Are Browns “All In”? It’s About Time!

The latest sports topic making the rounds is whether or not the Cleveland Browns should go “all in” for the 2023 season. When you think about it, it’s kind of ridiculous.

Unless a team is clearly rebuilding, they should always be trying to win, particularly in the NFL where teams go from last place to first place every year. Just this past season, Jacksonville went from 3-14 to 9-8 and the AFC South title and won a game in the wild card round.

We have been critical in the past of the Browns’ sign in the bar mentality at times, you know, “Free Beer Tomorrow”. We feel it creeped in last year when Deshaun Watson was suspended, it seemed like the attitude at times was that because Watson would only be available for six games, the organization was better off looking toward next year.

When Jimmy Haslam and Andrew Berry traded three first-round picks for Watson and guaranteed him over $200 million, it signaled that the Browns have to make the playoffs for any season to be successful.

And remember, Cleveland also has Myles Garrett in his prime. Nick Chubb, probably the league’s best running back over the past few years is coming off a career best season. Denzel Ward is a top cornerback. And on the offensive line, let’s just say Joel Bitonio, Wyatt Teller, and Jack Conklin, all very good or All Pro players in Bitonio’s case, aren’t getting any younger.

And with the replacement of both defensive coordinator Joe Woods and special teams coach Mike Preifer, head coach Kevin Stefanski knows the Browns have to be either in the post-season or miss it by a tie breaker with a really good record.

What we mean there is although it is unlikely, let’s say the Browns finish 11-6 and still don’t qualify, we highly doubt ownership and the front office is going to fire the head coach.

However, the coaching staff changes, particularly two coordinators, signals this is a make-or-break year for this regime. We all know what former coach Jerry Glanville said about what NFL stands for: Not For Long.

We will continue to say the Browns have a good roster. They had a terrible defense last season, and despite Watson’s struggles when he did come back, the defense is the reason Cleveland was 7-10.

They hired an experienced defensive coach with a track record of success in Jim Schwartz and frankly even if no personnel changes are made, and we know there will be, the defense will be better because of the new coordinator.

As for the concern about Watson, if he’s not the quarterback he was in Houston, the Browns are screwed, and it will take them years to recover. We aren’t looking at those six games as a representation of what he will be going forward. And people currently ranking him in the 16th-20th range among QB’s seem to have an axe to grind, or are caught in the “it’s the Browns” mentality

We believe he will return to form though. He will only be 28 when the season starts.

We would bet everyone, from Paul DePodesta, to Andrew Berry, to Kevin Stefanski knows that barring catastrophic injuries, the Browns better have a very good season.

And it’s about time for that.

Browns’ Fans Have Something To Celebrate…Joe Thomas

Since the Cleveland Browns re-entered the NFL in 1999, their fans have had little to cheer about. There have been just two playoff appearances (2002 and 2020) and only three winning seasons.

The only winning season that did not result in a playoff appearance was 2007, a team that featured a rookie left tackle named Joe Thomas.

It’s not a Super Bowl or conference championship appearance, but at least Browns’s supporters will have something to enjoy and relish in when Thomas becomes the 18th member of the Browns to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Thomas played 11 seasons with Cleveland and made 10 Pro Bowls. The only season he didn’t was his last, when he was injured. Without a doubt, he would have been selected that year as well. He was first team All Pro six times and second team twice.

Offensive line play is very difficult for fans to focus on, we all want to focus on the football and who is running it, throwing it, or catching it. However, what Browns fans did know (and the many, many quarterbacks Thomas blocked for knew as well) is if the opposition had an excellent pass rusher, he would be neutralized by the man who was drafted third overall out of Wisconsin.

No doubt, it was one of the best draft picks the team ever made.

Cleveland has had a long line of outstanding players at the position. Lou Groza manned the spot from 1948-59. Dick Schafrath took over for him and held the spot from ’60 to ’71. Doug Dieken succeeded Schafrath and played there from ’72 to ’84.

Before the team was moved, Paul Farren and Tony Jones had lengthy runs at the spot. But Thomas is the greatest of all of them. Most fans purchase jerseys of the team’s quarterback, running back, or wide receiver to wear to games or around town, in northeast Ohio, people bought #73 jerseys, the number Thomas wore.

He was the rock Browns fans could hang their hat on. He was good, excellent really, and the one player football fans around the country could recognize on the Cleveland roster.

He represented the city as well. No glitz, just a guy who worked hard and showed up every day, as his streak of 10,363 consecutive snaps shows. He personified the area. Heck, he famously went fishing with his father instead of attending the draft the year he selected.

