Why Don’t People Understand Browns’ Plan?

It happens every fall. The national media and some of the local media reach for the lowest of the low hanging fruit in regards to the National Football League.

They take turns hitting the speed bag that is the Cleveland Browns.

Look, the Browns deserve it. Since they returned to the NFL in 1999, they have been a joke of a franchise. Two winning seasons, one playoff appearance. The teams slogan should be “At least 10 losses every year”.

They’ve changed coaches like people change underwear. They’ve gone through multiple front office executives, general managers, and directors of football operations.

In essence, they deserve exactly what they get.

So, now the Cleveland Browns are trying something else. They blew up their roster, getting rid of most of the veterans on last year’s team and we trying to build a winning team by getting a whole bunch of young players and letting them develop together.

That actually sound logical.

Will it work? Well, that remains to be seen, but nothing else they’ve tried has worked in the last 17 years, so really, why not try it?

Of course, many people in the media don’t know what to make of it, so they fall back on what has worked for them in the past, and that is, hammering what goes on in Berea.

In a way, it’s lazy reporting.

For example, based on Carson Wentz’ two very good starts (against the mediocre Browns and Chicago Bears), people are questioning the organization’s decision to go with Robert Griffin III at quarterback.

It’s not that complicated. They weren’t convinced that Wentz was a top tier starter and Griffin was an experienced alternative to playing the 37-year-old Josh McCown.

A national writer wondered why the Browns would bother to start the former Heisman Trophy winner when McCown is clearly better?

Really? You can’t figure that out? Griffin is 26-years-old. Maybe you can salvage something out of his career, maybe not. The Browns know McCown doesn’t have much left. If you know you aren’t contending for a playoff spot, why not see what a guy who is younger can do?

A local station is running through the statistics and reporting on what the players who the Browns have unloaded in recent years are doing. Did we miss something and the Browns were actually a playoff team the last four or five years?

You will never be able to convince us that getting rid of aging players from a 3-13 team is a bad idea. Players over 30 generally aren’t going to get better as they age. So, why Karlos Dansby can still play, he’s not a good fit for what the Browns are doing.

The point is many people still have the mistaken notion that the Browns want to go 6-10 this year and they should have kept and played veterans to achieve that record.

However, that’s kind of like being the 8th seed in the NBA playoffs. You aren’t going to get a high lottery pick, and you don’t have a chance at a title.

Again, whether it works or not, the Cleveland Browns are trying to build around a lot of young, drafted players who will grow together. They will draft their franchise QB at some point, perhaps next year, a player who they love.

In the meantime, the media shouldn’t look at this football team the same as they normally do. They can’t acknowledge trying something new.

Did Browns Improve From Week One? Yes

After last week, we told everyone you cannot evaluate the Cleveland Browns are wins and losses, but rather on how the team progresses throughout the season.

Based on that, we would give Hue Jackson and his team a passing grade for week 2, despite a 25-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at First Energy Stadium.

The Browns jumped out to a 20-0 first quarter lead, and the Josh McCown mafia was probably busy telling everyone who would listen, “I told you so”. But after that quarter, the brown and orange looked a lot like last week’s squad.

They couldn’t put up any more points, and continually shot themselves in the foot on both sides of the ball.

Positives. The running game improved, getting 145 yards, but 85 of those were on one play, Isaiah Crowell’s touchdown scamper in the first quarter.

The Ravens ran the ball more often (26-23) despite trailing for most of the game.

Corey Coleman played like a first round pick, scoring two touchdowns and making five catches for 104 yards.

Duke Johnson continues to show he needs the football more often, with four receptions for 44 yards. However, he carried just three times from scrimmage.

Defensively, Derrick Kindred continues to impress, and ILB Chris Kirksey played well too. He’s one of the guys we felt was minimized by the previous coaching staff.

Danny Shelton continued to show he is not a bust with two tackles and six assists. He’s a big reason why the defense once again held the opponents to under four yards per carry. Baltimore averaged just 3.1 per attempt.

And Joe Haden improved from a week ago with two interceptions. Haden still had plays where improvement is needed, but perhaps he is shaking some rust off.

Also, kudos to the front office. They traded Andy Lee for a fourth round pick, and then picked up a solid punter on the waiver wire. Britton Colquitt averaged 40.8 yards per punt, and put two inside the 20.

Negatives. McCown’s interception at the end of the first half is a reminder as to why he is a below average NFL quarterback despite the Cleveland media’s love for him.

