Mina Kimes clarifies bold declaration on Browns’ outlook

The Cleveland Browns should be a fascinating team to watch this fall. Cleveland’s quarterback job is up for grabs with Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders duking it out for the title. Fixing that position could be the most important thing holding the Browns back from competing in the future.

ESPN’s Mina Kimes shared her opinion on Cleveland’s quarterback situation during a recent segment of NFL Live.

“I felt like with Deshaun Watson the operation looked cleaner, [but] not willing to push the ball down the field. With Shedeur, he was willing to push the ball down the field early on, [but] the operation was flawed,” Kimes said on August 17th. “The net result is, I don’t really think you’re going to get top end, average quarterback play for either of them over the course of the season.”

Kimes praised the Browns for building a strong nucleus of skill position talent on offense. Quinshon Judkins and Harold Fannin Jr. both excelled during their rookie seasons. The Browns also added K.C. Concepcion and Denzel Boston during the 2026 NFL Draft, adding more firepower on offense.

In fact, she even declared that “[the Browns] really are a quarterback away” at the end of the segment.

Kimes clarified on Wednesday that she does not believe a new quarterback will immediately turn the Browns into contenders.

“To be clear, I don’t mean they’re a QB away from immediate contention,” Kimes posted on social media in reply to the original segment. “But I do think they’ve already rebuilt the skill group in impressive fashion.”

The Browns are widely expected to draft a rookie quarterback early in the 2027 NFL Draft. That class is loaded with quarterback talent, headlined by Arch Manning and Dante Moore.

This means both Kimes and Browns fans everywhere may soon get their wish of a young, talented quarterback. Then Kimes’ statements about Cleveland will really be put to the test.

In the meantime, it will be fascinating to see how competitive the Browns are during the 2026 NFL season this fall.

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