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I think if Cam runs much, he's going to get hit, and he's at an age and been injured so much that he'll be out very quickly if that's the plan.... I see more that Bill will coach Cam up to make simple / easy passes and use Cam's running on a very limited basis. It's going to be really interesting to see ...

Play with a lead, but also the way to play Jackson: keep him in the pocket, take away the middle of the field. Bring disciplined pressure. Hurry his throws, but try to only give him throws the outside where his accuracy suffers a lot.

We set this blueprint in 2018 and it has proven itself to work.

Agreed. It’d be awfully nice if we could negate Andrews somehow as well

We are going to find out what kind of coach Stefanski is week 1. I don't think we can beat the Ravens with just talent. It's going to take some type of strategy and game plan.

I'm anxious to see how Stefanski does.

I'm going to sound like I'm 'going after you' or something, but that's not my intent. I just think that's not a good line of thinking for week 1. There is a LOT of factors working against Stefanski right now... and on top of the craziness of this season is him being a 1st time HC. Even w/o the extremely limited preseason, he'd still be doing quite a bit of OJT.

I think that Week 1 is WAAAAY too early to feel like we've learned anything about anyone, this year.

I think by Week 9 we can feel like we've learned a little, but not Week 1 - unless the thing you're wanting us to learn is that the team simply didn't have enough time to properly prepare, but we already know that.

I think 5-6 wins this year would be a encouraging sign, can't win on talent alone and with no preseason and very limited offseason and camp, I think its just going to be too much to overcome this year. But if we see steady progress throughout the year I think that points to it going in right direction and we will be ready for next year. I think this year will be boom and bust, we'll have some games that make you go wow and some that remind you of every browns team since 99

I agree and disagree with both you and oob.

To be fair, one game is not enough to judge somebody's body of work and that wasn't my intent.

But on the one hand, I'm tired of excuses and want results (somewhat contrary to my Baker takes). First time head coach or not, we should see a sound game plan. They've had all off season to prepare for Baltimore. There are good players on this team. I don't think it's asking too much to see what all the hoopla about Stefanski is about. Is he organized? Do they appear to have a strategy to defend Lamar? Win or lose, was the game close?

Some of this is just out thinking your opponent. Some of it is certainly experience. But covid or not, I want to see a good showing by the coaching staff. If they don't, we'll chalk it up to lack of experience and move on and hope it improves over the course of the season.

We found out pretty quick with Freddie that he wasn’t up for the task.

I think there is a LOT to be learned right away from week 1. That doesn't mean it's a final verdict or judgement ... and what we learn my change over the course of the following weeks.

It's a tough first game and we are overwhelming underdogs for multiple reasons. That said:

Does the team and coaching staff look like they are prepared?
Do the coaches look calm, coordinated and on the same page?
Are game day decisions and any curve balls being handled in an intelligent fashion.
Conversely does it look like there is any knee jerk reactions/decisions?
Does it look like the play calling is balanced? And what happens after the first scripted two drives are over?
If we don't execute - what do we see from players and coaches?
If we do execute - are we good enough to finish?

One of the very biggest things I will look for .... do we look and play with DISCIPLINE ??? I'm expecting OL issues ... some movement and some holding and some blown assignments. Can't help that with the changes we've seen, the Pre-season we've had ... but there is more to playing with discipline on BOTH sides of the ball than OL penalties.

j/c:

Not asking anyone to agree w/me, but I don't want to hear excuses this year. I'm tired of excuses. The Browns are the ones that have fired multiple GMs and coaches. They are the ones directly responsible for the constant turnover of rosters because we are always bringing in new front office guys and coaches.

Just win. And if you don't win, shut the hell up! Tired of lame-ass excuses.

I think that every one of those things is something that evolves and improves as a team and coaching staff gets more time together. Additionally, I think those are all things that can be up and down week-to-week.

What we see in regard to those, particularly following this weird offseason, is FAR from being the book written in regard to these things. It is simply the perceived state of things for that week, on that day.

I’ve never seen a more damning performance of a coach than week 1 last year

Some people feel the reality of the situation are excuses. In actuality they are facts. We do have an entire new coaching staff. We do have new systems being installed on both sides of the ball. That is a daunting task to accomplish in a single, normal off season. The time to accomplish these things has been extremely limited which creates a much more complicated situation.

This is a season that in realistic terms will start slow and be a work in progress as the season progresses. I think anyone calling for more than that are setting the stage for calling for an excuse to start attacking Stefanski and the FO prematurely.

I don't disagree.

I guess my bar is so low after Hue and Freddy, that I am thinking in my head I want to see better in all those categories than we saw with Freddie. I didn't specifically type that - so maybe it seemed like I am expecting it to be a complete product week 1 ... I am not. I am expecting some struggles along the way. But I do expect, right out of the gate, the team to look more cohesive and like they aren't reacting to every situation like they are surprised and no-one discussed what to do if "X, Y or Z happened" .... like it did under Freddie.

In any other season, I'd concede that there is something you can take away from a Week 1; not this year. This year, it's just a data point whose only context is that these guys have barely worked together, at all, at this point. The only thing we are likely to learn is more questions. We definitely will not have any answers.

I agree with you as far as the Browns are, as a whole, especially when it comes to Haslam. He's directly responsible for a lot of the disasters we've had since he bought the team.

I'll give Stefanski some leeway, but I'd like to make sure he doesn't make boneheaded decisions, like we've seen in the past. I expect some stumbling blocks up front, but consistent improvement as well.

Berry has shown us a little more with his offseason moves, so I'd like to see how those work out as well.

One thing is for sure though...I think we're all tired of losing.

I hear you (and others) about the tired of excuses part. No argument there. Along the lines of what you're saying, there are certainly things I'll be paying attention to during game 1 that will tell us about KS the HC. I hope to be able to see the basic idea behind the offense (and defense). Team discipline and intensity is something I'll be looking for.

To your point, I'm NOT going to be like, "well, they didn't get an offseason so the games kinda don't count". I'll be looking for things that should inform as to the type of coach KS will be... but in order to do that we have to look beyond the final result, and even how the team looks on the field.

FREDDIE IS REDDIE

Good for Baker. I approve of that attitude.

* Baker is just being a Baker apologist...

Agreed. That's the attitude needed. I hope he maintains that attitude when things get bumpy (I think he will).

That said, I think the offense is going to get out to a slow start. I'm dreading this Balt game.

I don't know that I'd say dreading, but all the uncertainty definitely has me a little anxious.

Particularly the banged up, new look secondary and the JC Tretter situation along with new OTs. I'm not as worried about the LBs. Maybe I should be. We'll see soon.

Same here.

He also knows just how good his weapons are. I still can't believe we have Hunt and Chubb, along with Hooper, OBJ, and Landry.

Pat Shurmur. 2011. Week 1 vs the Bengals. When the defense was standing around while the Bengals lobbed an easy TD into the endzone. Knew at that moment this wasn't the guy.

I'd managed to erase Pat from my memories ... that's not a good memory to rekindle!