It gave the Ravens three points they shouldn’t have scored. You cannot, repeat CANNOT turn the ball over in that spot.

We keep hearing about special teams’ coach Chris Tabor being one of the best in the league. Why?

A blocked extra point and a long return on first kickoff say maybe the Browns can do better.

Cleveland has had a lot of kicks blocked in the second half of last season and another one today. And it cost the team three points, meaning a field goal could’ve won it at the end.

Lastly (and it won’t be the last time this year we say this), the NFL officiating is horrific. The taunting penalty against Terrelle Pryor in the last minute, negating a play that would have put the Browns in a first and goal situation, ranks as one of the worst calls we’ve ever seen.

Pryor was simply flipping the ball to the official. He didn’t jam it into the defender’s face, he was giving it to the official, and Ladarius Webb just got in the way.

The NFL officials are THE WORST in professional sports. They make ridiculously bad calls every week.

Next week, it’s on to Miami to take on the Dolphins. Will McCown, who was banged up, be able to play?

Will the run defense continue to do its job? Will more special teams’ gaffes occur?

Stay tuned for how the Browns’ progress turned out next week.

Fans, Media Need New Way To Evaluate Browns

Not even the most optimistic fan of the Cleveland Browns is predicting a successful season.

Before the first game last Sunday, we think the highest win total we heard for the brown and orange was eight, and those folks must wake up every morning thinking today’s the day the pot of gold will appear at their doorstep.

If Hue Jackson’s crew went 3-13 or 4-12 in 2016, it wouldn’t be shocking.

That’s why we were surprised at the vitriol which followed the 29-10 loss on the road to the Philadelphia Eagles in the season opener.

What exactly were fans and the media expecting?

On Monday, we actually heard people putting Jackson’s job in jeopardy and calling the Robert Griffin III experiment a failure. AFTER ONE GAME!

Perhaps it is the frustration of all the losing this franchise has endured since 1999, or maybe it was optimism that the Browns could win game one because they were facing a rookie quarterback, but it is difficult to see why fans and media alike were extremely hot and bothered by Cleveland losing its opener once again.

We wrote this before the season started and we certainly aren’t changing our mind after one regular season game.

We understand the Browns aren’t going to be very good this year, in fact, we would guess they aren’t going to win more than three games this season.

The difference is they will be doing it with a whole bunch of young players who figure to get better every week with the experience they gain during every contest.

If that’s not happening, then everybody needs to worry about Hue Jackson and his coaching staff.

The goal should be for this group of players to be better on January 1st against the Steelers than they were last Sunday.

It’s not that difficult to understand.

The Browns have a few players from the previous regime that they need to decide on, guys like Danny Shelton, Cam Erving, Nate Orchard, Xavier Cooper, and Ibraheim Campbell come to mind.

If they can get six solid starters, one or two being Pro Bowl players, out of this year’s draft class, then the 2016 can be considered a success. The best bets among those draftees are Corey Coleman, Carl Nassib, Emmanuel Ogbah, Derrick Kindred, and Joe Schobert.

Then since you have 14 picks in the 2017 draft, you get more six more solid starters at least. That would give you 12 starters, young starters, that you can build a foundation on.

And we are being conservative. You might wind up with 15 or 16 players with a solid future ahead of them.

Maybe it doesn’t work, but the Browns haven’t gone down this road before, and you cannot hold the sins of past regimes on Sashi Brown, Paul DePodesta, and Hue Jackson.

The great dynasties of the NFL were built through the draft. This isn’t to say every team who tries to build through the draft develops into a consistent Super Bowl threat, but the Steelers of the 70’s, the Cowboys of the 90’s came about by smart drafting.

Time will tell if Brown and Jackson have drafted the right people. However, we can tell you that one week isn’t enough time to make the decision that they didn’t.

In the meantime, the new management should be judged on how the young players progress throughout the season. Forget the wins and losses. We understand that is different from how we have all been trained, but if you don’t adopt this philosophy, you will have a very unhappy football season.

Also, stop putting Carson Wentz in Canton based on one game against a totally rebuilding team.

That is all.

Browns Lose, But What Will They Learn?

We have been saying all along not to expect too much from the Cleveland Browns in 2016. They shed most of the veterans from a squad that went 3-13 a year ago, so this is a year to lay a foundation for future success.

Therefore, we are not going to judge today’s 29-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that harshly. The best chance Cleveland had for a win today was poor play by the home team’s rookie quarterback, but Carson Wentz made enough plays to bring home a winner.

