I came across this article, and since there is so much hype about the Browns, I thought maybe it needed its own thread.
How the Cleveland Browns Are Bucking NFL Convention
In trying to reverse a generation’s worth of losing, the team is loading up on stars and embracing the hype.
ROBERT O'CONNELL 11:25 AM ET
The NFL’s most heavily hyped team hasn’t had a winning season in a dozen years. The Cleveland Browns last made the playoffs in 2002 and last won a playoff game in 1995, when their then–head coach Bill Belichick led them to a Wild Card victory over the New England Patriots. In 2016, Cleveland won just once, and in 2017 not at all. Now the Browns are being spoken of as “true contenders” with “boundless possibilities” on the cusp of a potential “Golden Era.” Sports Illustrated has tabbed Cleveland to win 11 games and its division. One fan tattooed his leg in preemptive commemoration of a championship.
There’s reason for all the optimism. Extended losing begets high draft picks, which beget talent. The Browns have two top-flight up-and-comers in the second-year quarterback Baker Mayfield and the third-year pass-rusher Myles Garrett, the former finishing second in Rookie of the Year balloting last season and the latter making his first All-Pro roster. After a rocky start to 2018 and subsequent shakeups—Mayfield stepped in for the injured incumbent starter Tyrod Taylor; the head coach Hue Jackson, who had presided over the 1–31 stretch the two years prior, was fired—Cleveland won five of its last seven games to finish with a 7–8–1 record. Then, in March, the Browns swung a trade with the New York Giants for Odell Beckham Jr., one of the most highly paid and least coverable wide receivers in the league.
Turnover is common in the NFL; of last year’s 12 playoff teams, eight hadn’t made it the year before. There is a growing sense that it’s finally Cleveland’s turn. But the anticipation surrounding the Browns, feverish even outside of northeast Ohio, suggests more than just the standard appetite for a long-awaited event. NFL convention holds that champions are born of hierarchy, careful planning, and individual sacrifice. These Browns were built quickly, and built on stars. They amount to a bet: that sheer talent, not institutional practice, can win the day. During Cleveland’s hot stretch to end the season last year, the former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams acted as interim head coach. But when it came time to select a full-time replacement in January, the Browns promoted Freddie Kitchens, who after Jackson’s firing had stepped into the role of offensive coordinator for the first time in his NFL career. Kitchens’s resume, made up mostly of stints as a little-known position coach, didn’t match those of fresh hires around the league. “It takes some guts to do what they did,” Kitchens himself said, adding, “I know that I am not a popular choice.”
Kitchens was popular, though, with his young quarterback, whose gutsy temperament and downfield accuracy jibed with Kitchens’s air-it-out attack. Over the eight games in which Kitchens called plays, Mayfield threw 19 touchdowns. “Baker Mayfield wanted Kitchens,” the NFL reporter Mike Florio said of the hire, “and Baker Mayfield gets Kitchens.” It was a rare amount of sway for a team to grant any player, much less one entering just his second professional season. The move was also in keeping with what has become an organizational trend of prioritizing the acquisition and development of skilled players over team doctrine. Beckham was available for a trade likely because of his history of missteps in New York, where he had left the field early, questioned his coach’s play-calling, and skirted an off-season drug scandal; the general manager John Dorsey jumped at the opportunity to add him. After the new coordinator Steve Wilks installed a liberating defensive system this off-season, Garrett anticipates career-high sack numbers. Dorsey puts his philosophy in straightforward terms: “You can’t have enough competitive football players.” The general manager has been accused of taking the ethos too far; in February, the Browns signed the running back Kareem Hunt, a former Pro Bowler who was dismissed from the Kansas City Chiefs last season after a hotel surveillance video showed him shoving and kicking a woman. The league has suspended Hunt for the first eight games of the upcoming season.
