DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Are The Browns A .500 Team?

The Browns are 5-11 until the regular season starts.

Anyting else is just off season hype. Nothing matters until September.


right now I think the Browns will win fewer than expected games and the expectation is somewhere around 6 games.
If the Browns go 4-12, 5-11, or 6-10, I think they will be hitting on most expectations.
how did I arrive at that, well ask myself, are they more likely 1-15, or 15-1, well 15-1 is probably 1 in a million, while 1-15 is probably about 1 in 70 chance.

ok, 2-14 or 14 and 2, well 14 and 2 is probably 1 in a quarter million while 2 and 14 is probably 1 in 40 chance.
these are all just my own impressions of the upcoming seasons expectations

I see us winning between 6 and 9 games. Anything more/less would disappoint/shock me.

I think that the single best thing that happened this year is that we kept the coaching staff intact and didn't change coordinators or anything rash like that.

That gives a lot of these guys more than a foothold of what is going on, what their job is, and what is to be expected.

There will be a large contingent of players that know what training camp is all about. There is a culture in place that values teamwork and working hard. This stuff doesn't need to be established, we don't have to root out bad apples, the locker room is already pretty much on the same page.

We brought in a capable leader at teh QB position. We have a full stable of running backs. We have the same wide-receivers, but with a year more experience in the system, and we brought in a capable te to compete and work with E. Moore to provide Delhomme with a big target.

The defense looks to be improved, but 3 rookies possibly starting in the secondary will be a work in progress. Our DL is a little thin, but if it holds up it will be fine. We have loads of LB's that will be playing all over the place.

I am excited about the team this year. I think that the Browns, of all teams, will be really interesting to watch seeing as how last year played out, and the new blood we brought in to go with all the established guys.

The end of last year was a good sign---cuz the guys could of just packed it in and went through the motions----but they didn't. And they played harder than the opponent for something like 16 straight quarters.

So I think that 6-9 wins is realistic this year. 6 being about right for the talent we have, given that we haven't seen it on the field. 9 being amazing b/c no sane person could ever expect that kind of turnaround in Cleveland of all places.

I agree Tyler, anything more than 10 losses would be a bummer year, I want to see improvement even if it is just one more win than last year. I want to see signs that this team is moving forward not just stagnating in the same pool we've been paddling around in for a decade so far.

Even with the youth injection in the secondary, with Sheldon Brown I think our secondary will have a veteran presence that can assert itself rather than the kind of veteran presence we're used to bringing in who goes through the motions and ends up playing nickel back. We will most likely have a rookie starting at safety, and if Elam doesn't impress in camp we could have two (unless we start Mike Adams, or Brown, at Safety...) rookies starting at safety. That would be okay if Asante continues to shine in training camp and the pre- season.

The question marks are our D-line, which is aging and really has little to no depth. And our WR's which is very young and has little to no depth. The rest of the team, I think we'll be okay. Overall, with Mangini initiating an attitude of hard play on the team, hopefully we'll be able to scrap a couple extra wins together as opposed to last season when we lost pretty much every close game we had it seemed.

I find it amazing how many people seem to be forgetting about the most dismal football that any of us have ever seen after the first twelve weeks of the season last year. Not to mention one of the ugliest wins i have ever saw against the bills. I want to remind everyone that last year after everything was said and done the Browns were 31st on offense and 31st on defense. I do agree that they should be a better team this year then last year. Personally I will be judging them on how much they do to improve those stats. I feel the team is most likely to only have 5 wins this year but would even be happy if they only get 4 if the improve how they did on offense and defense. I like the changes that have been made at the top of the organization, and feel that they can build a good team. but the realality still is that they still need a few more years to develop. Especially since we have spent so many years starting over. Like everyone else Hope springs eternal and I hope they do better then reality tells me they will. GO BROWNS ! ! !

Jake Delhomme has to face 3 Top 10 defenses 6 times this year.....minus guys like DeAngelo Williams and Jonathon Stewart and Steve Smith.

j/c,....I'm not sure this deserved it's own thread, so this is not a hijack, but putting it here to help fit in with .500 expectations,....maybe the continuity will help get there (?)

EVERY GAME this year is at 1 P.M....,....without exception. I found that strange,....

No doubt, but the bigger factor is, the farthest West we travel is New Orleans, and the team from next farthest is KC (home game). Luck of the draw this year, playing the NFC South and AFC East,...

That was way too positive,...

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The Browns are 5-11 until the regular season starts.

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Actually the Browns WERE 5-11 last year.. right now they are 0-0 just like everybody else.. that's what NFL.com says too under Standings....

AFC North Team W L T Pct
Baltimore Ravens 0 0 0 .000
Cincinnati Bengals 0 0 0 .000
Cleveland Browns 0 0 0 .000
Pittsburgh Steelers 0 0 0 .000

The Browns are a .500 +- 2 games team this year. It will all depend on how they start the season.

Exactly. If we're over .500 for week 6, and beat the steelers with rothiswhatis' return, we'll be kicking some butt this year.

James Walker had this to say in his AFC North blog in response to this article posted by the Baltimore Sun.

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Are the Cleveland Browns a four-win team this season?

Morning take: I'm not sure I'm ready to go that low. But I agree that, barring some major preseason injuries, I'm likely picking Cleveland to finish last in the division.

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Now, the heavy bias in that Raven's Insider report aside. I do believe that the Cleveland Fans and the Cleveland Media are probably divided over if we are a .500 team or not (as this thread has clearly proven) but 4-12?

I think we can all agree our expectations, realistically, are higher than that!

Sportswriter's predictions in July don't mean jack.
For what it's worth, SI's Peter King had the Saints ranked around 20th or something before last season and we know how that worked out.

Just looked it up. King had the Saints at 24th for 2009.

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,....maybe the continuity will help get there (?)

EVERY GAME this year is at 1 P.M....,....without exception. I found that strange,....

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I believe this is a bonus. Mangini preaches consistancy, this can only help. At least that's the way I choose to look at it. How many times last year did we here about odd game times messing with players schedules. Even with our veteran additions this year (Fujita, Brown, Delhomme, etc.) we are still a pretty young team.

Having every game at 1 allows us to get our guys into a pattern.

Now if we are lucky/good enough to have a game switched late in the yr., we will have to heavily depend on those vets. mentioned.