The Cleveland Browns are 2-6, but the record is no longer the story. It is merely a symptom of a far more virulent disease. The organization is now in a state of open warfare, a “dumpster fire” raging so uncontrollably that it is consuming the head coach, the general manager, and any lingering hope for the season.

At the center of this inferno are two quarterbacks: one who cannot succeed, and one who is not allowed to.

This is no longer a simple debate about a starting job. It has escalated into a full-blown media meltdown, complete with stunning “conspiracy theories” of internal sabotage, allegations of a “phantom injury,” and accusations that the front office is more concerned with protecting its own ego than winning football games. League insiders are reportedly “baffled,” and the city of Cleveland is demanding answers.

The first problem is the man on the field: Dylan Gabriel. The rookie, a top-100 draft pick in whom General Manager Andrew Barry has invested significant capital, has been, by all accounts, “unwatchable.” This isn’t just impatient fan chatter; this is the consensus from Cleveland media, who report that Gabriel “can’t even complete passes in practice.” On Sundays, his performance has been described as “checkdown city,” playing “scared football” from a quarterback who is, to put it bluntly, “too small.”

This painful performance would be frustrating in any context. But in Cleveland, it’s agonizing, because sitting on the bench is Shedeur Sanders. The son of an icon, Sanders represents everything the current offense lacks: “swagger, confidence, and that it factor.”

And this is where the story turns dark. This is where incompetence bleeds into conspiracy.

The season is lost. The team is 2-6. This is the “perfect time” to make a change, to see what the rookie has, to give the ravaged fanbase something to watch. Instead, Sanders remains buried. The official reasoning? A “mysterious phantom back injury.”

The media has seized on this. How, reporters are asking, does a player who doesn’t get reps, who doesn’t even play, suddenly get injured? The question has been met with “crickets” from the organization. The lack of a clear answer has given life to a shocking theory, one that suggests this isn’t about health. It’s about control.

A reporter from Black and White Sports has floated a “conspiracy theory” that is now gripping the city: Head Coach Kevin Stefanski never wanted Sanders as his backup. The theory posits that Stefanski, described as a “control freak coach” who values system-perfect quarterbacks, intentionally sidelined Sanders because he prefers Bailey Zappe. Zappe, the theory goes, is a player who will run the offense “exactly as drawn up,” without the improvisation and “swagger” that defines a player like Sanders.

If true, the implications are staggering. It means that for weeks, the head coach may have been actively sabotaging his team’s future—and misleading the public with a “phantom injury”—to avoid playing a quarterback he couldn’t control. All while the season, and his own career, went up in flames.

But Stefanski is not the only one being held accountable. The media “meltdown” has fully extended to General Manager Andrew Barry. He is the man who spent the “top 100 pick” on Gabriel. He is the one, as one host put it, “shoving this guy down fans’ throats.” This is now an “ego” problem. Barry, critics allege, is a victim of the “sunk cost fallacy,” refusing to admit his prized pick is a bust. He has “tied his entire reputation to Dylan Gabriel working out” and would rather double-down on a failing decision than admit he was wrong.

The local media is no longer holding back, with one Cleveland radio host bluntly stating, “You’re not serious people,” a “nuclear take” aimed directly at the front office’s competence.

This dysfunction, however, is a feature, not a bug, of the modern Cleveland Browns. This “pattern of dysfunction” is systemic. This is the same organization, analysts are quick to point out, that fumbled the Baker Mayfield situation—letting a quarterback who is now in the MVP conversation walk away—to pursue the disastrous Deshaun Watson trade. The rot, it is argued, “starts at the very top with owner Jimmy Haslam.”

The entire debacle has made the Browns a laughingstock, not just in their own city, but across the league. Reporters claim they are hearing from “people around the league who cannot believe the Browns have not prepared Shidor to play.”

What makes this situation so tragic is that the solution, even if it’s a long-shot, is right there. At 2-6, the rest of the 2025 season is not about winning; it’s about evaluation. The Browns have a “potential franchise quarterback” on their roster and are wasting a “whole year of development.” Not playing him is “malpractice” from a pure asset management standpoint. The fans, who “deserve something… to get excited about,” are being given nothing.

“At least you might be entertained,” one analyst pleaded, “It could go completely south. He may not be ready. But at least fans will be interested.” Right now, there is nothing interesting about an offense that “can’t see over his offensive line.”

The Browns are “stuck in this cycle of protecting bad decisions instead of correcting them.” The “trigger” for a change has to be pulled. Stefanski is on the “scorching hot” seat. Barry is facing a crisis of his own making. And the pressure from the media, the fans, and even Shedeur’s iconic father, Deion Sanders, is mounting.

Sooner or later, a player trained “by one of the most competitive athletes to ever live” is not going to be “cool with riding the bench.” The organization is in a “slow motion car crash,” and the only question that remains is not if the change will be made, but how much of the franchise will be left in the wreckage when it finally is.