Impressive Statement After A Tough Loss For Browns

After Nick Chubb’s injury against the Steelers, we said the offense needed Deshaun Watson to step up.

He did just that in Sunday’s 27-3 victory over the Tennessee Titans. Watson completed 27 of 33 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns in his best performance wearing brown and orange.

Cleveland’s usual vaunted running attack, which averaged over 200 yards per game after two weeks, was held in check by the Titans, gaining just 78 yards. So, the offense needed Watson to throw the football effectively, and he did just that.

Amari Cooper had a big game too, catching seven balls for over 100 yards and a TD, and Donovan Peoples-Jones emerged again after not being a factor against Pittsburgh, catching the game’s first pass and grabbing three throws for 49 yards.

We would still like to see the Browns use TE David Njoku more, because we believe he might be the most explosive player on offense now that Chubb is out. He did have four receptions, but for just 20 yards.

As good of a game as Watson had, this game was still about the defense, which held Tennessee to under 100 yards on the game, 2 of 12 on third down conversions, and Derrick Henry had just 20 yards on 11 carries.

Jim Schwartz’ unit also sacked Ryan Tannehill five times, with Myles Garrett garnering 3.5, to give him undisputed first place on the franchise’s all-time list with 79, passing Bill Glass’ total of 77.5. Glass did it in 94 games, Garrett beat him with seven games to spare.

The only thing that pauses us from saying this defense is elite is the quality of the opponents they’ve played already.

Yes, Cincinnati has a prolific offense, but the conditions in the season opener weren’t conducive to moving the ball at will. And Pittsburgh and Tennessee don’t have great attacks either, or don’t have great quarterbacks.

Still, the defense is playing at a very high level and are constantly attacking, quite a change from past years when they sat in zone coverage most of the time and the pass rush was solely predicated on Garrett getting it done.

Right now, opponents are averaging just 163.67 yards per game. By contrast, the Browns are RUNNING for 160.67 yards per contest.

The defense seems to have calmed the gambling tendencies of coach Kevin Stefanski, who now takes field goals more often. When you aren’t allowing many points, getting three when you have the opportunity is the correct and safe play.

We also don’t want to jinx new kicker Dustin Hopkins, but the veteran has knocked seven of his eight field goal attempts through the uprights, and they look beautiful as they head near the goalposts, not like the knuckleballs the former kicker seemed to boot.

So, through three weeks of the season, the Browns have two wins of more than 20 points. The last time this happened was in 2014 (team went 7-9 under Mike Pettine) when they beat Pittsburgh 31-10 and Cincinnati 24-3.

And they’ve won both of those games despite losing the turnover battle in each.

That’s not as long as we thought, but it’s still 9 years.

Another divisional game awaits next week when the Ravens come to town and right now, the AFC North has three teams tied at 2-1. Lamar Jackson will present another challenge for Schwartz and this defense.

One thing the defense hasn’t done a lot of yet is turn the ball over, with just two takeaways on the season. If that starts to happen, let’s just say, look out.

An Opening Week Beatdown For The Browns

Last year, the Cleveland Browns were a sieve defensively against the run. At least in week one, the defense run by new coordinator Jim Schwartz solved that issue, allowing just 75 yards on the ground in a dominating 24-3 win over Cincinnati.

And although there is endless talk about Deshaun Watson and how he will do at quarterback, at the Browns’ core they are a running football team, and in most NFL games, if you run for over 200 yards, you will achieve victory.

Cleveland ran for 206 against the Bengals.

It was a day not suited for an aerial extravaganza, and we saw the impatient Browns’ fans on social media complaining that Watson wasn’t any better than last season, in which he only played the last six games, but he was the better QB on the field on Sunday.

Watson hit 16 of 29 passes for 154 yards and ran five times for 45 yards and a touchdown. Yes, he missed some throws, but we are willing to attribute that to playing with a wet football, and we are willing to do that because Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow was just 14 of 31 for 82 yards.

It was only a good day if you were a duck.

No doubt the Browns will need Watson to play better as the season goes on, perhaps as early as next Monday night. But we aren’t going to panic because of the conditions. In fact, at halftime, we thought that Watson has yet to play a game in Cleveland with the Browns where the conditions have been nice.