That doesn’t mean the Browns blew it by passing on Wentz either. A year ago, the Titan’s Marcus Mariota was fantastic in the season opener, and in week two, the Browns, yes the team that won only three games, handed the rookie his lunch.

Our point is that it is way too early to judge Wentz.

Here are some of our observations for Game 1:

Positives. Many of the rookies looked good, particularly Emmanuel Ogbah and Carl Nassib. The latter seemed to be in the Eagles’ backfield a lot, batted down two passes and had a sack.

Derrick Kindred was another rookie who stood out, with five tackles.

Corey Coleman caught two passes for 69 yards, including a 58-yard play. Coleman was also open on Robert Griffin III’s interception, but the ball was way behind him. If the throw was on target, it would have been a big game.

The run defense was solid, allowing the Eagles just 3.9 yards per carry. Not great, but much better than we saw in the pre-season.

Last year’s first round picks, Cam Erving and Danny Shelton, looked better than a year ago, except for…

Negatives. …the Browns ran 50 offensive plays today and Erving had 49 good snaps. However, the one bad snap kind of changed the momentum of the game, as it resulted in a safety.

Griffin missed a lot of plays with inaccuracy, one that resulted in his only interception. He also missed an open Andrew Hawkins for a touchdown, and an open Terrelle Pryor on a sideline pass. You can’t leave plays on the field consistently.

Joe Haden showed a lot of rust after missing a lot of time last season, giving up a long TD pass to Nelson Agholor, and Jordan Matthews had over 100 yards receiving.

The third down woes reared its ugly head again, as the Browns were just 2 for 10. The inability to stay on the field led to the Eagles having the ball twice as much as the Browns.

Also, the running game struggled early. Running the ball helps keep the defense on the sideline and also will help the passing game. Cleveland simply has to get better running the football. Perhaps Duke Johnson should carry the ball more.

We know Hue Jackson is trying to set a tone with his football team, but it seemed like he gambled a lot today and none of his gambles paid off. Going for it on 4th and 5 in your own territory in the first half is a tad reckless, and the last Eagles’ touchdown was because he went for it with less than three minutes to go.

None of the negatives should be picked apart until they see them raise up on a weekly basis. If the Browns learn from what they did wrong, that’s great. That’s really the purpose of this season.

Same with the things that went well, unless you can do these things every week, it’s can’t be considered a building block.

Those critical of today’s performance are missing the point. This isn’t a good football team. If they are a lot better by the end of the season, then Jackson and his staff are doing a good job. That’s what they should be judged on.

Browns Not Tanking, Just Using Common Sense

Last week, we started hearing it, the dreaded “T” word.

Tanking. Mostly, you hear about it in the NBA, when the prize for getting the first pick in the draft is a player like LeBron James or someone like that.

In basketball, having a superstar is a huge advantage because there are only five players on the court.

Both the local and national media alike are claiming that the Cleveland Browns are tanking, trying to lose purposefully to gain the first overall pick in next spring’s draft.

Our question is if the Browns are tanking this year, what have they been doing for most of the last 16 seasons since they returned to the NFL?

Face it, the Browns aren’t tanking.

What they have been doing to getting rid of veteran players who have no upside and played for a team that went 3-13 a year ago. And that just seems like common sense.

Have we fallen asleep and not realized Cleveland unloaded Tom Brady, J.J. Watt, and Jim Brown in the off-season?

No. They pared the roster of a lot of players over 30 years old who were on the downside of their careers, or rid themselves of players who didn’t produce much in the time they were here.

You could make a better case that Ray Farmer was tanking when he let Jabaal Sheard and T.J. Ward flee the team in free agency.

We have said it time and again, the only thing worse than being a bad team is being a bad, old team. Why not start playing a bunch of younger players, who may get better with experience, and see where the chips fall?

If you are tanking, the coaching staff tends to not play the best players. We don’t see any indication of that, unless you are a member of the media, and you still have a love affair with Josh McCown.

The Browns have tried a lot of different ways to improve their fortunes, but they haven’t tried going with a bunch of young players and let them develop, so why not give that a shot?

What’s the worst that can happen? In three years, they are still putting together 5-11 seasons? If that’s happening, then once again, Jimmy Haslam will be looking for a new coach and a new general manager.

The coaching staff and the players will want to win, and hopefully the young players will improve as the season progresses, and finally the Browns will have a foundation on which to build something.

If they were tanking, then Jackson would announce that Cody Kessler is the starting quarterback and they would have traded players like Joe Haden, and maybe even Joe Thomas.