Who does that?

It is a shame that after the 10-6 mark in Thomas’ rookie season, the next best season for the team while he was playing was the 7-9 mark in 2014. It is likely no great player in NFL history were on worse teams than Joe Thomas.

However, in a way, that shows his greatness. He didn’t have to be on playoff teams or contending teams for everyone to know how dominant he was at his position. The pro football intelligentsia saw the performance and talent. The Browns didn’t even have to win for it to show through.

Thomas is the first of the “new” Browns to reach Canton. Who is next? Perhaps his former offensive line mate Joel Bitonio. But it should be a big party just an hour south of here in July when the enshrinement ceremony takes place.

With all due respect to Darrelle Revis, Ronde Barber, Zach Thomas, and the others selected for the honor this season, the 2023 ceremony will be the Joe Thomas show.

An appreciation from the fans of the Browns of how much he meant to this franchise whose fans have had little to celebrate in the 21st century.

Trading Chubb? Makes No Sense Here

Since the Cleveland Browns have never been to the Super Bowl, the NFL Draft seems to have taken the championship game’s place as the biggest football event of the season in northeast Ohio.

When the Browns were going through the teardown days of 1-15 and 0-16, talk about the draft started as early as October and consumed the thoughts of pigskin supporters for six months before the actual process.

Now that the Browns have improved have still had a playoff shot into December in each of the last three seasons, the draft talk has moved back a couple of months.

Compounding things for the draft obsessed is that the Browns have traded their first-round picks last year, this year, and next year for QB Deshaun Watson. It’s difficult to talk about who to draft when your team’s first choice comes on the second day of the event, which is when Cleveland will make its first selection at #42.

To mitigate these circumstances, both fans and media have found a remedy: The Browns should trade one of their best players, usually RB Nick Chubb, for draft picks.

This is a ludicrous solution.

First of all, we understand fans are irritated with the organization because they haven’t made the playoffs each of the last two season, but they certainly are in playoff contention mode.

One reason they will use to justify the move is salary cap space, but the cap is due to increase in 2023, and we are sure the Browns (as well as every team) will talk to players making a lot of money and get them to restructure their deals to create more space, and of course, there will be roster adjustments as well.

Our main objection to this is we find pretty improbable that trading great players, and Chubb is a great player, finishing second in the league in rushing this season, is a good way to make your team better. It would seem a better method would be to strengthen the roster around the great players you have, names like Myles Garrett, Joel Bitonio, and yes, Chubb.

That trio has pretty much made every All-Pro team announced in the last six weeks.

The logic on trading Chubb is the running game is de-emphasized in today’s NFL, so a running back that gained over 1500 yards on the ground isn’t needed. It certainly is a passing league, but the Ravens, Giants, Eagles, 49ers, Cowboys, and Bills, all playoff teams, finished in the top ten in the league in running the football.

But the primary argument against moving a running back that good is there is no assurance that you will find a better than average runner in the draft. Folks just assume that everyone available in the draft (or farm system for baseball fans) is going to be good.

They aren’t.

Could D’Ernest Johnson or Jerome Ford gain 1000 behind the Browns’ offensive line? Probably with enough carries. However, would defenses pay the same attention to those backs as they do to Chubb? We believe they wouldn’t.

Fans and media folks also use faulty logic. One sports talker said because Kansas City’s Isiah Pacheco was a 7th round pick and gained 830 yards, this is proof the Browns could find someone like that in the draft. FYI, the Raiders picked RB Brittain Brown one pick before Pacheco.

Brown played six games and didn’t have a carry for Las Vegas this season.

So, not every 7th round running back produces like Pacheco.

The way a professional sports team gets better is by ADDING talent. If you aren’t a contender and you can accumulate draft picks for a rebuild, that’s a different story.

We love Nick Chubb as a player, but because running back is devalued by other teams, we don’t think the Browns would get a first round pick anyone, unless it was a Super Bowl contender, and where would that pick fall?

Thankfully, Andrew Berry is the Browns’ GM and not sportstalk hosts or callers. We bet he feels like we do.

Browns Seem To Lack Accountability, Toughness.

Let’s say this right off the top. We don’t want Kevin Stefanski fired.

We get that’s the knee-jerk reaction from fans every time the Cleveland Browns lose a football game, particularly when it is a blowout loss, like Sunday’s 39-17 beatdown by the Miami Dolphins, but many times it just the easy way out.

If the Browns are indeed run primarily by Paul DePodesta, GM Andrew Berry, and Stefanski, and we are sure they meet all the time, they should be “self-auditing” as to how they lead this organization going forward.