Overall, this was a day for the defense and Nick Chubb.

The longest play Cincinnati had all day was a 22 yard run by Joe Mixon, and the longest pass play was a 12 yard toss from Burrow to Ja’Marr Chase. Think about that again, the longest pass play was 12 yards.

From an offense run by a player almost universally considered the second best at his position in the league.

Cleveland had only two sacks, by newcomer Ogbonnia Okoronkwo and of course, Myles Garrett, who passed Clay Matthews on the all-time team sack list according to ProFootballReference.com for second place. He needs two more to tie Bill Glass for the top spot in Browns’ history.

The Bengals ran just 56 offensive plays for the contest, gaining a paltry 142 yards.

We wondered watching the game how it may have unfolded with last year’s defensive coordinator.

As for Chubb, what more can we say about the man who should be considered the best running back in the league. By the way, he also caught four passes for 21 yards. When he carries the football, we always think he is about to break one for a long gain.

Jerome Ford did fumble, but also picked up 36 yards and it should have been more except he was bottled up a bit late in the game, when it was basically garbage time. He did have a 17 yard gain, but we will have to see going forward if ball security will be an issue.

So, it’s on to Pittsburgh for a Monday Night game against a team that will no doubt be very angry after getting crushed in their opener. And the Browns will be using a rookie right tackle in huge Dawand Jones, who is now the starter with Jack Conklin’s injury.

Look for T.J. Watt and the Steelers to test the rookie and make life tough on Watson.

We are sure the Browns will be prepared for it.

It wasn’t just the victory that makes us optimistic, it was the dominating nature of the win. But you are only as good as your next performance in the NFL.

Finally, Garrett Has Some Help Rushing The Passer

For much of Myles Garrett’s career with the Cleveland Browns, he’s been a one-man gang in terms of rushing the passer. Last year might have been the best example of that. Garrett led the team with 16 sacks and the next best total was Taven Bryan who had three.

This is Garrett’s 7th season in the league, and on paper, this is the best group of defensive linemen Garrett has ever been surrounded with and probably the most accomplished defensive coordinator the Browns have had in his tenure (with all due respect to Gregg Williams).

It is interesting that the years where Cleveland had a decent pass rusher to pair with Garrett were the bad seasons the Browns have had since he was the first overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.

In his rookie season, the Browns had the 14th ranked defense and although Garrett played just 11 games, he led Cleveland in sacks with seven. Ranking second was LB James Burgess, and the next best defensive lineman was fellow rookie Emmanuel Ogbah, who had three.

The next two seasons, the best pass rusher to compliment Garrett was DT Larry Ogunjobi who had 5.5 sacks in both 2018 and 2019. Garrett had 13.5 in ’18 and dropped to 10 in ’19, which of course was the year he played only 10 games because he was suspended.

When the Browns finally made the playoffs in 2020, there finally was pressure coming from the other side at defensive end as Olivier Vernon had nine sacks to go along with Garrett’s dozen. And the following season, Cleveland went 8-9 with Jadeveon Clowney contributing nine sacks and Garrett getting a career high 16, which he matched last season.

Williams liked to put pressure on the opposing quarterback, but as we noted before, it seems Joe Woods’ philosophy was if Myles doesn’t sack the passer, then we need to go to Plan B.

That’s not Jim Schwartz’ plan.

This off-season GM Andrew Berry brought in several defensive linemen, basically overhauling the unit outside of Garrett. Part of this was brought about by Cleveland’s dreadful performance against the run in 2022, but Schwartz loves to have depth so he can rotate lineman and keep them fresh.

They brought in Za’Darius Smith, who has 54.5 sacks in his career and has accumulated at least 10 in three of his last four seasons. That total would be the highest by any Garrett teammate since the former Texas A & M standout arrived on the shores of Lake Erie.

Another pass rusher acquired by Berry is Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, who had five sacks in his first full season in the league last year for Houston.

And during training camp, the Browns signed Shelby Harris as a free agent. Harris only had two sacks last year for Seattle, but had two seasons (’19 and ’21) in Denver where he got to the QB six times.

Add in DT Dalvin Tomlinson, whose 2.5 sacks for the Vikings last season would have tied him for third on the team in Cleveland a year ago. Tomlinson was brought in primarily to be a run stopper, but he can get to the QB as well.

