Gilbert is the man

The final score in Saturday’s exhibition game between the Browns and Colts in Indianapolis was irrelevant. (For the record, the Browns squeaked by, 21-18.)

No, the relevant part of the game for the Browns wore uniform No. 3. His name is Garrett Gilbert, a refugee quarterback from a football league that folded late into its first season earlier this year.

The way he played the first half of this victory proved without any question and beyond any doubt that he, not Drew Stanton, should be the No. 2 quarterback behind Baker Mayfield this season. He looked downright impressive and played like he belonged.

If anything happens to Mayfield, the quality of the Cleveland offense will not lose its sharpness with this young man in charge of the huddle. Certainly not the way he handled the Colts defense.

Gilbert obviously knew before the game that Mayfield, who played only one series in the exhibition opener against Washington, was going to watch this one from the sideline. It was his game to command. And command he did.

The offensive coaching staff was watching someone audition for the main backup role to Mayfield and looking awfully good in the process. It certainly has to give coach Freddie Kitchens and his staff something to seriously ponder between now and the season opener.

Working with the starters for just the first two of his six first-half possessions, Gilbert was masterful as he picked apart the Indianapolis secondary, completing 13 of his 18 attempts (not counting a spike) for 151 yards, 13 first downs and a pair of touchdown passes (Jaelen Strong and D’Ernest Johnson).

Playing the first half with starters Nick Chubb, Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham Jr, and David Njoku joining Mayfield on the sidelines and with a relatively vanilla offense, he displayed a calmness one usually doesn’t see from someone trying to make a National Football League roster.

The aforementioned, by the way, along with Mayfield, are almost guaranteed to play at least a half in the next exhibition Friday in Tampa against the Buccaneers.

Gilbert’s best pass was a 32-yard rainbow that landed in the waiting arms of wide receiver D. J. Montgomery (his favorite target) down the right sideline en route to the second touchdown of the game, which broke a 7-7 tie. It was like dropping a football into a bucket.

He found Johnson, who pretty much carried the running load for the Browns, for a six-yard scoring strike on the next play and then turned the game over to rookie David Blough, who connected with Derrick Willies for a four-yard TD, completing an eight-play, 78-yard drive in the third quarter.

The Browns signed the 6-4 Gilbert, who led for the Orlando Apollos in the ill-fated Alliance of American Football to a 7-1 record, leading the league in just about every passing category en route to a 13-touchdown, three-interception season.

He is 28 years old, was born in Buffalo, moved to Texas and graduated from the same high school as Mayfield, Lake Travis High School in Austin.

The Browns were looking for a third quarterback as training camp fodder, given that Mayfield and Stanton were pretty much chiseled as one and two on the depth chart.

Gilbert was truly a football vagabond before the Browns latched on to him. After being drafted by the St Louis Rams in 2014, he bounced around the NFL with New England, Detroit, Oakland and Carolina before landing in Orlando.

The last Brown to wear a No. 3 jersey for the Browns was Brandon Weeden, whom the Browns unwisely, as it turned out, selected in the first round of the 2012 college draft. Coincidentally, he was 28 when drafted. He put in two very forgettable seasons with Cleveland before moving on.

The current wearer of that number is off to a much better start than his predecessor, even though he’ll watch most of the games from the sideline this season and not worry should Mayfield sustain an injury or surprisingly falter in his second season.

If that is the case, I’d feel much more comfortable watching Gilbert trot onto the field than Stanton, who at the age of 35 is much more valuable in his role of wizened adviser, someone to lean on to help Mayfield’s transition to the NFL.

Gilbert’s performance against the Colts also has to build up his confidence that he finally has found a place where he can be of value, a place where he can settle down and finally end his journey through the NFL.

The game nearly got out of hand in the second half when the Colts’ threes and fours outplayed the Browns’ threes and fours, most of whom will not make the final roster.

They crept to within three points and marched to the Cleveland 10 in the waning moments before turning over the ball on downs when blitzing Browns linebacker Willie Harvey deflected a pass intended for running back Aca’Cedric Ware in the right flat on a fourth-and-1.