Don’t Overreact When It Comes To The Browns.

We try to wait a few days after a Browns game before we comment because football by its nature is an emotional sport, and we feel we can more accurately discuss what happened by waiting an extra couple of days.

There is no question Cleveland football fans should feel disappointed this season. The Browns are no longer the 1-15 or 0-16 squad in terms of talent. This team has many very good players, but sometimes things don’t work out.

And we know that frustrates the hell out of many fans.

A few things we’ve seen the past few days put things in “perspective”.

First, the Browns have lost six games by six points or less this season, and it would have been seven had not Najee Harris went 37 yards in a short yardage burst at the end of Monday night’s loss to Pittsburgh.

Cleveland has played 16 games this year, and had a solid chance to win 14 of them. That should be an encouraging sign.

We also read that over 80 field goals were missed in the NFL this season (and not all of them by Chase McLaughlin). Only one of those misses came against the Browns. That would seem to be an anomaly.

Sometimes the breaks go against you. Sometimes the injury bug bites. We know about the injury issues the Baltimore Ravens have had since training camp, but the Browns had the least number of players who were active for all of the first 16 games of the season.

Through the first five games of the season, the Browns were rolling. They were 3-1 going into Los Angeles for a game against the Chargers, and put up 42 points and 531 total yards in a 47-42 loss. After that, the offense disappeared.

That was also the game Jack Conklin was injured and basically missed the rest of the season, and the Browns primary offensive line back up, Chris Hubbard, was already out for the year.

We believe all fans of struggling football teams have a go to move when assessing blame for a poor season: The head coach and the quarterback. Cleveland is no different.

Folks seem to forget Kevin Stefanski is in just his second season as a head coach. Are they better at their current job than they were after the second year of doing it? Of course.

Stefanski probably would like some do-overs this season, but we are confident he will continue to get better and grow with the position. Remember, the guys who hired him are still in place, and we doubt they have lost confidence in him.

As for Baker Mayfield, he seemed to be playing very well in the first two weeks, before he was injured. Should he have continued to play? That’s a second guess right now. We wanted to play and the team officials deemed him okay to go.

We aren’t going to pretend he played well down the stretch.

We mentioned the Chargers game earlier. Including that contest, Cleveland ran for at least 150 yards in each game to that point, and exceeded 200 yards twice.

After that game, the Browns rushed for 150 yards just four times in 11 games, exceeding 200 only in the Christmas Day loss to Green Bay.

The entire offense seemed to sag with the running game, Mayfield included.

That said, should Andrew Berry look to upgrade at QB? Yes, the same as he should look to get better at every other position. Can he get someone better than Baker Mayfield? Maybe he can. Maybe he can get someone who fits better or can be more consistent.

One caveat. Does Mayfield have the “yips”? Has he lost confidence in himself? We’ve seen the films of receivers being open, but the QB not being able to pull the trigger. If that’s the case, the Browns’ front office may have no choice.

Make no mistake, the front office needs to shore up both the wide receiver and tight end positions no matter who the quarterback is. We like David Njoku and Harrison Bryant as receivers, but neither are in the upper echelon of their position right now, and certainly, none of the wide outs are.

The Browns aren’t a bad football team. A few tweaks and some better health and they should be making another run at a playoff spot in 2022.

Fortunately, Andrew Berry and Paul DePodesta don’t have the same mindset as fans. And that’s a good thing.

Relax, Browns Fans. It’s One Game

To be sure, no one in northeast Ohio thought the Cleveland Browns would lose by 30 points in week one of the 2019 NFL schedule.

After all kinds of optimism, including here, over the weekend, the Tennessee Titans pounded the Browns 43-13 at First Energy Stadium.

We are hearing the squeals of panic from both fans and media alike after the performance, with many focusing on the 20 penalties (two were declined) called on the brown and orange, saying it is a sign of the undisciplined ways of Freddie Kitchens.

We heard Kitchens say pretty much at every halftime during the pre-season complaining about the amount of penalties on his team, so we are pretty sure he doesn’t condone them.

Our thought at the time was that it was reserves committing the fouls, because let’s face it, the Browns didn’t play a lot of starters in the games that don’t count.

And we also doubt Kitchens told Greg Robinson to kick someone or Myles Garrett to slap someone in the face.

