Carson Wentz, Robert Griffin III

Philadelphia's Carson Wentz (left) and the Browns' Robert Griffin III met on the field after the Eagles' win over the Browns on Sunday. The Browns' future at quarterback can be fine without either of them.

(Matt Rourke, AP)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If your football franchise is doing it right, starting quarterback injuries are supposed to be devastating.

Think you're upset about losing Robert Griffin III for much of the season? Imagine if he'd completed more than half his passes Sunday. Or won more than two NFL games in the last three years. Or cost the Browns more than nothing as a free-agent flier.

The Indianapolis Colts won double-digit games for nine consecutive years, then plunged to 2-14 in 2011 when Peyton Manning was lost for the season.

The New England Patriots have made the playoffs 12 of the last 13 years. The season they missed was 2008, when Tom Brady was lost to a knee injury in the opener (though the Pats were a more than respectable 11-5 without him.)

Since 2004, Pittsburgh has a .671 winning percentage when Ben Roethlisberger starts, a .565 winning percentage when he doesn't. In 2013, Green Bay was 5-2 before Aaron Rodgers broke his clavicle, then 0-4-1 then next five weeks without him.

Want to know first-week NFL panic? Ask Carolina Panthers fans how they felt when Cam Newton was on the turf Thursday night. Or how Minnesota fans felt when Teddy Bridgewater went down in the preseason and his year was finished.

Face it: The issue for Browns fans with the RG3 injury is that you aren't devastated enough. Imagine how Philadelphia fans would feel if Carson Wentz had suffered this same injury in week one?

This is a promise that the analysis of this Browns season will at some point focus on weekly games and not just the 2017 NFL Draft and beyond. There's Carl Nassib and Christian Kirksey, the raw wide receiver talent and what to do with the enduring excellence of Joe Thomas. But at quarterback, 2016 doesn't matter, and this moment provides an opportunity for anyone who thought it did to shake out the cobwebs.

The freebie acquisition of Griffin made sense for this front office from a lightning-in-a-bottle perspective. It's the same reason Bill Belichick traded little for a shot at Barkevious Mingo. What if that one-time first-round spark is still there, buried beneath a couple seasons of problems?

But the greatest threat to the future of the Browns was a middling Griffin season, one too good to cut the cord on him, but one not stable enough to ensure this was a future long-term top-20 QB (the stated goal of the franchise.)

Teams can't waste seasons and fleeting talent elsewhere on their rosters on quarterback maybes. Each season should be a yes or no, an affirmation that this is our guy, OR this isn't our guy and replacing him is a top priority.

So embrace this no.

The threat now is the veteran competence of Josh McCown and the idea that a 37-year-old quarterback could somehow wrangle enough wins this fall to keep the Browns from the 21-year-old quarterback they really want next spring.

Because they don't need Carson Wentz. Don't gnash your teeth over the fear that the Philly rookie is a generational talent the Browns passed on.

They need some Carson Wentz. Their version of him. A Wentz type. He's out there, slinging college footballs right now.

Four quarterbacks drafted in the top three picks the last three years - Jacksonville's Blake Bortles, Tampa Bay's Jameis Winston, Tennessee's Marcus Mariota and Wentz - combined to complete 94 of 150 passes Sunday (63 percent) for 1,150 yards, nine touchdowns and three interceptions.

That's an average game of 24-for-38 for 288 yards. Would you take that?

Given why the Browns passed on the chance at Wentz, they didn't think his upside was high enough, there should be no doubt what Sashi Brown and his crew are focusing on at quarterback.

Not good. The chance at great.

It's coming. You've heard it before and you're tired of waiting. But do this: Assume with all your fandom that a quarterback answer is arriving in the 2017 draft. No one can know if it's the right answer, but forget the way previous decision makers ignored quarterback. Let Brown prove you wrong for believing if the front office passes on a chance at a quarterback again in 2017.

They didn't say no to Wentz because they don't value the position. They said no to him because they wanted better. Better than the guy who sliced up the Browns.

It's not fair for fans to wait another seven months for the draft and for that day to be your Super Bowl again. But give this new regime another 200 days of faith.

The RG3 lightning wasn't there. Carson Wentz wasn't good enough.

Your quarterback is coming. Hope he's so good that if the day comes that he ever does get hurt, you'll really know how devastating a quarterback injury can be.