Yesterday, Browns’ GM John Dorsey said he didn’t like the hype surrounding the 2019 edition of the team.
After second round draft pick Greedy Williams proclaimed the Browns were going to the Super Bowl after they drafted him, head coach Freddie Kitchens told people he was going to talk to the rookie and explain that his team wasn’t going to behave like that.
Really, both Dorsey and Kitchens were telling everyone, fans included, not to get carried away.
And they are right.
We get it. The Browns have been a doormat for so long, people are excited that finally there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Since Bernie Kosar was released in 1993, Cleveland football fans have waited for a franchise quarterback, and it appears they picked one last year in Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield’s a natural born leader, and he can play the position as well, throwing for an NFL tying record of 27 touchdown passes, as well as displaying uncanny accuracy.
On the other hand, he’s started all of 13 games, and the only playoff team he guided the team to a win against was the Baltimore Ravens. And the score of that game was 12-9 in overtime.
This isn’t to doubt Mayfield. We believe he will develop into one of the top passers in the NFL and it could be as early as next season. But those are the facts.
Without question, the Browns have added a lot of talent from last year’s roster, which did make a quantum leap to 7-9 from 0-16 in 2017.
Dorsey acquired an elite wide receiver in Odell Beckham Jr., a very good pass rusher in Olivier Vernon, and a solid defensive tackle in Sheldon Richardson. Those were the biggest additions in the free agent/trade market.
And the expectation is the rookie Williams will team with Denzel Ward to give the Browns a pair of shutdown cornerbacks, which is a great thing to have in today’s pass happy NFL.
We like Kitchens too, and he did a great job with the offense in the second half of last season, but he’s never been a head coach at the NFL level, so he is another unproven commodity.
We do like that he did things the players were comfortable with and putting the players in positions where they can succeed is one of the basic rules of coaching.
But how does he handle losing two games in a row, or three out of four. Does he keep the team together and maintain the players’ faith in him.
We feel Kitchens will handle it fine, but until it happens, it is up for question.
The biggest thing the GM and the coach are guarding against is a sense of accomplishment. Despite all of the excitement around the area and the country, the Browns are still a team that has made one playoff appearance since 1994.
The fans should be excited. This promises to be the beginning of a renaissance for a once proud franchise, one of the NFL’s flagships up until the franchise was moved.
On the other hand, for the players, this is a squad with something to prove. They’ve done nothing. No playoff wins for 25 years.
Dorsey and Kitchens want to remind them it takes a lot of work to become a playoff team. And that’s what they should do.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 