Former Browns’ GM Ernie Accorsi used to say the two most important positions on the field were quarterback and guys who can get to the opposing QB.

The Browns should have found some help for Myles Garrett in that regard this off-season.

Browns Keeping A Low Profile Right Now

The Cleveland Browns started training camp a couple of weeks ago, and have already played an exhibition game last Thursday, but it just doesn’t feel like there is any buzz right now.

Perhaps that will change this weekend when the Browns play their only pre-season game at home against the Washington Commanders, but the starting lineup is pretty much set on both sides of the football, so everything seems to be anticlimactic until the orange and brown take the field for real on September 10th against the Bengals.

We continue to say the Browns’ fortunes rest mostly on how Deshaun Watson plays. If he plays like the guy who completed 67.8% of his throws with Houston from 2017-2020, the Browns figure to be in the mix for a playoff spot, Kevin Stefanski keeps his job and GM Andrew Berry solidifies his position in the front office.

If Watson plays like he did when he returned from a year and a half layoff at the end of last season, then the franchise has a rather large problem considering how much draft capital was spent.

One area that should be much improved is the defense, particularly against the run. The Browns hired highly decorated defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. Cleveland allowed 150 or more rushing yards seven times a year ago. They went 1-6 in those games.

By the way, the league average in yards allowed on the ground in 2022 was 121.6.

Schwartz’ defenses have ranked in the top half of the league in ten of his 19 seasons where he was either head coach or defensive coordinator.

We expect the defense will be much better both in stopping the run, where really, they couldn’t get much worse, and in pass defense. Schwartz likes to have depth on the defensive line, so he can keep people fresh, and the defensive backs are already talking about how playing more man-to-man coverage plays into their strength.

The only news that can come out of this year’s training camp is bad, and that would be injuries. Already, we have seen two defensive linemen go down and will miss the opener but should be back early in the season.

And to that point, although some of the starters, most notably Watson, probably need to be on the field a bit during pre-season play, there are a few who shouldn’t see any action until week one.

In particular, we are talking about Myles Garrett, Nick Chubb, and Joel Bitonio. We don’t live in fear of injuries, they can happen without contact, but we don’t need to see this trio until Cincinnati visits for the first regular season game.

After Friday’s game, the Browns will have a controlled scrimmage against the
Eagles next week, so the starters will play in that and not the game.

It’s very likely fans here won’t see the true Browns squad after Friday
until the season opener. And that explains why there isn’t the usual buzz
around the camp.

But maybe there should be. This might be the most important season the
Cleveland Browns have had in many years.

Who Is Best Browns Defensive Player Since 1960?

Sometimes arguments between friends make their way into what we right about. A group of our friends were talking about the Cleveland Browns’ defensive prospects this season under new coordinator Jim Schwartz, and the thought arose did the Browns ever have a dominant defense?

Since we talked following the team in 1965, we would say the closest were the defenses of the mid 1980’s, led by cornerbacks Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield. Unfortunately, those defenses really didn’t have a great front seven. It was good, but they weren’t dominant.

The 1987 squad finished second in the NFL in points allowed but were just 20th in sacks. The ’94 Browns allowed the least points in the league, but 7th in yards allowed and sacks. But that was kind of a one-year thing, they finished 17th in points given up in ’93 and 20th in ’95.

That morphed into this question: Who is the best defensive player the Browns have had? We mentioned Len Ford and Bill Willis, both of whom played in the early 50’s, and since no one had seen them play, the inquiry became who is the greatest defensive player Cleveland has had since 1960?

The great offensive players the franchise have had roll off your tongue: Jim Brown, Paul Warfield, Ozzie Newsome, Leroy Kelly, and of course, one of this year’s inductees, Joe Thomas.

Of course, in the fifties, you had Otto Graham, Mac Speedie, Marion Motley, and Dante Lavelli among others.

If you go strictly by Pro Bowl appearances, the leader would be Michael Dean Perry, who made five (1989-1991, 1993-94). Perry ranks 7th all-time on the club’s sack list, and played with the team from 1988-94, before finishing up with Denver and Kansas City.