Now, once the season starts and you are let’s say 2-10, you may not go out of your way to play veterans, so you can get an extensive look at more young players, the ones who haven’t been in there all year.

On the other hand, with all of the young players on the field, you hope to see improvement as the season goes on, and hopefully the Browns can be in a position to win those late season games.

The tanking issue is ridiculous. This was a bad football team a year ago, and they weren’t tanking then.

The Browns are trying to build something that will grow over the next few years, and doing it with young players is the way to do it.

When you really think about it, it’s just common sense.

Browns’ Final Roster Not Shocking

No one should be surprised that all 14 of the draft choices made by the Browns’ new front office made the initial 53 man roster yesterday.

How many of them are still there after Sashi Brown, Hue Jackson, and the personnel staff scour the waiver wire is a good question, but our guess is that most of the 14 will still be wearing orange and brown.

Let’s face it, it’s a new front office staff, and the team they inherited went 3-13 a year ago. The question should be why didn’t they just replace most of the players who were on the team a year ago.

After the 2015 season ended, the roster had too many players over 30 for a team that had the second overall pick in the draft.

Now, there are just seven, and only three (Joe Thomas, John Greco, and Gary Barnidge) are starters, and it would not be a shock if two more, Andrew Hawkins and Tramon Williams, are released after the organization reviews the players cut by other teams yesterday.

There are now only three players, Thomas, Williams, and back up QB Josh McCown who have been in the NFL for ten years or more.

Perhaps the biggest surprise yesterday was the trade of former 1st round selection Justin Gilbert to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a sixth round pick in 2018.

We understand Gilbert was a polarizing figure here in his two plus seasons, but we thought he was buried by the old coaching staff, and when he did play, he wasn’t burned consistently by wide receivers.

His reputation was that he didn’t take well to coaching, and we get that.

On the other hand, it is interesting that both Gilbert and another first rounder, Barkevious Mingo, were both acquired by teams with a history of winning football in Pittsburgh and New England.

If either become contributors with their new squads it will say volumes about the talent evaluation of the Cleveland organization, both past and present.

Our opinion of Mingo, in particular, is that he is an athletic freak. His interception of Peyton Manning against Denver last year may have been the most amazing play made by a Browns’ defender all season. Why any coordinator here couldn’t find a place or scheme in which to use him is a fail by Cleveland.

The current roster has 18 rookies or first year players, and 10 second year guys. That’s 28 of the current 53, which even a non-math expert knows is more than half.

That’s how you build a football team.

You also have to make a commitment to the coaching staff, so they don’t have to worry about accumulating wins while playing young players.

That was the weakness of previous regimes here. They wanted to get younger, but they also wanted the coach to win. That’s why the Randy Starks, Donte Whitners, and Karlos Dansbys of the NFL were brought in.

We trust that Brown and Jimmy Haslam have told Jackson not to be concerned with the Browns record in 2016.

How should we judge the coach this season? Focus on the progression of the team. If the Browns are a better, more competitive football team when they take the field on January 1st against the Steelers than they are next Sunday, then Jackson has done his job.

In the meantime, the next few days should be interesting to see who will dress a week from today, and who won’t be a part of phase one of the building process.

What Did You Expect From Browns?

It was shocking to read and listen to both fans and media alike being irritated by the Browns’ performance Friday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

What did these people expect? Did they believe Hue Jackson’s team was suddenly going to dominate another NFL team?

After Jackson was hired and Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta took over control of the franchise, the management has made no bones about the direction of the team. They were going to get younger and build through the draft, really the only tried and true method of building a winning football team.

If you have read this blog since the beginning of 2016, we have advocated and predicted that Brown and DePodesta were going to rid the roster of most of the over 30 years of age crew.

After all, the only thing worse than being a bad team is being a bad, old team.

The purge started with Donte Whitner and Karlos Dansby, Dwayne Bowe followed, and now Paul Kruger and even punter Andy Lee were moved off the squad.

And we believe that Tramon Williams, Andrew Hawkins won’t be here for week one, and we have a feeling that Josh McCown won’t be either.

The Browns are accumulating young players and draft picks, and when you play a lot of inexperienced players, losing usually follows. At least at the beginning.

The expectation is the team will build around the players taken last season that weren’t really given a chance to play, the 14 draft picks taken last April, and all of the picks the front office has accumulated in the 2017 and 2018 NFL Drafts.

That doesn’t mean the players and coaching staff will not try to win every week, of course they will, that’s imbedded in the DNA of competitive people.

