Can a return to where he lost blood help Bauer find his groove?
May 8, 2017Where’s the offense? Ball Played
May 9, 2017Daryl Ruiter has been covering Cleveland sports for the better part of 20 years. We talked about a host of topics covering sports media, social media, and the Cleveland Browns draft.
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Here’s what else we discussed:
- Myles Garrett was picked, but how much credit do the Browns get for taking him?
- The Browns front office and whether it would give you pause
- How has the sports media market changed in the last 20 years?
- Learning how to cover sports with social media
- The Cleveland Browns dysfunction
- Jimmy Haslam and how he needs to hold on
- Sashi Brown, Hue Jackson and keeping things together
- Judging Cleveland Browns things too early
5 Comments
Great job Craig. I disagree a little bit with Daryl regarding last season though. I thought it was a great triumph for Hue and his staff to get the team through a season like that without everyone tuning out completely. They were horribly crappy, but they never looked like they stopped trying. And because of that, I wasn’t actually all that surprised when they finally got the win against the Chargers. A 1-15 season is an enormous challenge for coaches, as well as for players and owners. And I think they passed it. I have watched teams go 3-13 and 4-12 while looking a lot more disorganized, unprofessional and grumpy than the Browns looked last year.
I know it’s easy to coast on old, familiar negativity. But Browns fans should pay attention when their team is celebrating the first win of the season in mid-December like they just won a Superbowl. They really seem to care a great deal about playing football for the Browns. And that is the first step needed here.
PS: As long as no one panics and does something stupid I mean. It wasn’t too long ago that Hoyer was benched mid-season because the Browns were winning games (?), in one of the all time bad decisions by any FO. But that Browns team played with less heart after Hoyer got benched than last year’s team did while going on its fifth QB of the year.
Hoyer wasn’t benched because he was winning games, it was quite the opposite in fact. After a hot start and some good play, he went through a five game stretch from weeks 10 to 14 where he threw only 1 touchdown versus 8 interceptions. I think any QB going through a stretch like that would lead to a benching.
I agree with your take though. I know Craig views the 2016 season through the lens of a paying customer who received a s*** sandwich in return for his money. He sees the 2016 season much differently than me… I saw it as a year where the number of wins and losses didn’t matter at all and I was just looking to see growth from the guys who would likely be around for the long haul. I was encouraged in that regard. Like you said, the young guys never quit and seemed intent on learning from their mistakes. And I think Hue Jackson learned that Ray Horton wasn’t going to cut it as his defensive coordinator. The HBT learned a number of things themselves. For example, they couldn’t go into 2017 with the same offensive linemen. Any QB the Browns might acquire in the offseason would get killed behind Erving and those backup-level players (exceptions made for Joe T and a healthy Joel B). It was an awful season that was really hard to watch if you were looking for wins, but I definitely think the Browns’ front office, coaches, and players are all better for having gone through it.
Some bad luck with the O line too. After watching him in Washington, I really believe Austin Reiter to be a long term starter for the Browns, and a complete steal off waivers. I was very excited to follow him last year. Instead he got injured almost immediately, and the Browns didn’t really have a qualified backup.
I know Hoyer looked bad btw. Was trying to be contrarian again. Like I’ve said before though: I never thought he was the biggest problem. His protection was rubbish, people ran garbage routes and there was in general very little positive one could have said at the time about the team he was the QB of. And predictably, Johhny Ball did no better when he started on that team. So you might as well not have been disruptive by benching Hoyer.
Hindsight I guess. Although this was what I thought at the time too. Guess I’ll have to yell louder next time.