This isn’t to say the defense isn’t the biggest problem on this football team. You simply cannot win at any level if you can’t stop the run and the Browns can’t do it.

However, Stefanski isn’t a Dan Campbell or Mike Vrabel type of coach or leader. He’s not out of the Hollywood prototype of what a head football coach should be. However, everyone needs to remember he did play at the college level.

Stefanski’s style might be fine if he had players who were vocal leaders, but it doesn’t seem he does. His best offensive player, Nick Chubb, leads by example. The player who talks the most is a guard, Joel Bitonio. On defense, Myles Garrett is accessible, but most talks in cliches.

Now, we don’t know what happens in the locker room (and by the way, neither do many of the folks commenting on the Browns in the media).

Some people have said the Browns have no identity, and we think it could be because they seem to be very reactive.

The Browns should be a running team, particularly with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback. But if the other team put eight or nine in the box, Cleveland throws it, and throws it some more.

We would love it if Stefanski called plays with the confidence of you know what, we are going to run it anyway. For Nick Chubb to get just 11 carries (as he did Sunday) in a game where he is healthy for all four quarters is unacceptable.

At times we think if Stefanski were coaching the Kansas City Chiefs, he would think to himself, the other team knows Patrick Mahomes is going to throw, so we have to run it a lot.

Andy Reid doesn’t think that way. No head coach should.

Same on defense. Our thought during the Dolphins game was if you know the opponent has great talent and you are just going to line up and rush four and play zone coverage, you are going to get beat. You need to do something that gets the Miami offense out of rhythm.

We can’t remember many plays, if there were any, where the Browns sent more than four rushers at Tua Tagovailoa. We also can’t recall Myles Garrett being moved around as to where he lined up. It doesn’t seem give the defense the best chance to succeed.

We wrote after the Bengals game that we learned the Browns were capable of playing that way defensively, so the expectations were increased. But maybe the defensive coordinator felt increased job security, so he reverted to what had been done in the past. It didn’t work then, and it didn’t work Sunday.

It seems like the organization lives in fear at times. Can’t admit mistakes on draft picks (they’ve cut just one in the Berry regime), can’t attack defensively because they might give up a big play, can’t stick with the strength of the team’s offense.

There can be a thing as being too smart for your own good. Maybe the Browns are stuck in that, and they need to remember this is football, a tough physical sport.

In the end, it’s another loss year for the fans, still waiting for a Super Bowl berth.

Browns Need Solutions During Week Off

We have decided there is something involved with NFL telecasts that cause people to lose their collective minds. There is no other explanation for what we hear from people, both personally and on social media after the Cleveland Browns lose a football game.

Rather than blame the coaching staff and the quarterback, knee-jerk reactions for many, we prefer to look at other areas as to why a team that had Super Bowl aspirations coming into the season is instead sitting at 6-6.

This isn’t to say Kevin Stefanski hasn’t made mistakes and/or Baker Mayfield is playing at an All-Pro level. That isn’t true. However, it is far from the only or even main reason this football team is in a funk.

Offensively, the play of the wide receiving corps leaves a lot to be desired, and quite frankly, the Patriots and Ravens have given the rest of the NFL the blueprint to defend the Cleveland running game.

Simply put, it is load the box and dare one of the Browns’ receivers to get open. Outside of the occasional Jarvis Landry play, they can’t do it.

Think about the first drive on Sunday night. Mayfield had a completion to the Baltimore 10, but Donovan Peoples-Jones dropped it. Could the Browns punched it into the end zone from there? Maybe, and if they did, how different is that game.

The Browns are said to have a great offensive line, and certainly the middle of that unit, C J.C. Tretter and guards Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller are excellent players. However, the tackles are not at that same level, and we say that understanding Jack Conklin has missed a lot of the year with injuries.

To be frank, last year’s first round pick, Jedrick Wills, has had a disappointing sophomore season. He missed some time with an ankle injury earlier, but he is not providing the blind side protection Mayfield (or any quarterback needs).

And Blake Hance is a reserve on the other side.

This leaves the Browns vulnerable to outside speed rushers and is one reason Stefanski favors quick throws as part of the attack, to ease the pressure on his tackles.

We aren’t giving up on Wills, but it will be interesting to see if his spot is addressed in the draft.

We also keep coming back to the defense. Yes, yes, we know they forced four turnovers against the Ravens. Want to know what they didn’t do?

Stop the run. Again. Baltimore rushed for 148 yards, and when it counted in the fourth quarter, shoved it down the defenses throat, eating five minutes off the clock.

Isn’t that the same as Mayfield having big stats, but then failing to lead a fourth quarter comeback?

