LeBron not ruling out playing in 2020 Olympics
August 18, 2016LeBron’s dream is to own an NBA team
August 18, 2016I have low expectations for the Cleveland Browns in 2016, but not bad feelings. In the past few years when they’ve loaded up on free agents and seemed like they were going for it, I’ve tried to hold them to an 8-win standard. I just don’t think eight wins is unreasonable in the NFL. The Browns have found this an impossible standard to achieve. Despite the lower standard for 2016, I don’t hate this team or what I think they’re trying to do.
Is it possible to speak critically – sometimes hyper-critically – about a team and still not be a “hater?” I believe that will be my challenge in 2016.
I’m excited or intrigued by much of what the Cleveland Browns put together this off-season. I understand the headwinds that exist for Robert Griffin III to become a top-10 NFL starting quarterback, but there’s no downside to trying the experiment. The Browns’ offensive weapons have the chance to be special. The 2016 NFL Draft first-round pick Corey Coleman is performing well in camp and should have the ability to get behind defenses. Duke Johnson demonstrated speed and athleticism that could change a couple of games. Add Terrelle Pryor and a returning Josh Gordon because they’ve shown the ability to put pressure on NFL defenses at times during their NFL careers. Even a fifth-rounder like Rashard “Hollywood” Higgins provides something for Browns fans to gaze into the crystal ball of a possible Christmas future. But, even those are small parts of the game.
The Cleveland Browns are a three-to-five win team. For all the potential, they’re demonstrably worse in some key areas. It starts with the offensive line where everyone knows the Browns lost Alex Mack and Mitchell Schwartz to Atlanta and Kansas City respectively. It’s still confounding to me that the Browns didn’t get Schwartz on a 5-year deal for $33 million with just over $20 million guaranteed. In true NFL contract terms, it’s basically a three-year deal for a 27-year-old right tackle. If there’s one major issue with the RG3 reclamation experiment, it’s that the Browns took a major step backwards on the offensive line when it matters more to have a good one. No matter. That water is under the bridge.
The good news is they’re young. How young the final roster is on September 11 against the Philadelphia Eagles remains to be seen, but right now they have an average age of just under 25 years old. There are only eight players currently on the roster that are age 30 or older, with one being punter 34-year-old Andy Lee. Not to say the punter doesn’t count, but when you’re looking to assess the age of your roster, it doesn’t matter how old your punter is, or a backup quarterback like 37-year-old Josh McCown.
Young doesn’t necessarily mean good, however. I’m hoping – like the rest of Browns fans – that Hue Jackson and his coaching staff will make these young guys the best they can be, as opposed to previous coaching staffs that seemed to bring out the worst.
“Hope” likely won’t translate to wins in 2016. There’s much to be proven this season before anyone gets genuinely excited about the Cleveland Browns. That’s not hate. It is reality.
The Browns have to answer as many questions as any other time since the team returned in 1999. Can Danny Shelton and Cameron Erving become legitimate NFL players? Will the Browns be able to cobble together a legitimate starting caliber defense with a linebacking corps that’s scheduled to be headlined by Chris Kirksey? Will Nate Orchard, Paul Kruger, and Barkevious Mingo rush the passer? Will Joe Haden look like the Pro Bowler he’s been in the past? Will anyone else? The questions intensify from there.
Like the rest of you, I hope all the Browns quotes about Hue Jackson are prophetic. I hope that Josh Gordon, Terrelle Pryor, Corey Coleman, Gary Barnidge, RG3, and Duke Johnson put up video game numbers on that weird-shaped scoreboard. I hope Ray Horton and his staff find all the magic with the Cleveland Browns defense. I hope Andy Lee is so bored that we forget his name by Week 3. I hope they play so well that even Solomon Wilcots is forced to learn their names. I hope they’re so good that Solomon Wilcots isn’t on their games at all.
I want all those things to happen. I’d just be a crazy person to predict them. So maybe for fans this year instead of being “GO BROWNS!” it should be a bit more “Go Browns?”
40 Comments
They have to earn their way back from being a complete joke of a pro franchise. it’s a long and winding road……..
“It’s still confounding to me that the Browns didn’t get Schwartz on a 5-year deal for $33 million with just over $20 million guaranteed.”
I believe it has been covered ad nauseum. It is pretty simple actually: the guy has to want to sign here and then has to sign his name or put an X.
