LeBron Speaks Out
January 15, 2008Live Game Blog
January 15, 2008NFL Analysts Pleased With Browns’ Direction
So the baseball season is over, and the basketball season has yet to begin. That leaves us with just our beloved Brownies playing real games right now. Normally, that would be cause for nothing but more heartache and upset stomaches. But not this year. Optimism is abound when it comes to this year’s Browns. Now, lets not all get ahead of ourselves and try to keep things in proper focus and scope, and lets not overreact to the quotes I’m about to paste. The last time the Browns were .500 after 6 games was 2004. That season we were 3-3, playing the undefeated Eagles at home in Week 7. We were leading in the 4th quarter and looking to go to 4-3 on the year. Well, the Eagles tied the game in the 4th, and then won the game in overtime and by the end of the season, our record was 4-12. So just because we’re 3-3 right now, there’s still a LONG season ahead of us and a lot of uncertainty in the upcoming weeks and months. Remember, this is a franchise which hasn’t even won back to back games since weeks 5 and 6 of the 2003 season, so lets start small and try actually putting together some win streaks. Since our return in 1999, only once have we won more than 2 games in a row, and that was when we won 3 in a row in weeks 2 through 4 of the 2001 season. Those numbers are shocking and an embarrassment to the team, the city, and us fans. So before we start proclaiming ourselves “back from the dead”, lets first just try to string together some nice wins.
With that being said, lets take a look at what the analysts said about the team today. First up is Scouts, Inc’s Matt Williamson writing in his chat for ESPN.com,
Adam (OH): Is 8-8 a realistic guess for the Browns this season? If not then what?
Matt Williamson: That is realistic. Should beat STL without a ton of problems this week. I think 9 wins is steep though.
Williamson even thinks that a 2nd place finish in the division isn’t outside the realm of possibility,
Jay(Los Angeles): AFC north has to considered one of the toughest divisions in football. The good but under achieving Bengals could be the worst team in the division
Matt Williamson: Agreed. Don’t sleep on the Ravens either. Just look at their injury list-a LOT of Pro Bowls on that injury list.
Yahoo’s NFL experts Jason Cole and Charles Robinson released their NFL Power Rankings today, and both showed optimism in this year’s Browns team with Cole placing the Browns 10th on his rankings and Robinson sliding the Browns in his top tier at number 12. Cole had this to say about the Browns,
“As for the rest of the top of the league, you would have gotten some seriously long odds on a parlay from me that Cleveland and Kansas City would have been in the top 10 of the league. Yeah, the Browns are a pretty big reach at No. 10, it’s not like anybody else deserves to be there right now. Seattle needs to figure out if it’s going to be good or not after a couple of ugly games preceding the victory over St. Louis.”
Finally, for a look ahead to what the Browns may be looking at with their first pick in the draft next year (in the 2nd round….Brady Quinn is our 1st round pick next year, remember), Scouts, Inc’s draft analyst Steve Muench fielded some questions for ESPN.com today, and had this to say about the Browns’ pick,
Mike (Cleveland): My Browns need serious help on the D-line! What prospects would project to when they which seems to be in the middle of the second round?
Steve Muench: The problem is their not going to get a true nose tackle for good vlaue at that point in the draft. So they may be better served taking a chance on Texas A&M’s Red Byrant in the third or fourth round or possibly Fresno State’s Jason Shirley in a later round. If they take a defenisve end there, USC’s Lawrence Jackson is a possibility though not an ideal fit. North Carolina State’s DeMario Pressley is another name worth throwing out there.
That’s all I have on the Browns for today. I’ll my Week 8 preview for this week’s game at St. Louis a little later in the week.
1 Comment
I see 8-8 as a distinct possibility but i’m not holding my breath. when will jamal lewis come back? how long will DA play decent? the good news is we are all interested like you said.