Offering second chances to perpetrators of violence is, controversially, a familiar move in the NFL. But in other ways, the Browns stand in contrast to league orthodoxy, old and new alike. The Patriots remain the standard-bearing franchise, and Belichick’s “do your job” mantra—wherein a player is useful to the degree that he enacts, not transcends, the game plan—has become the template for team-building. The 33-year-old head coach Sean McVay, whose Los Angeles Rams lost to the Patriots in last year’s Super Bowl, has an offensive approach so potent that analysts have wondered whether he can simply cycle through quarterbacks in perpetuity. The power afforded to both coaches, and to their imitators and offshoots across the league, reflects a distasteful reality of pro football. Games are grueling, and players’ careers contingent; the way to lasting success is by having the right person calling the shots.
Some observers have found precedent for Cleveland’s approach in the NBA, where the Philadelphia 76ers turned years of losing, via a couple of fortuitous draft picks, into a franchise-defining superstar tandem. Basketball is by nature a more star-dependent game, but Browns fans surely have similar hopes for the coming season. The players are dynamic enough to make best-case scenarios easy to imagine: Garrett dipping past blockers and dragging down quarterbacks, Mayfield reeling off four- and five-touchdown games, Beckham streaking away on slant routes and floating in midair to snare passes one-handed.
Football is more complicated than what makes the highlight reel, of course. The subtext of Belichick’s New England dynasty is that what fans love about the sport has little to do with winning; sound blocking and attentive defense, not improbable sideline catches, produce Super Bowls. Detractors might point out Cleveland’s weaknesses in the less flashy portions of the roster: a questionable offensive line, a lack of overall depth. A 2–3 start could quickly remove the shine from the decision to retain Kitchens, and the summer of optimism could come to seem like another instance of false hope for a fan base conditioned to it. Mayfield has noted a backlash building among the stodgier segments of the football community. “People want to see us lose,” he said last month, “just because the hype is so real.” This highlight-reel quality, though, accounts for the team’s broad appeal. They figure to be fantasy football made actual, all big names and big plays. Theirs is an optimistic approach in a city trained to expect the worst. “I plan on being there for the next five years and trying to bring as many championships there as possible,” Beckham said over the off-season, “turning into the new Patriots.” The Browns will have taken an uncommon route to get there. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
My take on the hype, reposted from another thread: I think the hype is funny. It has become this perpetual motion machine that began the minute we drafted Baker and was fed nitro fuel by the signing of OBJ. We have some excellent talent. But the media handing them the division title is premature at best, ego feeding harmful at worst. Hopefully not. Hopefully, Freddie keeps them grounded. The bottom line is this: We'll have the answers to a lot of questions at the end of the day Sunday, and until then, everything else is inconsequential.
"I am undeterred and I am undaunted." --Kevin Stefanski
"Big hairy American winning machines." --Baker Mayfield
You can use just about anything to add fuel to the fire ... but how you direct it is important; you can either use it to heat your house, or burn down your house. IMO, we are not going to escape the hype or attention, whether we play well or poorly ... the media will be all over us.
It’s up to the leadership to make sure to use it in the most beneficial way possible
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
CATEGORIES: NFL Browns Berea, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – It’s hard to accuse the Browns of spending too much time reading their press clippings or reveling in the hype.
Since March there have been plenty of them from G.Q. Magazine to ESPN to the cover of Sports Illustrated crowning them as the NFL’s next best team.
The Browns, with arguably the most talented collection of stars in three decades, are expected to exercise whatever demons remain from 20 years of ineptitude, turbulence and futility this season and end the NFL’s longest playoff drought.
But talk is cheap.
“I’m tired of hearing the talk. I’m ready to play football, period,” safety Damarious Randall said. “The fact that it’s finally here, I’m definitely stoked, happy about it and I hope the fans are ready to go because we’re just as excited as they are.”
How ready are the Browns to open the season Sunday against the Titans?
“I’d play them in the parking lot,” Baker Mayfield said when asked about getting to kick the season off at home. “I don’t really care.”
It’s felt like this offseason has moved at a snail’s pace, but finally the games that count start Sunday.
