DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Gameday vs Chicago Winnable ?

Should be a good game

AFCN vs NFCN


The Bears are coming off a loss to the Packers. who lead the NFCN with a 4-0 win against the division. The Bears are in the second spot behind the Packers. The Bears are also 1-3 in the NFCN which a win against the Browns will help their win / loss record, but won't help them improve in their division.

The Browns, well it doesn't matter any longer for a play-off hope. A win helps with building new hope and culture.

The Bears lead the league in interceptions at 18.

The Bears OL are a top rated pass blocking line and also have a very good rushing offense.

And it's a home field advantage, which the Browns' last-away game win was against The Raiders on November 23rd. And before that it was against the Jags on September 15th of 24.

The Browns are coming off a loss to a 1 win team. Sanders showed improvement and put up some good numbers, as again the Browns Defense and ST's failed.

The whole getting Myles his record was the reason the defense failed. It's not about personal records, it's about team results. If that mentality sticks with the Bears game. It won't be pretty.

Caleb Williams holds onto the ball more than most QB's. If the Browns Defense plays team ball and just let things go their way. The Defense could have a good day as a team and not a Myles agenda.

Caleb Is not very consistent, which could again help. The Browns run D has to get back to where it was. If so, that will be a big factor.

If Sanders can be consistent and the Browns can establish a run game. Then they have a slight chance to pull off an upset.

The Browns have to score more than 20 points.

The injury report will also be a big factor in the game along with coaching.

As much as I, along with most of you. I want to see a win.

I will say, I don't think this one will be. Will root for the upset .

I will reiterate that I want us to win every game. However, in our next 4 games i really don't see us winning any more than one the Bengals game. The other 3 teams are fighting for a playoff spot we're not. I want to see Shedeur continue to make progress and Myles break the sack record. That's all that's left for this season. If we lose the next 3, we might as well lose the last game too. Sad that nearly all of our seasons since 1999 end up this way. Maybe with the right moves we'll have something to root for next December.

Ex NFL QB Shaun King was on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show yesterday he said the Browns should move forward next year with Sanders. Says before Sanders started at QB the Browns did not think they had any weapons. Sanders becomes QB and Jerry Jeudy starts to make a few plays, Isaiah Bond is now ok he has potential all of a sudden, the Browns Oline has given Sanders have 3+ seconds in the pocket, and a few big plays that have been missing all season have started happening. He said that is not a coincidence and he has seen enough to convince him the Browns should move forward at least next year with Sanders. He said he is not perfect and has things he needs to work on like holding the ball too long. But he has shown he is coachable, throws the ball away when nothing is there, he is stepping up in the pocket like a pro, and goes thru his progressions. He showed film of the long touchdown to Jeudy and he was the 3rd read on that play and broke down his eyes and how he went thru the progressions. He did say he will have at least 1 bad game yet this year. Said it is a tough job QB'ing in the NFL if Mahommes can have 4 int day don't expect Sanders not to but feels strongly the Browns may have something in Sanders. It was a good interview it is on youtube if you want to watch it.

What King says makes sense. Again, too many things are up in the air. Where will we be picking, what QBs are coming out, how Shedeur plays the rest of the way etc. We'll know a lot more in a month or 2.

I'm not saying King is wrong but it's far too early to make that call based on one fairly good game.

I don't see us winning (the Bears somehow became good at some point this year).

That said, I wouldn't mind our defense taking out some of its embarrassment from last week on Chicago. As others have mentioned, I hope to see Sanders continue to look promising and not take any major steps back in terms of bad habits. Him showing he can be a competent starter (if not more) would be such a weight lifted off of the upcoming off-season.

I was quite surprised to find that according to FOX Sports, Chicago's overall defense is ranked 27th. Their pass defense is ranked 21st giving up an average of 224.8 yards passing per game and a total of 27 td. passes on the season.

Their run defense is ranked 27th giving up an average of 132.5 yards per game rushing and a total of 12 rushing td's.

They are giving up an average of 25.8 points per game and have given up a total of 41 td's.

I actually thought this would be a test of how Sanders would perform a against a good defense but it seems I was mistaken about that.

I don't think that takes away from the fact we all hope to see him continue with the improvements we saw from him last week.

https://www.foxsports.com/articles/nfl/2025-nfl-defense-rankings-team-pass-and-rush-stats

I think it is pretty obvious. Let Shedeur play his way out of drafting a QB. Win games!

The Browns lose all four games they are predicted to pick first or second. They win just two games, and they fall near the tenth pick. Very pricey to move up.

I don't think it is impossible. Sanders improves his timing; this entire offense improves. The Bears, Steelers, and Bengals all have a mediocre defense.

I understand the thought process there. I believe everyone hopes Sanders can prove we don't need to draft a QB. That would certainly be the ideal scenario. But I also think we should all keep in mind that with no more starts than he will have, to at least some degree that's a pretty small sample size to determine the Browns future at the QB position on. And here is why I feel that way.