Seven defenders made four Pro Bowl appearances (we know what people think about that “event” now): Chip Banks, Minnifield, Jerry Sherk, Bill Glass, Jim Houston, Clay Matthews, and current Brown Myles Garrett.

As we said before, Minnifield and Dixon were shutdown cornerbacks, and opposing passers did not want to throw anywhere in their direction. Neither had a lot of interceptions when they played (Dixon had 26, 10th for the franchise, and Minnifield had 20, 13th)

Sherk was known as one of the best tackles in the game before a staph infection derailed what was shaping up to be a dominant career. In addition to the Pro Bowls, he was named first team All Pro by the Associated Press in 1976.

Glass is the all time franchise leader in sacks according to Pro Football Reference (at least for now) with 77.5, done in 94 career games.

Matthews made four straight all star appearances (1985-89) and is second in Browns history in sacks with 75.

Garrett is still compiling numbers. In terms of AP First Team All-NFL, his two honors (’20 and ’21) tie Perry and Dixon among Browns defenders. And barring injury, he will become the franchise’s all-time sack leader this year as he is three behind Glass’ total.

And although there is no Pro Bowl game anymore, no doubt he will continue to add to his appearances, and if he gets to six, he will join Thomas, Brown, Kelly, Lou Groza, Gene Hickerson, and Dick Schafrath with that total. (NOTE: Likely Joel Bitonio as well, he has five currently)

So, what is the answer to the question of who is the Browns’ best defensive player since 1960? Right now, it’s up for debate, but in a year or two, there will be no doubt that it is Myles Garrett.

Analyzing The Browns? To Us, It’s All On Watson

Every once in a while, we talk about the sports media in northeast Ohio being obsessed by the Cleveland Browns. We have three major league professional sports teams in the area, but we believe it is safe to say at least 85% of the coverage, both print and broadcast wise, is focused on the NFL team in town.

Over the past two weeks, the organized team activities (OTAs) have taken place, and from what we have heard and read, we believe the Browns have a solid chance to win the OTA Super Bowl, because they have looked great these past two weeks.

Really, they are a glorified practice without pads and in shorts, akin to playing touch football. Now, we understand the coaching staff has started to put the schemes in place, so the players will be ready with training camp open for real at the end of July.

So, we aren’t saying they aren’t important, but remember, this week’s activities are the only ones that are mandatory. Players don’t have to attend, and some of the team’s best players have not been there, but somehow Myles Garrett is the one who appears to have been singled out by many folks.

Those critics will claim Garrett should be there because he’s a leader on the team, but we think Nick Chubb and Joel Bitonio are both important voices in the locker room, and neither have appeared at the OTAs. What makes Garrett different?

We are sure Garrett has been in contact with Kevin Stefanski and new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and is up to speed on what the team is doing these past two weeks. Heck, he may be talking to both of them on an everyday basis.

If those two aren’t concerned, then the media and public shouldn’t be either, not that we would know if anyone in Berea is upset. They generally don’t tell anyone anything.

But we digress.

There is so much conversation about the Browns when really the evaluation of this football team is quite simple to us. It hinges on QB Deshaun Watson.

Quite simply, if Watson plays like he did in his last three seasons in Houston, the Browns will be playoff contenders at the very least.

In those three years, Watson completed 68.3%, 67.3%, and 70.2% of his throws and had at least 3800 passing yards in each, culminating in a league leading 4823 yards in 2020. Houston went 11-5 in the first of those years, and 10-6 in the second, before their defense allowed the sixth most points in the NFL in ’20, resulting in a 4-12 record.

If Watson plays like he did in his six game return a year ago, with a 58.2% completion rate, then the Browns will not be any good, and likely will be looking for a new coach for 2024.

And if the latter occurs, Cleveland is basically screwed because of the enormous price the franchise paid for Watson, which of course included three first-round draft picks.

It would also start once again the search for a franchise quarterback, something the Browns have been looking for since Bernie Kosar started getting banged up physically. That’s a road no one should be willing to revisit.

So, whether people like it or not, it’s all on Watson. Personally, we feel he was one of the top five QBs in the sport in Houston and we see no reason why he cannot return to that form.

However, it’s seeming weird that folks want to invent all kinds of other scenarios for the Browns’ success. They added a top-notch defensive coordinator with a history of success.