“The city is excited and that kinda extends to us as well,” Pro Bowl defensive end Myles Garrett said. “It’s not unheard. We hear all the noise, whether it’s good or bad.”
This year’s Browns are confident, not cocky.
“I am excited to play together and see what we have,” running back Nick Chubb, who set the franchise rookie rushing record with 996 yards last season said. “We had a long, hard, tough camp and banged up on each other a little bit. I am excited to go out there and play some guys in a real game and see how we put things together.”
The additions of Pro Bowlers Odell Beckham Jr., Olivier Vernon and Sheldon Richardson in March sparked five months of hype and heightened expectations with Mayfield, who set a rookie franchise record for passing yardage and an NFL rookie record for touchdown passes, entering his second season.
“Obviously, it has been an unreal offseason [of] being able to get excited,” Mayfield said.
For all the excitement, the reality is that the Browns haven’t done anything yet, and they know it.
“Nobody has done anything yet so I would say everybody is starting from the same square one,” Mayfield said. “I would say it is pretty hard to live up to any hype if you are listening to the outside. None of that really matters so I think we have a bunch of guys who have bought in to what is going on in this building and the standards we are setting. To us, that is all that matters.”
In 12 months, the bar for the Browns has gone from just finally win a game to how many can they pile up in 2019?
The Browns are projected by some to win the AFC North for the first time since the division was formed in 2002. Others say they're a wild card team, and there are the doubters who don't think they'll be any better than 8-8 or 9-7 meaning they'll be where they usually are every January – home.
But predictions aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
“At the end of the day, you’re going to have to [put] up or shut up,” Garrett said.
From day one, head coach Freddie Kitchens has kept his team focused in the moment. One day, one meeting, one practice, one game at a time.
It sounds cliché, and boring, but for Kitchens, it’s instrumental to success.
“I know if we do not do our work and get what we need to out of Wednesday’s practice, Sunday is not going to matter,” Kitchens said. “It is the same with [Thursday] and same with Friday. We are going to focus on today, same as me, same as our other coaches, same as our equipment guys and our trainers. Everybody is focused on today and doing their best job for the Browns and these fans today.”
The Rams, Seahawks and Patriots await this fall, but first come the Titans.
“We got guys that have been fighting together throughout camp,” Randall said. “We got guys that since OTAs have put together a plan and we actually believe in that plan and trust that plan. We finally get to go out and show the world what we’ve been doing the last two, three months.”
No pressure or anything, but the Browns haven’t won a Week 1 game since 2004. No head coach has won his debut since Bud Carson in 1989. That’s 12 coaches ago but Kitchens isn;t going to deviate from his own mantra and put any more emphasis on Sunday.
“We put the same emphasis on every game. We truly have been preaching since the spring that it is one day at a time,” Kitchens said. “We can’t do anything about Week 2. We have to do something about Week 1 so we do not mention any other games. This is the one we are focused on. We need to be because they are a good football team.”
I believe in talent first and foremost. At some point football is about matchups. You can either beat your guy or not.
Second you have to be well coached. That includes being taught right. Being prepared properly. And adjusting.
Quarterback. Very hard to win without high level play from the QB position.
Defense. You can win by scoring a lot of points. But you will win more consistently with a great defense. In today's game where the emphasis is on passing. Pressure on the quarterback is paramount. We have the front four talent to apply pressure.
Luck. Often defined as: when preparation meets opportunity. That is very true. However, in football you have to escape major injury. You can't lose key guys especially your quarterback.
So I am buying the hype. We have a very talented team. I believe Freddie will have them well prepared. I like what I have seen from the coaching staff.
Baker had a great rookie season. I see no reason why he will not improve upon what he has done. Experience and more tools around him.
I really like the mix of experience on the defense. Young talent in Myles, Ward, Larry O and experienced guys like Richardson, Vernon, Schobert, Kirksey, and Randall.