They just have to play competitive football in December, steal a game that they’re not supposed to win here-and-there (at least one vs Pittsburgh and/or the Bastard Sons of Art Modell) and not quit for me to be satisfied.
Yes Sashi burned that bridge the year before in contract negotiations. There was no going back.
I expect this team to finish terrible, if not last in the league then in the bottom 3 for sure. I am really hoping for some laugh-out-loud funny moments like last year though. (McCown’s helicopter fumble on the 1 yard line started the season on a high note for me entertainment-wise).
Some Weeden/Benny Hill moments?
Yeah some: “Only the Brooooowns” type stuff. McCown blowing his knee while running out of bounds in STL last year (slid into the wall).
Hater/not-hater isn’t really about win predictions. Predicting a bad season isn’t the same as summarily dismissing the franchise or city. Even criticizing the team’s decisions isn’t the same as choosing to thrive on outrage as a way to cope with life.
“…that Hue Jackson and his coaching staff will make these young guys the best they can be, as opposed to previous coaching staffs that seemed to bring out the worst.”
God, so much THIS. The bar is resting firmly on the floor.
and the Browns FO has to not pull the offer when FA starts. Two-way street 😉
and the burning was mostly done by Banner
when was the last time we had a game that mattered in December? 2007?
You’re not a hater Craig, your reasoning is sound. I just happen to disagree with “The Cleveland Browns are a three-to-five win team.”
Go ahead and chalk me down for having them as a 6-8 win team. As noted by Ian Rapoport after his camp visit:
“CLEVELAND BROWNS: Has the franchise finally found its captain? I visited a lot of training camps this year — and have hit plenty of camps in the past for teams with new coaches. And many times, the outlook is the same — always positive in regards to the new coach. But I have never heard what I did in Cleveland. Full-throated, detailed, emphatic backing of Hue Jackson as the right man to right the Browns’ ship. One person told me he didn’t know there was a coach who could combine the Xs-and-Os acumen with the ability to rally a team. Another said he’s never been around players galvanized like this.”
I get it, it’s preseason, it’s all talk, we’ve heard blah blah blah before, but I do believe that this coaching staff will eke out some wins that previous Browns coaching staffs would have crapped away. And I also don’t believe that the team is lacking in talent to the extent that most of the media thinks. This team has more real talent than the team in Oakland that Hue Jackson took to an 8-8 record.
Put me down on record as saying that the Browns will not have a top-5 pick in 2017 and won’t have a shot at the top QB in the draft. I’m putting the PL guarantee on it.
I think Craig had all that baked in as reasoning why the 3-win team in 2015 that lost some really important guys could still wind up with more wins in 2016
😉
(seriously love your optimism – please keep it up as long as you are able)
Someone needs to keep the torch burning. Lunch hasn’t noticed we’re back yet.
Also, I love that the bar is set so low by everyone here that even predicting that the Browns will not have a winning record is too optimistic. It makes me think I must be on the right track 🙂
Oh and sixteen…
https://media.giphy.com/media/ZpkCPgQK5DlGE/giphy.gif
true. part of it is smart to disassociate any particular year with the next. 2015 3-wins does not directly mean that the same team would win the same amount in 2016 and now less w/ important vets gone. I use that logic at times as a crutch.
but, no more than 7 wins since 2007, only one of those years above 5 wins DOES show that there is a severe lack of talent-base. also shown through lack of second contracts the draft picks get.
I do like Hue. I do think Sashi/DePodesta can do some good things. But, it will all take time. 2016 is a season to survive. If they can win 8 games? Whoo boy, we’ll party like it’s 2007, I tell you what.
You’re right. They shouldn’t have pulled the rejected offer. They should have followed him to KC, had a melt down pre-boarding the flight, tears streaming, begging him to come back and accept. Ok, now stop with your silliness of “pulling an offer.” A rejected offer is void.
Just as long as you are cool remembering that when we rotate 4 different guys at RT this year.
Man, we need real football to start so we can have new random tiffs 🙂
Just as long as you are cool remembering that when we rotate 4 different guys at RT this year.
Man, we need real football to start so we can have new random tiffs 🙂
And 3 at center.
Mack wasn’t coming back no matter how much Christmas Ale we offered him.
Personally i do not believe that they will be playoff contenders, but if they play competitive football game in and game out and win a few that no one thinks they have a chance at they may surprise us all. I did say IF. But it is possible.
The O-Line was not that good last year.