The roster is dotted with stars on both sides of the ball.

If Watson is the Watson of old, there is no reason for not having a playoff season.

Browns Use Free Agency To Balance Roster

Back in the late 70’s or early 80’s, we remember an essay in Bill James’ Baseball Abstract about the Montreal Expos. The Expos at the time had Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Tim Wallach, Ellis Valentine, and Warren Cromartie (look them up), but couldn’t get over the hump to win the division.

James’ theory was even though Montreal had these five great players, the rest of their everyday lineup was so poor, it offset how good the stars were.

You may ask what that has to do with football. We thought about this in evaluating what the Cleveland Browns did in free agency.

You see, the Browns have star players. Myles Garrett is one of the best defensive players in the NFL, and Nick Chubb is arguably the best running back.

They have their quarterback now after trading for Deshaun Watson, and have a pair of Pro Bowl guards in Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller. Amari Cooper is an upper echelon wide receiver, Denzel Ward is one of the better cover corners in the league, and David Njoku is showing flashes of becoming an excellent receiving tight end.

But after those stars, the roster fell off pretty quickly in terms of quality.

So, although many Browns’ fans felt there were no big splashes in terms of free agency (Jessie Bates or Javon Hargrave), they signed a lot of solid players with upside, so the balance of the roster went from a “2” to a “5”, and that is probably what is needed.

GM Andrew Berry redid the defensive line, signing Dalvin Tomlinson and Ogbonnia Okoronkwo initially, and then added two more defensive tackles as wild cards, low risk, high reward players to improve the depth.

They didn’t get the kind of production out of John Johnson III the past two years, so they signed Juan Thornhill, more of a pass defending safety, and one rated higher by Pro Football Focus, for whatever that is worth.

They had two solid wide receivers in Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones, but they lacked speed, a guy who could take a short pass and make it a big gain. So Berry traded for disgruntled WR Elijah Moore, the 34th overall pick two years ago, and followed that up by signing veteran Marquise Goodwin, late of Seattle.

Cleveland also added a tight end who has worked with Watson before in Jordan Akins.

They traded the 42nd overall pick for Moore but got a third-round pick back. Some of criticized dealing the pick, the highest Cleveland had, but moving it for someone who is 22-years-old and has had two productive seasons in the NFL already? No brainer.

They also upgraded the special teams, adding Matt Adams, Mike Ford, and Jordan Kunaszyk.

We understand all teams think they are better after the free agent period, no team plans to get worse by adding talent. But the Browns had a very top heavy roster in 2022, and Berry and the front office needed to balance it out for this year.

Didn’t they see this last season? It’s a good question, because we thought the organization seemed to punt in ’22 because of Watson’s suspension. It seems odd to do this when you haven’t won an NFL title since 1964, but…

The Cleveland Browns made a lot of changes since the end of the season. Two coordinators have been changed, and a good part of the roster has too. Unfortunately, we have to wait until fall to find out if the latest plan worked.

Browns Fill Needs In Free Agency (Which Is What They Should Do)

We believe that in no other sport is coaching as important as it is in football. Think about it. Teams go from last place to first place all the time in the NFL. Sometimes, it’s about the schedule, but a lot of the time it is because a new coach or coordinator comes in and puts in a new scheme which better suits the players.

By the way, the opposite is also true. There are a lot of coach who try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Those coaches usually hit the unemployment line pretty quick.

We think the Cleveland Browns believed after last season ended that bringing in Jim Schwartz as defensive coordinator would improve that unit even if they didn’t do anything to improve the personnel on that side of the ball.

But we also think when Schwartz came aboard, he did specify some needs to make the defense better and that’s why the first free agent signings GM Andrew Berry made were on the defensive line.

Last year, it seemed the pass rush strategy was if Myles Garrett can’t get to the quarterback, then there was a problem. After Garrett’s 16 sacks, which ranked second in the league, the next highest total by a Brown was DT Taven Bryan. He had three.

That’s why Berry signed Ogbannia Okoronkwo, an edge rusher who played for Houston last season.

Okoronkwo, who played linebacker in his first three years in the league with the Rams, was converted to the defensive line last year and had five sacks and 11 QB hits last season, both career highs. He will be 28 years old next month and is seen as an ascending player.