Luck? So far we are good. Who knows with that. Injury is random. Most teams are tested with injury. We can handle it in some units. Others could cause major damage.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
I’m still on the fence bro ... i’ll let u know if i decide to let my hair down a little and start believing what the roster tells me ... *LOL* ...
LETS GOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo
I need you to be off the fence and stay extremely positive. It's the only thing that is calming my nerves.
No worries brother .... i grow more and more optimistic by the day ....
- we got through TC with no major injuries .... Hunt was the only one and that shouldn’t affect us one iota ...
- everything I’ve seen from .. and i MEAN EVERYTHING i’ve seen from Freddie and his staff is encouraging ... VERY ENCOURAGING ...
- our roster is loaded with talent .... LOADED ... best DL in football ... BAR NONE .. and the secondary may be right there ... CB’s are like our WR’s or RB’s room .. an EMBARRESMENT OF RICHES ..
This roster is LOADED WITH TALENT ... closest on O is KC but we bury them with talent on the D side of the ball ....
It may be time for the PARADISE ISLAND thread ... that may help calm some nerves ... at least while your reading it ... *LOL* ...
Barring injuries .... all i got to say for right now is best said by one Mr. Phil Collins ...
That’s one of the first things that Coach Kitchens ever said to us, when he took over the team. He said, “Listen, fellas — I’m just a big ol’ redneck from Alabama. Nobody ever figured I’d be here today as an NFL Head Coach. Nobody. I’m not supposed to be here. But you know what? I’m here.”
When people ask me what’s different about the Browns this year, what’s different about this city, and this football program — those words from Coach always come to my mind.
That mentality that Coach Kitchens brings….. I think we’ve all adopted it. It’s just who we are now, you know what I mean? We have a lot of players here who, in one way or another, they’ve been underdogs their whole career. Players who got to the league, or got to this franchise, and all they’ve known since then is losing. And our fans are the same way: We have these amazing fans — but a lot of them, they’ve never watched a Browns playoff game in their lives.
And I think in other years, maybe, that history has made people feel like there could never be a winner here. In other years, I feel like people would just be saying, you know, The Browns? Nah, they’re not going to win — because they never win. They’re not SUPPOSED to win.
The Browns aren’t supposed to be here.
And it just feels like starting last year, and into this summer, and now as we’re getting ready for Week 1 of this new season….. all of a sudden it’s like we took that saying and we flipped it. We’ve gone and taken what a Cleveland Browns team is “supposed” to do, in people’s minds, and we’ve changed that from this curse into this gift. Into an opportunity.
And that’s what our team has always been about, to me, for as long as I’ve been here.
Opportunity.
I saw it even when we went 0–16, in my rookie year. A lot of locker rooms, they go on a losing streak like that, and you’ll see it tear them apart. You’ll see a lot of giving up. You’ll see a lot of hopelessness. But our room, man, it just wasn’t like that at all. You’d see guys talking about a 50-50 ball they could have gotten, but they didn’t, and how can they fix that. You’d see guys talking about how many of our losses were by one score or less, and how we’re right there in these games. And to me that says a lot. You had this group of players that was going 0–16, and getting laughed at by the sports world. But in our locker room? It’s like those weren’t even 16 losses to us. They were just 16 missed opportunities.
Kevin Jairaj/USA TODAY Sports And if you want to know why Baker clicked so fast with this team last year, I think that’s your answer there too.
Most people, they probably think that Baker’s “welcome to the team” game came in one of those early comeback wins he led us to. But it wasn’t one of those. Actually, it wasn’t even a win.
It was Week 13 against the Texans. We were 4–6–1. They were 8–3, on an eight-game winning streak. Huge game for us. Needed a win to stay in the playoff race.
And they came out and they just punched us in the mouth. Baker threw three picks in the first half, I think. We all played terrible. And we ended up down 23–0.
