DC Comics, the Cleveland Browns of Hollywood: While We’re Waiting
August 10, 20162016 Browns Preview: Defensive Line
August 10, 2016Can the guy catch a break? Just one day after being named the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback to start the 2016 season, Robert Griffin III was ranked the 32nd best starting quarterback out of 33 in the NFL in a poll done by ESPN’s Mike Sando. Why 33 starting quarterbacks when there are only 32 teams, you ask? With the San Francisco 49ers yet to decide on their starting quarterback (either Colin Kaepernick or Blaine Gabbert), so both were included in the poll.
Sando conducted the poll by interviewing 10 general managers, five head coaches, seven offensive coordinators, five defensive coordinators, eight personnel evaluators and seven other position coaches/executives. While he ranked them in order from No. 1 to No. 33, Sando also used tiers in the ranking as well.
- Tier 1: Can carry his team each week. Team wins because of him.
- Tier 2: Can carry team sometimes but not as consistently
- Tier 3: Legit starter but needs heavy run game/defense to win
- Tier 4: Might not want this guy starting all 16 games
- Tier 5: Do not think this guy should be starting
Coming in at No. 32, Griffin did not play a single snap in 2015 with the Washington Redskins. The dual-threat will now look to showcase just how good he is in Cleveland this fall, hoping to return to his first-year self when he won NFL Rookie of the Year award in 2012.
Griffin may never be the quarterback he once was before he injured his knee multiple times, but he has a chance to be one of the most talented starting quarterbacks to don the orange and brown since their return in 1999. While his offensive line has plenty of questions outside of veteran Pro Bowler Joe Thomas, the right-hander has a young, athletic receiver corps that Griffin will be able to throw to in all parts of the field.
Ranked as the second-worst quarterback, the only way Griffin can virtually go at this point is up. Hopefully he will be able to prove the doubters wrong with both with his arm and his legs.
The other three quarterbacks ranked in the AFC North:
- No. 3: Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers (Tier 1)
- No. 12: Joe Flacco, Ravens (Tier 2)
- No. 15: Andy Dalton, Bengals (Tier 2)
13 Comments
It’ll be interesting to see if Andy Dalton falls back to his role as the prime meridian of the Dalton Scale again now that Hue isn’t running Cincy’s offense.
http://www.nfl.com/podcasts?id=26d688927df08855d267faf0bc1c3593
(Jump to 27:30 if listening to the podcast).
How about they play a game first?
This is a great point. Also with Jones in Detroit and Sanu in Atlanta.
They still have A.J. Green, Jeremy Hill, and Gio Bernard, but the only guy I’m certain is a stud player in that group is Green. I think it’s very possible that Cincinnati’s running back numbers will take a hit after losing Hue. They also have Tyler Eifert, but he could be missing anywhere from 1-3 months of the season based on this projection that Cincy Jungle posted yesterday:
http://www.cincyjungle.com/2016/8/9/12405442/tyler-eifert-recovery-timetable-could-be-longer-than-thought
The WR corps behind A.J. Green is a bunch of JAGs and they don’t have much at TE until Eifert gets healthy. I think Cincinnati is a sneaky good bet to perform below expectations this season.
I have no doubt that Jeremy Hill will look good against our defense this year.
I am hoping A.J. Green goes back to disappearing against Joe Haden.
Word? I like the prospect of seeing an improved Danny Shelton, John Hughes is a good run defender, and the only thing Demario Davis does at a high level is stop the run. Could be better than you think especially because I don’t actually think Jeremy Hill is more than an average RB at best… he put up a stellar 5.1 yards per attempt in 2014 and a miserable 3.6 yards per attempt last season, which evens out to a pretty average 4.35 yards per attempt. I’m much more worried about our pass defense… our ability to affect the QB and contain wide receivers.
I guess when our team is as poor as the Browns, we have different worries. I respect Horton & Cioffi enough to make the defensive secondary respectable.
You have already mentioned the Hughes worries. And, if we are starting two DE’s who are pure pass rush guys w/o much edge contain (an issue w/ Horton defense as it is), well average Hill is someone I worry about because I think we’re going to get gauged there.
But, our DL could surprise me. I do think our LBer corps is slowly becoming a bit better (though not having Ogbah there is disappointing).
Kruger is a pretty good run defender… tends not to get upfield because he doesn’t have the speed to blow by offensive tackles. He’s more of a power rusher, which leaves him in position to contain the edge. A lot of the problem with containing the edge is just having experience, and we don’t have a lot of pass rushers with experience. It could be ugly, or it could surprise us.
Kruger was decent at run defense last year. He also b!tched about the lack of pass rushing and Ray Horton has already said he’s going to use him rushing more. When Kruger rushes, he struggles to disengage with blockers and his rush defense goes downhill quickly (always preferred Sheard as the combo-OLB guy, sigh).
Anyway, you are correct, they could surprise us. I’m just not banking on it.
Come on Mr. Frowny Face. You’ve been more excited for worse Browns teams in the past. Put on that Believeland shirt and put your faith in the Hue World Order!
And, what good did it do for us? Maybe they need my critical eye in order to succeed.
I do see positives on this team. Coleman, Higgins, Barnidge, and Duke Johnson are all legit. If anyone can mask RG3’s deficiencies, it’s a guy like Hue.
On defense, Horton/Cioffi can limit opposing pass offenses using what we have, which I think was mis-used in the defensive backfield. We have some athleticism at LBer, which is nice. And, I continue to love Shelton.
The bad is a longer list. That’s all.
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