It is the sixth time in the last eight games, the defense has allowed more than 100 yards on the ground, and that’s a killer.

And the 148 yards by Baltimore is the LEAST gained running the ball in the last three weeks.

If you cannot stop the run in the NFL, you have a big problem. If you look at the teams allowing the most rushing yards, it’s a lot of losing teams, the Lions, Texans, Jets, and Giants among them.

The Chargers, Vikings, and Steelers are also in this group. LA has the best record on the group at 6-5.

Yes, it’s a passing league, but you must stop the run.

The remaining schedule isn’t easy, but a win after the bye in the rematch against Baltimore puts the Browns back on the periphery of contention. As the head coach said, it’s a week to week battle right now.

Hopefully, some solutions will be found in the week off.

Browns Rewrite History With Sunday’s Win

Boy, did the Cleveland Browns take care of a lot of history Sunday night in their wild card victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

They took care of the last playoff appearance since 2002 with the win in week 17 over the Steelers at First Energy Stadium, getting into the post-season tournament. Check.

Last playoff win was 1994 when the Bill Belichick led Browns beat New England in the wild card round to advance to the divisional round against guess who? The Steelers. Check.

The last time they won a road playoff game was in 1969, when they routed the Dallas Cowboys and Blanton Collier, the last Browns coach to win the NFL Championship, was still at the helm. Consider that taken care of as well.

This edition of the Browns should bring pride to the city because they let nothing stand in their way and they make no excuses. That comes from Kevin Stefanski, who downplayed his absence due to COVID-19 in media calls all week.

That instills confidence in everyone throughout the organization that they can get things done. This team doesn’t talk about who isn’t there, simply that they can succeed with the folks who are there.

We have said this before. Leaders don’t have to tell people they are leaders. But it’s obvious that the players view Stefanski as their guy. It is telling that Jarvis Landry facetimed the coach as soon as the game was over. He wanted to share it with him.

Cleveland was missing All Pro LG Joel Bitonio, but Michael Dunn stepped in and the offensive line didn’t miss a beat. Another All Pro, RT Jack Conklin, left the game with a hamstring injury in the second quarter, and after Kendall Lamm, who replaced him, was hit with a holding penalty on his first play, did a solid job.

Dunn left in the second half, and the Browns finished the game with Blake Hance, who Baker Mayfield introduced himself to before the game, and Stefanski still hasn’t met in person, at guard.

Talk about the “next man up” philosophy. The one constant need for success is Wyatt Teller. Cleveland is now 11-2 this season when he is on the field.

On offense, the Browns stars stepped up. Nick Chubb had 145 yards rushing and receiving, and his touchdown off a screen pass basically clinched the contest for the visitors. Kareem Hunt rushed for 48 yards and two touchdowns, and Landry caught five passes for 92 yards including a TD on his first reception.

And are there still people who don’t think Baker Mayfield can play? In his first playoff game, the former first overall pick completed 21 of 34 throws for 263 yards and three touchdowns. And no interceptions, in contrast to his opponent at QB, Ben Roethlisberger, who threw four to Cleveland players.

The defense is still a work in progress to be sure, and missing probably their second best defensive player in CB Denzel Ward, didn’t help their performance. But they forced five turnovers, and ultimately, that was the difference in the game. The Cleveland defense took the ball away, the Pittsburgh defense could not.

Ward was missing, but defensive coordinator got big plays out of guys like Sheldrick Redwine, Vincent Taylor, Porter Gustin, and M. J. Stewart.

You need players to step up when other guys are out, and the Browns certainly have that culture. It also helps when GM Andrew Berry and the scouting department bring in men who can contribute.

So, now it’s on to another daunting task in the divisional round against the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. The odds are against them again, the Chiefs being installed as a ten point favorite.

However, this Browns team believes in their coach, his staff, and each other. We doubt that no matter the result next Sunday, that will not change.

Hue Jackson’s Biggest Problem May Be Talking

When John Dorsey was hired as the general manager of the Cleveland Browns at the end of last season, it was thought the circus atmosphere around the franchise would end.

Guess again!

Just seven games into the 2018 season, a season in which they have already won two games and tied another, a big improvement over last year’s winless season, the Browns are in the center of controversy once again.

And this time it started because one of Hue Jackson’s issues came out once again, the love of his own voice.

After another tough loss in overtime to Tampa Bay last Sunday, Jackson was asked about the offense’s struggles in the first half. His answer was that was his area of expertise, and maybe he could help out.

Afterwards, he stated that he was the head coach of the football team several times.