But then at halftime of that game….. I remember, I watched Baker closely. Wanted to see what he was about, you know — in a real moment of adversity. And here’s what I saw: He didn’t get mad. He didn’t get frustrated. He wasn’t yelling at himself, or trying to blame other guys, or making some big kind of scene. At the same time, though, he also wasn’t faking it. He wasn’t on some fake positive vibe. Nah.
He just….. didn’t say a word.
That’s right. Baker didn’t say one word, that whole halftime. He just kept to himself, minded his own business, and got ready to go back out there. And it’s hard to explain how that works — you really have to know football, and know this team. But just by Baker not saying a word? It was almost like he was refusing to acknowledge that that half had even happened. Like he had the power to just….. reject it or something. It was wild. And whatever it was — coming out for the second half, he had this team FIRED. UP.
Baker went for like 350 yards in that second half, we scored a couple of touchdowns, plus we kept them out of the end zone on D….. and it wasn’t nearly enough. We lost — bad. 29–13. But that was one of those losses where, even in the moment, you could see a silver lining. Because guys came away from it knowing Baker was for real. They came away from it knowing we had a quarterback.
And since then….. I guess things have been a little crazy.
We won three in a row off of that Texans game. Almost reached the playoffs. Made strong moves all spring and summer. Traded for Odell. Our offense is getting more and more experience in Coach’s system. Our younger vets like myself are a year older, smarter, better. The city is rocking. It’s an exciting time for this organization.
And it’s shaping up to be one of those special seasons.
But before any of that gets started, you know, I really just wanted to write this down, and say a quick thank you to Cleveland, and Browns fans everywhere. I know it hasn’t always been easy. I know there’s been 0–16, and 1–15, and some tough years on top of that. But y’all have stuck with us the entire way. Y’all are THE best fans in the whole NFL. And whatever happens from now….. we’re going to take it one game at a time, together.
Because we’re the Cleveland Browns — and we’re not supposed to be here.
I will settle for nothing less than the Browns winning the Superbowl on a Scottish Hammer Drop Kick!
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
It felt as though the Cleveland Browns roster was deep enough that they would lose several players who they waived but that proved not to be the case
The roster of the Cleveland Browns was supposed to be packed full of talent, but the rest of the NFL chose to ignore most of the Browns available from waivers this week. Many analysts and fans, including this one, expected several Browns to be picked up from waivers.
That is, the expectation was that the Browns had more good players than roster spots, and so upwards of 60 players should make an NFL opening day roster, either for the Browns or as a waiver wire pickup for another team.
The opposite occurred, as only 47 players from summer camp made it to the Browns 53 player roster. Among the players cut or waived, only three were chosen for active rosters elsewhere in the league — four, if you count Duke Johnson, who was traded earlier in the summer to Houston for a draft pick.
Overall, only 51 players from the 90 player summer roster made it to an NFL opening somewhere in the league. That comes as a surprise.
Among those are four players who wound up on other teams.
Quarterback David Blough was worth an exchange of seventh-round picks to allow the Browns to move up in the seventh round. of the 2020 draft. So Detroit at least believed that he is good enough to justify a roster spot.
Tight end Seth DeValve was picked up from the Browns waiver wire by a new team (Jacksonville Jaguars).
Punter Britton Colquitt was cut rather than waived because of his veteran status. He has signed with the Minnesota Vikings. DPD does not know yet if his salary was discounted from the $2.7 million that the Browns had contracted for.
Two players who were cut made practice squad rosters for other teams (Trevon Coley with the Ravens and Brian Price with the Colts).
Your humble correspondent was among the group of writers and sportscasters who told you that the Browns were very deep this year and that, for example, the wideouts looked great with players like Jaelen Strong, Derrick Willies, and Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi.
However, no NFL team wanted any of these players for their 53 player roster. Willies found his way back to the Browns’ practice squad, but the other two players are still available to any team that wants them.
On defense, many analysts believed that there was a tough numbers game at linebacker, where the Browns could only afford to carry six players based on the expectation that they will use two-linebacker formations extensively this year. They had already given guaranteed money to six players (actually seven counting the $450,000 bonus charged to the 2019 cap for Ray-Ray Armstrong).
