BEREA — Bailey Zappe’s season since signing with the Browns in October has pretty much followed the same script.
The quarterback has handled the scout team repetitions in practice. He’s been in all of the meetings. Then, when Sunday came around, he was inactive for the game as the No. 3 quarterback behind Jameis Winston and Dorian Thompson-Robinson.
About the only deviation from that script came for the Week 13 Monday Night Football game in Denver, when Zappe wasn’t officially on the roster after being waived to make room on the 53-man roster for defensive tackle Jovon Briggs. He watched the game alongside Browns front office members and members of the media in the press box, then was re-signed the next day.
There may be another deviation for Zappe this weekend. With Thompson-Robinson starting Sunday’s game at the Cincinnati Bengals and Winston listed as questionable for the game with a shoulder injury, Zappe could find himself as the backup if the shoulder is too much of an issue for Winston.
“Yeah, just be ready,” Zappe said Friday. “They don’t know how everything’s going to react with Jameis and everything. So just be ready to prepare like you usually do.”
Winston said the injury occurred during last Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. It was his seventh start since replacing the injured Deshaun Watson in Week 8, one that ended with him adding three more interceptions to the total and Thompson-Robinson finishing the final two drives.
While Winston was listed as a full participant in Wednesday’s practice, he was limited both Thursday and Friday. That only slightly changed Zappe’s week.
“Yeah, so I took the normal scout reps that I usually take,” Winston said. “And then if we went, sometimes we went twos, I would hop in there a few times just in case Jameis wasn’t able to go. So just like a normal week.”
Zappe was on the Chiefs’ practice squad until the Browns signed him on Oct. 22. Before that, however, he found out all about the life of a true backup quarterback.
The 25-year-old Zappe appeared in 14 games over two seasons with the New England Patriots in 2022-23, with eight starts. One of those included a career-high 309 yards and a career-best 118.4 passer rating in a 38-15 win over the Browns in Cleveland in Week 6 of the 2022 season.
Prior to landing on the Kansas City practice squad, he had spent training camp with the Patriots. That put him in contact with offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, who had spent the previous four seasons with the Browns before being let go in January.
That experience has made the acclamation process somewhat easier for Zappe. Which makes him much more comfortable if he has to come in at some point over the final three games.
“Oh yeah, 100%,” Zappe said. “I’m ready whenever that time comes, obviously, if it comes. I’ve been in this offense. Whenever I was in New England earlier this year, I was in the same offense with AVP and those guys. So the transition here really wasn’t that big. I already knew it when I came here. So if the opportunity presents itself, I’m going to do everything I can to win the game like I have before.”
For now, that means not deviating from what he’s done since arriving in Week 8. About the only change is who’s the starter he’s trying to help.
That’s even if Zappe’s spot goes from No. 3 to No. 2.
“Obviously going to help DTR as much as possible with him starting this game,” Zappe said. “Do as much as I can between series, answer any questions that he has, help him out looking over the game plan or looking at the iPad. Just doing everything I can, like I usually would if I was the emergency (QB) when Jameis was starting. So nothing really changes, it’s just now you really one play away, so the kind of mindset obviously changes. Anything can happen in the NFL, but nothing’s for sure yet. So just continue to take every rep like it’s a game rep with the scout team and everything and just go from there.”
