Cleveland Browns Progress Report: Week 9
November 9, 2016Potential Cleveland Indians Center Field Hot Stove Targets
November 9, 2016The Cleveland Browns are a disaster in the standings. There’s nothing else you can say about a team that is on the verge of starting the regular season 0-10 as the Browns take on the Baltimore Ravens for the second time in 2016 this Thursday. There’s a chance that they could win because of the chaos created by trying to get a team ready on such short rest. But, make no mistake, the Browns are ten-point underdogs.
Despite all the misery and the lack of hope for anything positive this season, I have yet to come across a Cleveland Browns fan who wants anyone fired. Is that strange to anyone else?
I don’t want anyone fired either, by the way. It’s just odd that you could have a season playing out like 2016, and nobody is calling for it. Eric Mangini hadn’t been given a remotely fair shot, and some were calling for him to be fired during his first season. What’s different about this team this time?
Let’s be honest it could just be apathy. Many in Cleveland Browns circles have consistently said that the team shouldn’t be afraid of the rage and protest of Browns fans; they should fear silence. For an entertainment venture like the Browns, it’s better to be talked about poorly than to not be talked about at all. The lack of proverbial pitchforks might actually be worse than people scrambling to light their torches.
Or maybe there is something incrementally good about this Browns team with an awful record. I was listening to Bleacher Report NFL writer Mike Freeman talk on Jim Rome’s show on Tuesday. While laughing his way through it, he legitimately called the Browns the best 0-9 team he’d ever seen. Having watched some awful Browns football like the rest of you, it’s hard to argue.
The Browns haven’t been completely boring for the totality of this NFL season. Even with QB stints from Josh McCown, Cody Kessler, Terrelle Pryor, and Kevin Hogan running the ball from the quarterback spot, Hue Jackson has found interesting ways to move the ball. There’s nothing worse than bad and boring, but the Browns haven’t always been boring. But, I’ve yet to figure out how the whole thing works out this way with Browns fans.
I am left with big questions for the Browns. What was the plan or probability that things were going to go this poorly in their spreadsheets when they put this roster together? What did they think the ceiling was for this team before and after they decided to cut Paul Kruger, for example? Kruger isn’t that big a difference-maker, but he also wasn’t a problem per se. What impact on their team projection did the failure to resign Mitchell Schwartz have? These are the questions I have for Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta in a private, off-the-record moment.
It’s the worst way to end a column on the Browns, but we’ll have to see. It’s a confusing time to be a Browns fan with a general lack of anger. I don’t think it’s patience. It might be apathy. It might be understanding. It’s something. Maybe someday I’ll figure it all out, but probably not.
30 Comments
Not too confusing for me this year. I stream the games for free on my computer when I feel like watching them. Funny how during last years draft they said this years draft is way deeper with way better QB prospects, and now we are saying there isn’t one worth taking that high. Besides, it takes a toll on your body to put a lot of passion and hope into the browns for so many years only to be brought back down to reality.
we can only hope that we are all singing the praises of the HBT in another year or two … cuz it can’t get any worse than this.
Residual Cavs championship season and Tribe damn-near the same. The focus has *finally* shifted away from this franchise* to actual winning teams, and I’d submit the Cavs play the biggest role here. We got a taste of winning instead of the same old sour taste of loss, to which we had become so accustom. That taste has driven us to focus on finding that taste again, like trying to chase that first high that drives many of us into addiction. This is just a healthier version.
I applaud our empathy of this team. I applaud the meek turnout at the games. I hope more and more visiting teams become home teams. Send them a true message that we’re not going to just blindly accept failure like we’ve historically done. They are deserving of it in all fashions.
*save the 3 years the team didn’t “exist”
I’ve learned that they say that every year about the quarterback position. I remember when they were saying it about Teddy Bridgewater and Johnny Manziel. I remember when they were saying it about Tajh Boyd and Jake Locker. Pimping out next year’s QB class is an annual tradition for Kiper and McShay.
dont ever ever ever ever say that. it can always get worse, and nature, God, Yaweh, Vishnu, insert your deity of choice here is all too happy to show you
See the bar as low as possible, then in two years when they hit 9-7, they look brilliant as opposed to mildly above average.
The apathy, for me, began when the Farmer texting thing surfaced. I had just grown sick of the Browns doing Browns-y types of things.
I support the tear down, even though I’m not enthusiastic about it or the team. I think it was probably a bit too effective, but then again, that’s been part of the issue.
It’s fun to watch the rookies for a week or two. But the shiny new toys aren’t really exciting anymore…yet there are 8 more of these trainwrecks to watch. I’ll watch the first few games of next season to watch the new crop of rookies too.
At this point, the Browns will actually have to get good for me to reach strong levels of fandom again. Too bad there isn’t an Andrew Luck in the draft for the Browns this year…
https://media.giphy.com/media/3orieNVsNn2znXpfck/giphy.gif
Amen.
…Gpodawund
i agree … it can’t get any worse as far as wins & losses right now.
LMFAO !!!
Speaking of Farmer.
0-9 and no Texts From Ray article?
I’m looking at you WFNY staff.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d18ca72d7027f9f5e9b54c7b2ec1a44571a5c3448b726c536123a5e103df13c.png
Did no one tell you? Oh, this is awkward. He went the Old Yeller route. Sad day.
I was hoping that at least that part was a joke. :/
Actually, this one is better https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6028c23cec0924f8761d2d3a027fe679d4d7623b4e04a42bf90b6ef3a06337eb.png
Always leave them wanting more RGB. It would have been so sad to see Texts from Ray end up like Scrubs in its final season.
Just hard to keep it going w/o Ray here I think.
Fine.
But, 0-16 deserves Texts From Ray.
best laugh ive had all day
Nice. Absent is my Browns “need.” Went directly from epic Cavs Finals to Tribe 14-game winning streak and epic season, while Jimmy assured us that this season was more about process (auditions) than record. Tribe goes to the WS and … here come the Cavs again!
If there is in fact a Browns fan loyalty breaking point, we’re right there now. Hue keeps jabbering like a guy who swallowed too many diet pills but we’re way past words. We’ve been rolling with LeBron and Kyrie and Lindor/Kip/Kluber. “Trust me” is so Holmgren, so 2010.
Glad to provide a laugh – much needed on this end as well.
And good news is that there’s still a “Dawgma” joke waiting to be made. Gpodawund is a gift that keeps giving
Boom.
http://gvartwork.com/products/welcome-to-the-gpodawund-since-99-cleveland-football-t-shirt
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Insert whatever race, religion, creed, social status, or sexual orientation that would make you angry. It’s obviously that one.
I’ve always thought that the best possible thing for a sports franchise was bandwagon fans. If the team sucks, show it by *not* showing up, not watching it on TV, and not caring about it. That will create an incentive for the owners to figure out how to make the team not suck anymore.
The amazing loyalty of Browns fans is one of the reasons why they’ve sucked for 17 seasons now: The players are just trying to get through their contracts so they can go to a team that’s actually good. The coaches are just trying to keep their job for more than 1 year. But the owners are still laughing all the way to the bank.