Yet Armstrong and Willie Harvey, though thought to be very deserving of being on an NFL roster, both cleared waivers. Harvey was signed to the Browns practice squad. Meanwhile, the Browns signed underachieving ex-Bengal linebacker Malik Jefferson rather than going with Harvey or Armstrong as the seventh linebacker.
Ditto for defensive linemen Carl Davis and Brian Price; cornerback Lenzy Pipkins; offensive lineman Bryan Witzmann; and kicker Greg Joseph.
They may get picked up later in the season, as rosters thin out due to injuries and attrition, but they were not thought of highly enough to make an NFL team’s opening day 53-player roster.
The Browns filled their 53 player roster with six players taken from other teams in the last few days. Three came by trade, at a total cost of four draft picks — guard Wyatt Teller, guard Justin McCray, and wide receiver Taywan Taylor. Three more were claimed from the waiver wire — linebacker Malik Jefferson, tight end Ricky Seals-Jones and receiver KhaDarel Hodge.
Hence, John Dorsey and the front office apparently agreed that there was a problem with depth and they did something about it. Draft picks are not free, especially when you are drafting players like Genard Avery and Mack Wilson in the late rounds. If there was a problem — and there was — it may have been largely corrected. Later they will have to ask why they did not get better results from undrafted free agents this year.
The actions of John Dorsey and the Browns show that they are going for it this year. Dorsey traded four future draft choices to shore up immediate deficiencies in depth. If the original roster was not as talented at the bottom end as we thought, they have tried to correct that issue immediately and at significant cost.
Moreover, though the bottom of the roster is the most arduous task for the general manager, everybody knows that the heavy lifting on the field is done by the big dawgs at the top of the roster. Baker Mayfield, Myles Garrett, Nick Chubb, OBJ, Denzel Ward, Joe Schobert, and company are the players who are most vital to the team performance right now. So it’s not like anyone needs to panic over second and third-string players not performing up to expectations.
Should Cleveland Browns fans lower their expectations?
by Elliot Kennel 2 days ago Follow @ebkennel
The Cleveland Browns enter the 2019 season with plenty of hype and playoff expectations, but should Browns fans lower their expectations for the season?
Should Cleveland Browns fans lower their expectations for 2019?
NO WE ARE NOT LOWERING OUR EXPECTATIONS! In fact, let us turn that around and ask why would anyone expect their team to not win the Super Bowl this year? What is wrong with your team if you have already given up before a single game has been played? It is a cliché but the logic is inescapable: Everyone is undefeated this time of the year. There is nobody planning to lose their next game.
If you have bet money that you can not afford to lose, because some little voice in your head is telling you the Browns are preordained to win it all this year, then yes you need help and should lower your financial risk. If you bet your house payment on Baker Mayfield having a big year for your fantasy football team, then you have a problem and should get help. But other than that, having high expectations is part of being a football fan. There is no need for anyone to apologize for it.
We can all do the math. 32 teams, and only one wins the Super Bowl. There are many more heartbreaking defeats than triumphs. If you can not deal with the prospect of defeat, perhaps football is not the sport for you.
Football is the most difficult game in the world. It is the most physically demanding game in the world, played in blazing heat and freezing cold. Players get knocked out and sent to the hospital routinely. That’s how difficult and demanding it is. But that is also a major part of what makes it great, and it demands that the team does everything in its power to win.
Knowing that, what kind of fans want their team to lose so that they can get a better draft pick next year? That is crazy talk. Maybe the director of player personnel thinks like that, but definitely not the players on the field. As fans, our first loyalty is always to the guys on the field.
Even when the Browns were 1-31, true fans wanted the team to win, and we felt the pain of each loss. That is never going to change. The goal and the expectation was always to win the next game, and the understanding has always been that someone else will get a chance if the team can not win.
