This is the year for Cleveland Browns to win the Super Bowl: Hayden Grove
https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2021/09...yden-grove.htmlCLEVELAND, Ohio – Here’s what already happened. You read the headline of this piece, thought to yourself, “Oh goodness, Hayden is giving his official prediction that the Browns will win the Super Bowl,” and you’re here to confirm that notion.
Right?
Well, I’m here to burst your bubble. That is not at all my intention in writing this piece.
Let’s address it right now.
Can the Browns win the Super Bowl? Yes.
Will the Browns win the Super Bowl? Well, that’s a little bit up to them, a little bit up to fate.
Now, let’s address my real point: the 2021 Browns give Cleveland its best shot to win a Super Bowl.
That doesn’t mean they will and it doesn’t mean they won’t. It simply means, as stated, this current Browns team is Cleveland’s best shot to bring a Lombardi Trophy to Northeast Ohio.
Of course, the future is an unknown and we will certainly address that, but here’s what we do know about the 2021 Browns.
For the first time in my memory, and probably yours too, the Browns are bringing back their entire core coaching staff from the year prior.
They’re bringing back the reigning NFL Coach of the Year in Kevin Stefanski, they’re bringing back offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, defensive coordinator Joe Woods, offensive line coach Bill Callahan, receivers coach Chad O’Shea, running backs coach Stump Mitchell, etc.
The continuity and familiarity within Cleveland’s coaching staff is an absolute rarity and something unlikely to be duplicated any time soon.
That continuity makes the communication so much better and with good communication comes good preparation and good relationships.
The Browns also return their entire starting offense from a year ago, which includes their franchise quarterback, Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield is coming off his best season in the NFL with a better-than 3:1 touchdown to interception ratio, over 3,500 yards through the air and a career-high 95.9 QB rating.
It’s been well-documented over his three years in Cleveland that Mayfield has been through four head coaches and multiple offensive coordinators. The same can be said going back to his college days in Oklahoma, when Lincoln Reilly took over for Bob Stoops as the head coach before Mayfield’s final season.
Never has Mayfield returned to the same head coach, the same offensive coordinator and the same starting offense … until now.
With the entire offense and coaching staff back, plus a year of experience in a system suited for his strengths, Mayfield is poised for his biggest season yet.
Furthermore, the weapons surrounding Mayfield for another year are second-to-none.
Cleveland’s offensive line, featuring Jedrick Wills, Joel Bitonio, JC Tretter, Wyatt Teller and Jack Conklin, is widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, units in the NFL. They’ll again protect Mayfield and pave the way for Nick Chubb, who rushed for over 1,000 yards in just 12 games a year ago, and Kareem Hunt, who wasn’t far behind with over 800 rushing yards.
Then comes a deep receiving unit that brings back a rested, recovered, rejuvenated and ready Odell Beckham Jr.; a team leader and reliable weapon who caught 72 passes for 840 yards last year in Jarvis Landry; Donovan Peoples-Jones, who was perhaps Cleveland’s best player in camp; and Rashard “Hollywood” Higgins, who Mayfield has developed quite a chemistry with over their years in Cleveland.
It’s well-documented Mayfield loves his tight ends and, yes, Austin Hooper, David Njoku and Harrison Bryant are all back and at his disposal in the red zone and beyond.
Add to all that a do-it-all rookie in Demetric Felton and the Browns offense is set to be one of the best in the NFL.
It’s hard to imagine this will ever happen again for the Browns -- that they’ll bring back the exact same, talent-filled unit for another year.
Teller, Njoku and Higgins are set to be free agents in 2022 and there are always questions about Beckham’s future in Cleveland. Coaches come and go and any of the Browns assistants could move on to other jobs.
Who knows what the future holds, but the talent and continuity should make the offense very, very, for lack of a better term, dangerous.
Defensively, the coaches are the same, but most of the roster is completely different from the 2020 season, which is exactly what was needed.
After the defense struggled mightily at times, Cleveland will likely be using nine new starters, some of which may only be around for the short term. Eight Browns defenders are on one-year deals, including some big-time contributors such as Jadeveon Clowney, Anthony Walker Jr., Takkarist McKinley, Malik Jackson and Malcolm Smith.
While McKinley, Jackson and Smith are surely replaceable in the future, Clowney and Walker Jr. are rare commodities in the NFL and each could be in line for a big pay day elsewhere in 2022.
This will very likely be the only time Cleveland is equipped with two former No. 1 overall selections -- Clowney and Myles Garrett-- bookmarking their defensive line and rushing the quarterback together. It may also be the only year a young, cerebral, athletic linebacker like Walker leads this talented defense, featuring some of the league’s best at their position in Garrett, Denzel Ward and John Johnson III.
When looking at the Browns on paper, the talent is there, the continuity is there, the maturation is there, the experience is there and the leadership is there.
Certainly, it’s about putting each of those traits together on the field, but it appears this Browns team has its priorities in order. They go about their business in a professional, detail-oriented way. They’re not talking the way they have in years prior about just how good they might be, choosing instead to let the work and the on-field product do the talking.
They’re entering the season extremely healthy, after spending camp appropriately dictating how much certain players would see the field with an extra regular season game on the schedule.
Most importantly, from GM Andrew Berry to Stefanski to the last player on the practice squad, they seem to have a collective mindset focused on nothing more than working and winning.
Fans have high expectations for the Browns, but there are still plenty of memories that haunt them and won’t allow them to believe in this team the way they should.
Those memories should have been erased the minute the ball traveled over Ben Roethlisberger’s head and into the end zone at Heinz Field and a new era of Browns football began.
Last year’s team was good, but this year’s team should be better in nearly every facet (maybe minus the kicking situation).
There’s no reason they can’t beat the Chiefs and/or the Bills or any other team on their way to their first Super Bowl appearance. There’s no reason they can’t beat any NFC team they face in Los Angeles and bring home the Lombardi Trophy to a sea of overjoyed, overwhelmed Browns fans.
It’s OK to dream about what would be the most incredible Super Bowl parade this country has ever seen, because this is the most capable Browns team in franchise history of accomplishing that feat.
Sure, Cleveland’s core players are under contract for at least a couple more years, which means they should continue to be Super Bowl contenders, but there’s no guarantee on what can happen from year to year.
That’s exactly why this Browns team is Cleveland’s best chance to bring home a Super Bowl.