Kansas City Chiefs v Cleveland Browns / Nick Cammett/GettyImages

There’s no way to find any winners from the Week 15 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs that the Cleveland Browns experienced. With Nick Chubb suffering a broken foot in the contest, Jameis Winston officially having turned back the clock and become the Winston of old, and penalties eating away at Cleveland’s momentum on offense, the game was a wash.

What made things worse is that it did feel winnable had the Browns been able to play a competent quarterback, or have a competent run game. Jerome Ford managing to snap off a huge run and score a touchdown was a clear sign that Cleveland has reliable offense within its ranks, but just can’t seem to unlock it.

Whether that’s the offensive line’s fault or just a lack of creativity from OC Ken Dorsey remains to be seen.

But, what was seen in Week 15 was a horrendous effort from the Browns overall. For the purposes of this overview, though, we’re going to hone in on four specific Cleveland players who were the true losers from the game.

1. Jameis Winston

Three interceptions, zero touchdowns, and 146 yards of passing offense will not cut it for Winston or the Browns. That’s essentially a Deshaun Watson statline, which is the exact opposite type of production you want out of your backup quarterback that you’re angling to have compete for the starting job in 2025.

The one thing that stood out about Winston’s performance from Week 15 that was most disappointing was that he refused the easy looks. The check down passes, the slides, the throw aways – none of that was on the board for him. He had to play hero ball at the worst possible moments, and it just wasn’t clicking for him that the Chiefs defense had him figured out.

The most stark example of this came postgame from Chiefs CB Trent McDuffie, who according to reporters said that he was able to pick off Winston in the endzone because he saw him about to fire off a moonball on the jumbotron. He was that predictable. And, his performance in Week 15 seems to have been his last audition for Cleveland.

2. Ken Dorsey

Talk about another head scratching game plan from Dorsey. If Winston was firing off those moonballs because Dorsey was calling those plays to happen, then he deserves just as much smoke as Winston for those three picks.

His frustration in the booth as seen from various screenshots shared on social media was his own doing at several points in the game, but especially because of his poor play calling on 4th down opportunities. At one point, the Browns passed instead of handing the ball off to Jerome Ford, who was having a great game all afternoon, and they turned the ball over on downs instead.

Dorsey has been lackluster as the primary play caller this season, and just like Winston, his audition to stay in 2025 might have been a failure because of these last few weeks of action.

3. The Browns’ entire special teams unit

Kadarius Toney, you are officially vindicated.

Special teams has been a huge thorn in the side of the Browns for the last few weeks, and Toney’s muffed punt from the team’s Pittsburgh Steelers game in Week 14 was just the tip of the iceberg. An Ineligible downfield kick and the inability to read whether to take a knee or take the kick just read “incompetent” to Browns fans who sat in the rain to watch the team lose, again.

Bubba Ventrone might suddenly be joining Ken Dorsey on the hot seat after this season given how poorly it seems the ST unit is prepared each week.

4. Cleveland’s offensive line

German Ifedi was called for an illegal formation penalty, then Mohamoud Diabate was called for one, as well. Wyatt Teller was called for holding in the second quarter, which Pierre Strong Jr. was called for as well in the same quarter. Then, in the fourth, Ifedi was called for his second illegal formation penalty in the game.

It’s unclear what’s not clicking for the Browns’ O-line. At this point, they should be used to the current starting rotation given that the injuries to the starters like Jed Wills Jr. and Dawand Jones happened so long ago. Instead, every single week, it seems like it’s their first time playing with one another.

They could barely protect Winston in the pocket, which possibly contributed to his terrible performance, and they rarely got holes opened up for Ford or Chubb to run. They allowed five sacks on Winston, and the Browns are currently 31st in the league in sacks allowed per game with 4.1.

The season is a wash, but it would have been nice to be able to evaluate which offensive linemen the team should at least give another shot to in 2025. Clearly, the answer to that is none.