This is part of our identity. Cleveland has always been an industrial town, populated by men and women who work hard, often wearing a hard hat and carrying a steel lunch pail. Yes there are doctors and lawyers and professors too, but once you set foot into FirstEnergy Stadium, the mentality changes. We are all united by the Cleveland Browns, and it doesn’t make any difference how much money you make or what kind of car you drive or any of that. That’s the way it has always been, and that is the way it will always be.
We expect that they will fight hard and fight smart. They will hit with everything they have, they will tackle and they will block like no other team in the NFL. AND WE EXPECT THE TEAM TO WIN.
But if they don’t win, we may have a few choice words for the coach and front office and even the owners. We are not lowering our expectations, and in fact that kind of talk makes no sense to Cleveland fans.
I'm not going to research it...but how many players from across the whole league were picked up after cuts from their training camp teams? I'd guess we were average to slightly above average.
BTW...he left out Brad Seaton who was picked up by Tampa Bay.
Here's a different take:
We had one QB that another team wanted;
We had one RB that another team wanted;
We had one TE that another team wanted;
We had one OL that another team wanted...and IR'd two guys;
No one wanted our cut WRs - THAT is a bit surprising to me. We IR'd one guy and have a suspended guy as well.;
We had two DL that other teams wanted. Zettel will soon make that three IMO;
No one wanted our castoffs at LB - not at all surprising;
No one wanted our discarded DBs...but we did IR a guy...and we kept 10 of them.
Someone wanted 50% of our punters.
The article was mostly, factually correct. Some of these writers should have a Browns fan review the articles before sending them out. Digging deeper like I did turns the table on the point of his article. JMO
I agree; i thought that our cut WRs would get some attention as well. Strong and Willies had shown enough to have roster spots IMO
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
The way I look at it is, the folks who post on this board are overall pretty good judges of talent. Folks who write about football for a living are usually pretty good at it too.
For the last 20 years have we been getting all hyped up on what a great team we have, only to be slapped in the face by reality during the season? No. For the most part the start of every season has been everyone pointing out how weak we are and how we're going nowhere, yet again.
So what makes this season different? It's blinding obvious to anyone with a hint of football knowledge that this team has way more talent than any Browns team in the last 20 years.
So even though it could go wrong (talented teams have failed in the past), believing the hype isn't foolish. Ignoring how good this team could be would be.
I also saw several scrolling across the screen on either ESPN or NFL Network the other day and those rankings were similar to the above links. Most have us at around 15 or 16. One of the above links had us at 13. I thought we would be higher than that. Not as high as some of you guys are saying, but higher than the middle of the pack.
I’ve seen some rankings of us between 15-20, which is probably due to our inexperience, first year HC, and offensive line. The hope is our defense can be stout enough for us to gain momentum on offense.
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
We are the Browns until we prove we aren't the Browns anymore. Last year was nice but it still wasn't a winning season even though it felt great to us because of the previous 2. It's up to us to show everyone things are different now.
I think middle of the pack is about right until we see how the season gets going.
This is a TALENT DRIVEN league ... we have a TON OF TALENT on this roster ... we have MORE TALENT than anyone else in this league does on our roster ... i challenged posters more than once during the off season for my fellow dawgs to find a roster with as much or more talent on it than ours .. i got ZERO TAKERS .... pretty sure we both know why ...
Relax and enjoy bro .... Barring injuries this season is gonna be one heck of a ride ... the only questions is how long will it last ....
QUIT OVERTHINKING THIS BRO .... the talent here is REAL ... its not like the last 20 years when ya’all thought we had way more than we did .... ya’all have gone the other way now .. *L* ...
