Rug
Week 13
Mile High Hopes
Top and Bottom
Fourth Time the Charm
Bounce Back
Engage Spark
Line Up
Out in the Cold
Thanksgiving Visitors
Good Enough
Motivation on Steroids
Week 12
Second Best
Heavyweight Bout
QB's Ins and Outs
Everybody In
Too Easy
Walk the Plank
Hot to Trot
Try, Try, Try, Try, Try Again
Week 11
Mouse Trap
Must Game
Malfunction
Easy Does It
Old Foes
Falcons Fly into Mile High
Matter of Time
Improv
To the Brink
Week 10
Odd Man Out
Lions come Calling
Rookie versus Veteran
Call to Action
Full Reverse
When 8-0 is 4-4
Game of Contradictions
NFC West Bunch
Early Boarding
Week 9
Not Enough, Too Much
Real or Imposters
Groin Shot
Best Show
Saddle Up
Dull Edges
Telling Actions
Annihilation Formula
Week 8
No and No
Old Glory
Rookie Face Off
Adding it Up
Holding On
Jets Down
Unload and Reload
No Surprise
Career Paths
It Hurts
Week 7
Harbaugh Monday
Kids Camp
Barkley Back
Bird Battle
Mouse Time
Too Many?
Gone Shopping
Not Bad
40 for 3
Week 6
Try New
Night Vision
Trap Door
Looking Up
Wake Up Call
All Good Things
Bad Idea
Unexpected
Fire One
Week 5
Yes & Yes
Old Rivals
Rookie Sensation
So Close
Lunch in Seattle
Wake the Roosters
No Respect
Too Sweet
Turtle Flip
Week 4
Landmine
Bottoms Up
Winners and Losers
Call Me
Short Line
Reality Bites
Like Tonight
Uptick
Challenge Generates Performance
Week 3
Two Times
Reduced Value
Stars Down
The Other 21
Opportunity Knocks
Lots of Questions
Move Along People
Times Up
Week 2
Confidence Game
First and Second Picked QB's
Avoiding the Donut
Do or Die
One for the Road
Likewise
Adjustment Bureau
Down ... Not Out
Week 1
Time Marches On
Cashing the Trade
Start Here
Say What
Quick Up, Quick Down
Brazil Play Date
Top Two Open
Super Bowl Pick
Season Win Totals
Moving on Up
Breakout to Breakdown
Preseason 4
Preseason Wrap
Rookie Playoff Run
Preseason 3
Short Memory
Two In, One Up
Eagles Hunt
Winning Formula
Preseason 2
Quarterback Shuffle
One Two, or Two One
Starters Sit
Remote Control
Money be Damned
Preseason 1
One Season to the Next
Public Shift
Comets in the Night
Offseason
Mahomes Chasing History
All's Well that Ends Well
Ups and Downs
     
 
Somebody is going to Win
by Dennis Ranahan

If you were playing Old Maid, you would not match the Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans as a pair. Two teams couldn’t be more different, particularly if you are looking at their quarterback situations this season.

The Houston Texans are led by one of the brightest rookie stars to ever burst on the NFL scene. C.J. Stroud, who the Texans selected in last year’s National Football League draft with the second overall pick, has led Houston to the playoffs in his rookie season. There is no quarterback rotation or controversy in Houston, Stroud is the man.

It is quite a different story in Cleveland.

The Browns have had more starting quarterbacks than you could fit in a Volkswagen, five. Four of them won games for head coach Kevin Stefanski and the fifth was signed just a week before he took it on the chin in the season finale in Cincinnati last Sunday. That was Jeff Driskel, who the Browns signed and started in their meaningless last game to make sure they didn’t suffer another injury to a starting quarterback.

Their new starter, at least since December, is Joe Flacco. He was signed to the Browns practice squad in November and to a contract in December. He got a start after Deshaun Watson was lost for the season early in the year, and his backup, P.J. Walker made a couple starts along with rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson.

Flacco was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 2008 and completed the 2012 season with a victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII. Flacco parlayed that Super Bowl win to become the highest paid quarterback in the league when he signed his lucrative contract on March 4, 2013.

After getting paid, Flacco never matched his 2012 exploits and was traded to the Denver Broncos in 2019. His one year stint in the Mile High City was a failure, as was succeeding stops with the New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles and back to the Jets before being signed to the Browns practice squad this November.

Then, number four quarterback spun gold for Stefanski in leading the Browns to four straight wins after suffering a loss to the Los Angeles Rams in his first work with Cleveland. His success wrapped up a postseason berth for Cleveland without needing a win in their season’s last game, which they handed off to Driskel and lost.

The Browns have not only had to deal with an injury at quarterback, their backfield was also apparently weakened when star runningback Nick Chubb was lost for the year to an injury early in the season.

So, how have the Browns advanced to the postseason with so many injuries?

It makes one wonder how good this Cleveland team could have been had they not lost their two most potent offensive weapons to season ending injuries.

Which brings us to their opening postseason game this week when they meet the upstart Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. The Browns defense must be really good to overcome the losses on the offensive side of the ball.

One would think.

But, in fact, over the second half of the season the Texans defense has allowed fewer points than the Browns while Cleveland’s offense has outscored Houson’s.

Does anything make sense here?

Who thinks a team four quarterbacks down on their depth chart can win on the road; and who wants to put faith in a rookie making his first postseason start?

Somebody’s got to get the victory, and I’m betting it is the home team that will slam the door on Flacco’s comeback year.

Qoxhi Picks: Houston Texans (+2) over Cleveland Browns