Jackson doesn’t know how to deal with or handle the media. For one, he tends to speak in absolutes. For example, there was a big deal about Josh Gordon starting the opener against the Steelers, because Jackson announced he would not start.

Our point is why say Gordon would not start? Jackson could have just told the media he would decide later as to who would take the first snap.

He’s done that before too. He did it earlier in camp when talking about Joel Bitonio playing left tackle, proclaiming it plan Z. A week later, Bitonio was playing the position.

He don’t know if Jackson says these things to make himself feel important, or to be glib with the media, but he needs to learn how to speak to the reporters. Don’t say anything that can be held against you later.

As for the comments after the game about getting involved with the offense, why not say something like we have to get better at all facets of the game immediately after kickoff, there is no need to point fingers at a particular unit or coach.

That comment became the story, and after watching the offense the last two seasons, we are sure the last thing Browns fans want to see is having Jackson’s hands on it.

All of this became an issue because of the ludicrous organizational set up the Browns have, where the GM and the head coach (and who knows who else) reports directly to owner Jimmy Haslam.

We would assume that Dorsey would love to bring in his own coach, but as of this moment, Jackson doesn’t report to him, so he has no authority to replace him.

That’s not how winning organizations are set up.

We feared this very thing in the off-season when Jackson was brought back after a two year record of 1-31. We felt because of all of the losing the past couple of seasons, if the Browns struggled this season, there would be clamoring for the coach’s job.

And that’s exactly what is happening. After an encouraging win over the Ravens at home, the team laid an egg against the Chargers and played a terrible first half vs. Tampa.

The wolves started howling.

When you think about it, the situation wasn’t fair to both Dorsey and Jackson. The GM doesn’t have the coach he wants, and Jackson is questioned about his employment every time the Browns lose a game.

However, Jackson needs to learn to be quiet. As someone once said, it is better to be quiet and have people think you are stupid, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Browns Have The Pressure To Win

The Cleveland Browns set their 53 man roster over the weekend, and over half of the squad was not on the roster a year ago.

That’s what happens when you go 0-16. You weren’t very good, and so it should be pretty easy to find players that are better than those who play on a team that can’t even win a single game.

On the other hand, many people, us included, felt the Browns were better than 0-16 a year ago. We believe the talent was on the roster to win two or three games.

Now, we understand that a 2-14 record would still be one of the NFL’s worst teams, but only two teams have ever lost every game they played, and one of them was the 2017 Cleveland Browns.

At least, they could have escaped that embarrassment.

With the roster changes and a new GM putting that roster together in John Dorsey, the pressure falls squarely on Hue Jackson. Dorsey has gained the trust of the fans, so if the Browns get off to a poor start, the death knell will be sounding in Berea.

The coach has a veteran quarterback in Tyrod Taylor, and he specializes in not turning the ball over, a problem that plagued the team a year ago. Cleveland coughed the ball up 41 times, 28 of them on interceptions, both totals were last in the NFL.

Jackson can no longer make excuses for rookie mistakes from his signal caller.

He also has a new play caller in Todd Haley, whose offenses in Pittsburgh have ranked in the top five in yards gained three of the last four years.

Much of that was through the air with Ben Roethlisburger at QB, but in the preseason, he emphasized the running game, something the Browns abandoned as soon as they were trailing, and at times this occurred in the first quarter.

With Carlos Hyde and Nick Chubb, teams will have to respect the run.

The one thing that concerns us is the offensive line, which the coaching staff is still tinkering with, just five days before the opener.

After moving Joel Bitonio to tackle in training camp, it has been reported that Jackson is consider moving him back to guard, and putting undrafted rookie Desmond Harrison at left tackle. This would also move rookie Austin Corbett to center.

If this occurs, the first snap Sunday would be the first time this group ever played together. That doesn’t seem to be an optimum situation.

As for those concerned that the “plan” was abandoned, keep in mind 27 of the 53 players on the roster have less than two years experience in the league.

There are only six players, one of them being punter Britton Colquitt, with over five years in the NFL. And there are only three players over 30, one being Colquitt, and another being quarterback mentor Drew Stanton.

So, this is still a very young football team.

And now is the time to start seeing wins on the field. After two seasons, where the team and its fans experience just one victory, no excuses will be tolerated.

A poor start won’t be tolerated this season. There were some who understood the gutting of the roster in order to begin a rebuild, but even their patience is at an end.

So, there is pressure on the coaching staff to start putting some “Ws” together. Most agree there is talent on the roster.

If the Browns get smoked Sunday in week one, the anger could start to percolate. The pressure to win is upon the organization.