RELAX AND ENJOY BRO .... this is gonna be FUN!!!!!!
we have alot to prove yet, have to start by beating anyone with a winning record first. I think everyone is kinda waiting to see how FK does. I'd venture to say we'd probably be ranked higher with a proven HC with any sort of track record. FK is the big unknown. Hope he does well, seems like a down to earth guy you want to root for, or buy a car from...whatever path he goes..lol
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday. -John Wayne
A few things at play here imo. First, teams generally have a Week 1 ranking that corresponds to their finishing rank from the previous season. The "author" may shift some of the power teams and churn the bottom of the barrel, but that's about it. We're in about the same place after adding OBJ, Vernon, Richardson, Hunt, and improving in all aspects except the offensive line. Along with having a QB that seems to be riding higher than the expected learning curve and going into his second year as the clear-cut starter.
Second, these rankings are about as valuable as a popularity contest until every team gets a few games under their belts and shows their true strengths and weaknesses.
Also - the Browns will again be one of the league's "feel good stories", the narrative is more exciting when we rise through the ranks rather than start near the top and struggle to stay there.
Let's be as honest as our coach though. "We look good on paper" IS worth nothing more than a "whoopty-hell" until we do something. Middle of the pack is about where we belong until it is shown that all the pieces fit.
We are the Browns until we prove we aren't the Browns anymore.
I was at a bar watching the game last night, and the guy next to me was a Browns fan, and said this, almost word for word. "We're the Browns until we aren't the Browns."
I get what he's saying, but we will always be the Browns. What we need need to do is to redefine what that means.
How does a league celebrating its 100th season only recognize the 53 most recent championships?
We are the Browns until we prove we aren't the Browns anymore.
I was at a bar watching the game last night, and the guy next to me was a Browns fan, and said this, almost word for word. "We're the Browns until we aren't the Browns."
I get what he's saying, but we will always be the Browns. What we need need to do is to redefine what that means.
Nice way to put it ... I agree. Every team/program/business/school/etc that has struggled needs a group of people to turn it around collectively ... it’s not easy, but I’m hoping this is the group that does it for us
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
I’ve seen some rankings of us between 15-20, which is probably due to our inexperience, first year HC, and offensive line. The hope is our defense can be stout enough for us to gain momentum on offense.
I believe our defense is truly a top 5 def. I also believe it will be the crux and backbone of this team.
Were this years version of the browns .... not last years version or the 0 - 16 or any other version of the browns .... this years version is MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE of all the other versions ...
Gee gad .... I give up ... *L* ... like that’ll ever happen .... i swear ... we could be accepting the SB trophy at the end of the year and some of u would still be doubters ... ...
I’ve seen some rankings of us between 15-20, which is probably due to our inexperience, first year HC, and offensive line. The hope is our defense can be stout enough for us to gain momentum on offense.
I believe our defense is truly a top 5 def. I also believe it will be the crux and backbone of this team.
I think it will play like a "top 5" when it needs to, and that's the important part. Not sure it will measure that way statistically. I feel like we might get into a few track meets. Huge plays on offense may lead to a tired defense knowing it just has to protect a lead. If the D plays consistently at a high level, this will be a very exciting year.
NFL network has a woman on who is a computer model specialist. Algorithms and computer modeling that crunch numbers from last year. Then she predicts the outcomes.
All very cute. Except it doesn't mean a damn thing.
How can anyone rank the teams without seeing them play at least one week?
There is not one team that has the roster it had last year. Not one.
In fact most teams change by a third.
So ranking? Based upon what the pre-season?
What a joke.
Let's see the first week at least then all of those meaningless gyrations can have at it. Players play the game they determine the outcomes not computers.
Rankings mean this: #6 beaten by #14. If you watched the first quarter of the Packers/Bears, you would think Rogers wouldn't complete a pass the entire game and that the Bears D would ensure a victory. If you watched the fourth quarter you would swear Trub would score on a comeback drive and tie the game. Neither happened. Rogers is Rogers and Trub threw an INT. #14 beats #6. New rankings next week. They're interesting in the perspective they give given the rosters and previous year's records. But that's it. The only thing that matters is who wins the most games including the final one of the football season.
"I am undeterred and I am undaunted." --Kevin Stefanski
"Big hairy American winning machines." --Baker Mayfield
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/hfMNC7T.jpg)
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