It may be worse now.
We can’t win until we FIX the O-Line.
Since a decent ’07 line, the ’12 line was the only one that seemed to be able to protect the QB (Weeden in 12, who had his own problems)
probably a few bridges over troubled waters too
The key is accepting they’re a 4 or 5 win team. We’ll all be ok then.
Top 10 OL last year, easy. Not top or 2nd like PFF, but it is tough to find good OL play and we pass-blocked with the best of them and were pretty average at run-blocking. Don’t let the cruddy play around them fool you.
Good point, I’ll go comment on one of his old posts and see if we can summon him back.
He “almost” considered it if we had a chance to draft Jared Goff (both Cal-guys) was the wording he used, which shows how full-sprint he was out those doors.
That’s why Hop is the brains of this operation and Garry Owen is just the pretty face.
Well done RGB, somebody needs to hold up the polar opposite end.
STOP TRYING TO HARSH MY BUZZ, MAN.
https://media.giphy.com/media/pzoK4L2chPh3a/giphy.gif
I disagree.
Swiss Cheese.
I watched it on my TV, and my eyes don’t lie.
I watched a bunch of OTHER TEAM QBs stand back and take time to pass 6 or 7 plays out of 10.
I watched our QBs get creamed, do helicopters, or the most telling clue of all – Johnny running the whole 26 mile marathons trying to stay away from the rushers the instant after the ball was snapped. All the time, nearly every pass play.
I saw it!
I respectfully disagree. The helicoptor play was on a QB-rush at the goalline. McCown held the ball 4-5 seconds nearly every time, which most teams do no do. Cam Erving was horrific and when he started there was immediate pressure, but otherwise the OL was really good.
But, it does not matter now. You will get to watch a swiss cheese right-side OL this year.
I’m not a player, I just crush a lot. Of beers. Trying to numb the pain on Sundays in the fall.
I’m expecting 3-13, but hoping to see discipline on both sides of the ball (minimize the turnovers and dumb penalties) and competency from the coaches (timeout usage, starting strong in the first and third quarters). Maybe RG3 can return to his early glory. Maybe the new WR corp can hold onto the football. Maybe we found some promising young guys in this draft. Maybe Hue is finally the guy to get this wreck off the rocks. But I’m not buying any of it until we get to January and can evaluate the full body of work. Until then, just making sure the fridge is stocked.
Lunch responded to the lunch-signal and claims he already knows. Apparently he is lurking…
I would understand if his optimism got knocked out after last season. That 3-13 fiasco was the equivalent of an uppercut straight to the jaw.
“Lack of Talent” is really just another way to say “Untalented”. I just don’t think we can get a good evaluation on many of these guys because the team is so young, and for others like RG3, Joe Haden, Joe Thomas, Josh Gordon, Tramon Williams, Joel Bitonio, Gary Barnidge, Paul Kruger, Andy Lee… these guys have actually shown talent in at least one past season. On the other hand, which starters have shown that they are clearly lacking talent? Or maybe a better way to put it is… which starters are currently par-to-subpar and not likely to improve? I would say the winner of the Jordan Poyer/Rahim Moore battle. Demario Davis. John Hughes. Austin Pasztor/Alvin Bailey. I just think it’s easier to declare that the Browns have a decent amount of talent on their team as opposed to the opposite.
but, what I meant was lack of proven high-end talent. I do believe every single NFL team has more than the Browns.
all of the players you listed outside of Joe Thomas have extreme question marks surrounding them (well, and Andy Lee – yay Browns). it is a tough starting point.
not sure where you put your “par” point. I would say NFL starting average as par. we have many spots that will be below NFL average as starters.
the ONLY positions I think we are above NFL starter average for sure:
LT
LG (good enough to think he’ll rebound up from an average year last year)
TE (receiving at least)
will we have more guys step up and be above average starters? yes. I just cannot say with any measure of confidence that Haden, Kruger, Greco, Kirksey, Coleman, Pryor, Gordon will be that player. other teams have similar cases with those types of guys but just have more sure things.
a ton has to go right for us to win more than a handful of games. it could happen, so let’s hope it does.
I respectfully disagree.
http://www.ourlads.com/nfldepthcharts/depthchart/TEN
http://www.ourlads.com/nfldepthcharts/depthchart/PHI
http://www.ourlads.com/nfldepthcharts/depthchart/SF
Give me the talent on the Browns over those rosters for sure.