If in fact they roll with Sanders, it will certainly make it easier to upgrade the OT and WR positions. On the surface that certainly appears to be a wonderful option. But IMO if Sanders proves to be a below average starter after gambling on passing up drafting a QB in this draft it will pose an even bigger problem.

Just having a QB who doesn't suck would be somewhat of an improvement over what we have seen in the recent past. So if Sanders ends being "a guy" instead of "the guy" that will still be better. However improvements on the OL and WR positions alone would make for a better offense. A better offense will equate to more wins. More wins will mean the Browns will be drafting further down in the draft order making it even more expensive and hard to draft a QB early in the draft.

For me that's what the real gamble is here. If Sanders shows "just enough" to prevent the Browns from drafting a QB in the top 5 this year based on such a small sample size it may very well mean the Browns will be stuck in mediocrity for years to come. Not good enough to win the division but just good enough to have us drafting later in the draft.

I have no idea whether that would be the outcome or not. None of us can truly know the answer to that. But far too often I think most of us can agree we've seen teams take a risk on "potential" that never quite seems to be reached. They have talent and certainly seem to be headed in the right direction. But as it turns out they peak before the potential you saw glimpses of ever reaches the point you thought it would.

It could be Sanders shows enough to convince this FO not draft a QB. As a result he may turn out to be a great QB. The future may be so bright we gotta wear shades! But it's a small sample size and the risk of such a decision would be great.

I'm certainly not going to weigh in, at least not at this juncture, on which direction I would lean one way or the other on such a decision. Even with the short time frame left in the season there's more left for us to see from Sanders that what we have seen thus far.

Like I've said before, I'm certainly glad I'm not the one making this decision and I'm guessing all of you are glad I won't be making this decision either.

There's that immediate gratification fans would get from winning more games now. Then there's the long term goal of reaching and winning a SB. I just hope the powers that be are thinking long term goals first when making this decision.

I think his toughest tests will be Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

If the Browns fall to the 8th or 10th spot in the draft, it'll cost them in future #1 picks to move up.

In my opinion, this draft doesn't have as many elite talent guys (LT, Edge, 3-tech DT, CB) as the last draft. Last year was not great. Getting a team to trade from 2 to 8 will be a tall order in my opinion.

I've always thought the future Browns QB would be either Mendoza, Simpson, Moore, or Sanders. Sanders was the dark horse, but he received a full year of development in the NFL. That'll definitely improve his odds.

At 8 or 10, I would not be upset taking LaNorris Sellers. He has more athletic skill. Can his mental game be fixed! I would take a chance on him over a LT or WR.

I get it but where are you getting "8th to 10th" from? As of now that seems highly unlikely.

But given your scenario there are certainly variables that will help determine which way they go in the draft. One being that if Sanders wins 2 of his next 4 starts, which may actually put them at #10 in the draft, They may see a trade up scenario unneeded. But I still have to ask you, how would winning a few more games next year finding out we don't have the answer at QB not cost us even more to draft that QB later?

Unless Sanders is determined to be a pretty sure bet as the future starter, making the O somewhat better will only lead to mediocrity moving forward costing them even more to move up in the draft for a QB in the future.

Yes, and we could easily fall to 8-10. One more win and that's nearly guaranteed.

See this bottleneck at 3-10? The tie-breaker is based on strength of schedule (SOS), and ours is about to get a lot tougher. Right now we're in the four spot based on the fact that we have the most losses accumulated while enjoying the easiest schedule. That will change down the stretch with opponents like the Bears, Bills and Steelers. I definitely didn't do the intricate math, but only the Jets have a tougher schedule.

Long story short, having a tougher schedule right now is punitive, even if we lose.

There is a bottleneck of teams with 2 and 3 wins. See Fate's picture above. Fate is correct on "Strength of Schedule" (SOS). Two wins can definitely shift the Browns out of the picture. I don't remember, but a few of the 2- and 3-win teams play each other.

It'll be worth watching the last four weeks to see how things play out!

An interesting game is Cleveland vs Cincinnati. Do both teams try to lose to get the better pick?

The easy route for Berry will be to trade down if we can get another 1st next year.

That way we can get a better read on Sanders, puts us in a position to get a QB next year, and eliminates the frenzy that will occur with both Sanders and a new #1 pick QB on the roster next season.

When you select a QB at number 1 high in the draft you are telling the world that he is your QB. Seeing Sanders another season will cement his fate as to what people think of the guy. If he plays well, then he is your guy and we don't need to draft a QB. If he is a middle of the road guy or worse then moving on from him will be easy.

Maybe a bit off topic, but if getting picks is a goal, Garretts value is as high as it gets. If behind closed doors he asks for a trade, I trade him. I might even try to work out a trade and ask if he wants to be traded to a contender. He's a great player. A top 10 player in Browns history, no doubt. As great as he is, it hasn't helped us win many games. As great as he is I would rather be cheering for the Browns to win playoff games over rooting for a player to get a sack record while we are sitting on 3 wins this late in the season. I want 3 wins by week 4.