However, they are usually going to be outmanned in each game, mostly because of a lack of experience.

What the front office is trying to decide is who can be a contributing player in 2018 or 2019, when this team is ready to make a legitimate playoff run. If it happens sooner, then great, all that means is the Browns will be winners and still have a boatload of draft picks.

Gone is the philosophy of bringing veterans to patch some holes and keep the team somewhat competitive, perhaps winning five or six games so the coaching staff can say the Browns are improving.

Instead, the organization is throwing a lot of stuff against the wall and hoping some of it sticks.

The rookies and second year players are going to get to play and prove themselves. If they get better as the season progresses, the coaches and front office will determine them to be keepers. If they can’t get it done, they will be replaced by younger players acquired in the next two drafts.

It’s not a mystery. Every signal given by the folks in Berea indicate just that.

So, don’t be surprised if this team loses in the early part of the season, and sometimes, the games will be flat out ugly.

And if the team doesn’t show some improvement as the season goes on, then you can be concerned, because that’s the plan.

In the meantime, get ready for more veterans to depart and more young players, particularly players cut after the final cut this weekend, to be brought in.

Frankly, we are puzzled as to why people were expecting anything different.

Browns Good At One Thing: Promoting Themselves

While many fans have complained about the fortune of the Cleveland Browns on the field since they returned to the NFL in 1999, they have established excellence in one area. And that is being in the forefront of the Cleveland sports media.

This “tradition” didn’t start in with the rebirth of the franchise. It really goes back to the early 60’s, and Art Modell.

The former owner of the Browns was a media darling, always glib and very friendly with the local scribes and broadcast media alike.

Modell started the practice, which continues today, of having one of the local television anchors as the team’s radio play-by-play people. Since the mid 1960’s, we have seen Gib Shanley, Jim Graner, Nev Chandler, Jim Mueller, Casey Coleman, and now Jim Donovan at the voice of the Browns.

That way, the broadcaster and station has a vested interest in covering the local professional football team.

A few years ago, when the Browns’ local radio contract was up for grabs, they did something that can be considered ingenious, making both of the city’s sports talk stations the “Home of the Browns”.

They even have their own self-serving show on daily on WKNR, Cleveland Browns Daily, which runs year round, and is hosted by Nathan Zegura, listed on the Browns’ website as Senior Media Broadcaster.

Can you imagine the Indians or Cavaliers asking any radio station in the northeast Ohio area to put a daily, hourly show to talk about either of these franchises.

Apparently as part of this deal with the two stations, listeners get to hear the head coach’s daily press conference in which he gives very little to no information.

Terry Francona and Tyronn Lue speak to the media everyday before the game during the season too, it’s just that no one is interrupting the normal broadcast schedule to put them on the air.

When the Browns’ play a game, it is hard to find a station that isn’t carrying the broadcast, as they also include 98.5 FM as a “Home of the Browns”, and they have other stations in the Akron area too.

If you do a scan on your car radio during a Browns’ game, more often than not, you will find a station broadcasting the football game.

You have to admire the job they’ve done in this regard, and wonder why the other teams in the market don’t do the same thing.

Particularly, the Cleveland Indians, who need all the help they can get getting air time on local sports talk stations.

The past two days, with the Tribe in a prime position to make the playoffs, the bulk of the air time on sports talk radio was devoted to Josh Gordon, a receiver who has been suspended for 27 of the Browns’ last 32 games.

The stations will tell you the fans will provide the direction of their shows, but why wouldn’t fans talk about the Browns when it is all around them?

We have said in the past that the Indians made a terrible miscalculation by staying on WTAM, which dedicates very little non game time air to the team. If they had gone to either WKNR or 92.3FM, do you think there would be more discussion about the team that fills their airwaves on most summer nights?

The Cavs have LeBron James and are NBA Champions. They will hold the area’s interest no matter what they do for the foreseeable future.

You have to tip your hats to the way the Browns handle this part of their business. Now, about the on the field stuff…

Good And Bad So Far From Browns

Thank goodness that half of the NFL’s preseason schedule is over for the Cleveland Browns.

After the first exhibition game against Green Bay, where the Packers stopped just short of bringing fans out of Lambeau Field to play against the Browns, last night we got to see the brown and orange play against legitimate players, at least for the first half.

Yes, Cleveland lost to Atlanta at First Energy Stadium last night, but at least now we can make some judgments on this football team, as they head into a week of practices against Tampa Bay next week, followed by the “dress rehearsal” a week from today in Florida.