At the very least, he will provide more outside pressure on opposing passers than the Browns received last year from the other side of Garrett.

Defensive tackle was perhaps the biggest problem for the Browns last year, so Berry signed 29-year-old Dalvin Tomlinson, late of Minnesota, to provide a huge presence in the middle of the defense.

Tomlinson is 6’3″ and 325 pounds and get after the QB in addition to being a run stuffer. He had 2.5 sacks last season. That would have put him third on the 2022 Browns.

The Cleveland defense was woeful in stopping the run last season and we would bet that Schwartz told the brass that they needed more size in the middle to stop opposing teams from running at will. And don’t forget, putting teams in passing situations will also help Garrett, Okoronkwo, and everyone else in getting to the passer.

And last night, they replaced John Johnson III by signing Juan Thornhill, previously with the Super Bowl champion Chiefs.

Thornhill has started 52 games in his four seasons in KC, intercepting eight passes.

We are sure there are some more signings (and probably contract restructuring) to come. We would love to add a wide receiver with speed and very good run after the catch ability.

And of course, there is still the draft coming up at the end of April. The Browns don’t have many picks and frankly, we wouldn’t be surprised if they trade their first pick (#42) for a veteran.

Berry and Kevin Stefanski feel the need to win next year. It takes a special rookie to high at a high level in year one and that’s what these two needs.

With Deshaun Watson able to play from day one, the Browns have no excuses right now. And that’s how they should be approaching the off-season.

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.

Worry Season In Full Effect For Browns Fans

Since it seems like the entire northeast Ohio region is football obsessed, at least the broadcast and print media that is, there are various stages of the year for the pigskin folks.

Of course, from late July to January, everyone is focused on the play on the field, unless of course, the team starts out 0-5 and then we have continuous draft talk until April. But in a year where the Browns remain in playoff contention for most of the season, the weeks following the end of the regular season is spent talking about who should be assigned blame for not winning the Super Bowl.

Since Kevin Stefanski did not get fired and Joe Woods did, that part of the year has passed, so people have moved on to the needlessly worrying about next season phase.

Or Myles Garrett’s dislocated toe.

There is a whole lot of time between now and when training camp opens in late July, and we doubt that Andrew Berry and the rest of the front office are hibernating in some cave, ready to arise shortly before the draft.

One of our favorite lazy sportstalk topics usually happens in the week before the conference title games, when the question is asked: How can the Browns compete with the two teams in the game?

The answer is quite simple. Right now, they can’t. But that’s what the off-season is for.

We are pretty confident Berry, Paul DePodesta, and Stefanski know their team has a bunch of holes to fill, and they will do their best to accomplish that.

Here is where the worrying comes in. They have no draft picks, though. The Browns should trade Nick Chubb or Denzel Ward, or even Myles Garrett to get draft picks to improve the roster.

Remember, the Browns stripped down the roster to get a bunch of draft picks and in the process went 1-15 and 0-16. With all of those picks, they have one playoff appearance, and the last two seasons of unfulfilled playoff hopes.

The reality is there are several ways to upgrade the roster. The first will come when the new league year starts and there will be free agents to be signed. And yes, we know Cleveland is currently over the salary cap, which means they are likely working behind the scenes with several highly paid veterans to restructure their current deals to free up some money.

They also can release players too.

The worry has even been linked to Deshaun Watson. What if he never regains the ability he had with Houston?

Watson is 27 years old and he didn’t miss almost two full seasons due to injury. Did he struggle when he returned for the last six games of the regular season? Of course. Still, this is a guy who was one of the top five or six quarterbacks in the game when he played his last full season in 2020.

Yes, the Texans finished 4-12, but their offense put up 30 or more points in five games. Houston was 2-3 in those games. Watson threw 7 interceptions that season. He threw five in the six games with Cleveland, and we will remind you two of those contests were played in terrible conditions.

While it’s a possibility Watson will never be an elite QB again, we are comfortable the Browns will have very good a top guy at the position, and for all the X’s and O’s Stefanski and Watson discussed at the “recruiting” meeting, having the opportunity to see him first hand and work with him, we are sure the head coach has a better idea of how to get the best out of him.

Perhaps people and talk show hosts should relax and think about other things to discuss before they drive themselves crazy?