On the other hand, if the Browns are penalized 10 or more times next Monday night against the Jets, then an eyebrow should be raised. Until that happens, let’s consider that the flags in the opener were a blip on the radar, or perhaps the result of one of the NFL’s terrible officiating crews.

We are frequent critics of the league’s officials, mostly because they are terribly inconsistent and selective. Perhaps the crew on Sunday interpreted the way the Browns did some things (not the kicking or slapping) as penalties and another crew won’t.

Remember, the same crew ignored a play clock violation for two or three seconds on Titans’ punt. Who knows what they were watching then?

That said, there were definitely some issues with the opening game.

It seemed that Kitchens got caught up in playing with his new toys, and ignored one of the biggest reasons for the Browns’ success in the second half of last season.

Nick Chubb carried the ball just 17 times for 75 yards, but just six times in the first half. Only one of those carries was for negative yards, and two of the totes went for 10 and 9 yards.

The offensive line was a problem too. Cameron Wake ran around RT Chris Hubbard several times, and when Robinson was ejected, it put the offensive line in shambles.

If your offensive line is an issue, doesn’t running the ball successfully take some pressure off the unit?

But let’s not forget this was a 15-13 game with two minutes to go in the third quarter. It’s not like they were blown out from the get go. The screen pass to Derrick Henry for 75 yards after Cleveland made it a two point game was the back breaker.

The Browns got impatient after that. Baker Mayfield forced a couple of throws, both were picked off, and the rout was on. Mayfield could’ve used some patience. There was still a quarter to play and it was just a two score game.

Plenty of time to come back.

We get that there was a lot of anticipation going into the season, and it was a kick in the head (no pun intended, Greg Robinson) for not only the fans, but also for the Browns.

Remember this, when the Browns beat the Steelers 51-0 in the season opener in 1989, the Steelers went 9-7 and made the playoffs.

It’s just one game. Again, if we see the same thing next Monday night against the Jets, then it could be a problem.

Free Agency Frenzy Improves Browns

Since last Friday afternoon, GM John Dorsey is remaking the Cleveland Browns with a series of trades and free agent signings.

He attacked the biggest weak points on the team, and in doing so, he didn’t touch the organization’s biggest draft assets, their picks in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft.

There are critics on the deal for QB Tyrod Taylor, which cost the team the highest pick they gave up, the first pick in the third round, but if you think of that pick as the Browns’ sixth draft choice, it makes a lot of sense.

Taylor is the antithesis of what Cleveland has had at quarterback for much of the recent past, he takes care of the football.

In the midst of all this talent acquisition though, came the loss of the Browns’ best player, Joe Thomas.

An perennial all pro, Thomas will head to Canton and the Hall of Fame in five years. It is a shame that he never got to play in a playoff game during his time in brown and orange.

Dorsey addressed the offensive line and the secondary in the first days of free agency.

In the defensive backfield, he signed CB T.J. Currie (from Oakland), who should claim a starting role and CB Terrance Mitchell (from Kansas City), who will provide depth at the position.

We also feel strongly that one of Cleveland’s first five picks will be used on another cornerback, perhaps Ohio State’s Denzel Ward.

Dorsey needed to replace Thomas on the offensive line, and perhaps T Chris Hubbard from the Steelers, who wasn’t a starter, but played well when pressed into duties with Pittsburgh last season.

Hubbard, 26, could get a crack at replacing Thomas at left tackle, or perhaps Shon Coleman could move there, or one will be drafted.

The only other free agent that will likely be a front line players will be RB Carlos Hyde, who replaces Isaiah Crowell, who went to the Jets.

Hyde is a bigger back, the kind we believe the coaching staff prefers. He can pound in between the tackles, which really Crowell was better at too, but Hue Jackson seemed intent on running him outside.

He’s also a better receiver. All in all, it’s probably a wash, and look for the Browns to add a running back in the first two rounds of next month’s draft.

The rest of the signees were about building depth, most notably DE Chris Smith from the Bengals, and after the last two seasons, Dorsey needed to have options when the injuries which inevitably hit an NFL team come around.

All in all, this free agent class doesn’t really affect how the front office will view the draft.

The Browns will still be looking for a quarterback, a running back, another pass rusher to pair with Myles Garrett, a left tackle, and cornerbacks.

Outside of running back, those are perhaps the most important positions on the football field. And the Browns are looking for great players at those spots, guys who impact the game.

You generally can’t get those people in free agency, meaning right now, we like the new GM’s approach at this time of the year.