Robert Griffin III has shown flashes of why he was the 2nd overall pick in the draft a few years ago. He has a big arm, has been accurate for the most part, and has learned how to slide when he runs with the football.

We said in the off-season that signing the former Heisman Trophy winner was the ultimate low risk, high reward gamble. After all, it’s not like Griffin is replacing Tom Brady, the alternative is veteran journeyman (and media favorite) Josh McCown.

The right move is finding out if Griffin can play, and so far, so good.

A year ago, Mike Pettine and his staff cut Terrelle Pryor right before the regular season started, then brought him back later in the season and virtually ignored him.

We realize that Pryor has greatly improved his wide receiver skills in the off-season, but you still have to wonder why the previous regime didn’t feel the need to work with him more. After all, the guy is a special athlete.

The running game looked good last night as well. Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson have been effective and Terrell Watson has looked good against second team defenders. We’d like to see him with the first unit next weekend. If the Browns are going move the ball effectively and try to shorten games, they must run the football.

And we would also like to see rookie Carl Nassib with the first team defense at times. You can’t help but notice the 6’7″ kid from Penn State, and not just because of his size. He’s all over the field when he’s in.

The problems on defense continue to be the inability to stop the running game and not being able to get off the field on third down. Those two issues have plagued this franchise since they returned to the NFL in 1999.

If you can’t run the ball and you can’t stop the run, you can’t win in the NFL despite it becoming a passing league. The Cleveland defense seems to be consistently in second and short situations, and if they do get to third down, it’s usually at a make able distance.

We would also like to see more of the young wide receivers. We still believe that Andrew Hawkins will not make the opening roster, but so far, we haven’t seen a lot of the rookie wide outs taken this spring. We know injuries play into that, but it’s still a problem.

We understand this is still pre-season and much of the game plans are very vanilla. However, it is easy to spot these trends.

On the other hand, we are halfway done in regards to the exhibition games. Based on the quality of these game, be very thankful for that.

Hue’s Decision At QB Was A Logical, Simple One

Imagine you are an NFL head coach and you are taking over a team that went 3-13 a year ago, and hasn’t had a winning season since 2007.

Your bosses have tried several way to build a successful franchise, and in the off-season, they traded away or cut several veterans, and let a few more leave via free agency.

So, there isn’t a lot of pressure on you to win immediately, but the owner, the front office, and the fan base would like to see some progress as the season goes on.

You have several candidates for the starting quarterback position–

One is the former second overall pick in the draft after winning the Heisman Trophy, and in his rookie year took his team to the NFL playoffs. He blew out his knee in that game, and hasn’t been the same since.

The second candidate is a 37-year-old journeyman with a career record as a starter of 18-39, and over the last two years, seasons in which he started 19 of 32 games, his record is 2-17.

He has started just 57 games in a 13 year career.

You also have on the roster a third year QB who started five games in his second year in the league and was pressed into service to start two more games with your team a season ago, both of which were losses.

And you have a rookie third round draft pick from one of the elite college programs in the country. He’s a guy you really like and you went out on a limb to take him where you did. Still, he’s a rookie and you don’t want to expose him to the NFL before he’s ready to play.

The team in question of course are the Cleveland Browns and the quarterbacks at Hue Jackson’s disposal are Robert Griffin III, Josh McCown, Austin Davis, and Cody Kessler.

Jackson picked Griffin, and really, didn’t have much of a decision. That’s the logical move.

The Browns’ players and coaching staff will no doubt try to win every game, but there is little expectation going into the regular season of the playoffs.

Let’s face it, the only QBs currently on the roster who have a chance to be a quality NFL signal caller are Griffin and Kessler, and once again, the latter is a rookie.

The organization knows what McCown is. He’s a terrific teammate, a hard worker, and a guy you can put into a game without your franchise being embarrassed.

They also know what he isn’t, and that’s a quality NFL starter, and a guy with a history of winning football games. McCown is good enough to give you a decent performance and he will keep you in a game, but likely you won’t win.

Heck, the guy who started two of the three victories by the Browns a year ago, isn’t even in the NFL right now.

We have no idea if Griffin can become a successful passer from the pocket, because his success in Washington was with a hybrid offense. But in a rebuilding season? Why not find out.

If Griffin can make the transformation, the Browns have caught lightning in a bottle. If he doesn’t, you still have Kessler and a likely a high draft pick in next year’s draft.

But this is a year to experiment. That’s why Jackson’s decision was just the logical move.