Fair Or Not, Browns Need To Show Progress

Based on the emotionality of Cleveland Browns’ fans, we shouldn’t be surprised that the frustration level is rising after a 41-17 drubbing at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens last Sunday.

And when that happens, you hear fans calling for the head coach’s job, even though they have played just two games.

In reality, if ownership or the front office would be willing to move on from Kevin Stefanski following two games, then they shouldn’t have brought him back for the 2025 season. If a coach starts the season on the hot seat, the team should have fired him.

It’s simply not fair.

On the other hand, reports that GM Andrew Berry and Stefanski being safe no matter what happens are probably a load of bull as well. The Browns were 3-14 a year ago, and we doubt another final record not showing improvement won’t play well with the Haslam family. You certainly can’t have back-to-back seasons like that in the NFL.

We have been a supporter of Stefanski over the years, mostly because he has made the playoffs twice and also because at some point, you have to stop the cycle of changing coaches every two or three years. This is Stefanski’s sixth season, so the latter has been accomplished.

Stefanski’s strength is offense, he came to the Browns after serving as the Vikings’ offensive coordinator, but the last time Cleveland scored more than 17 points in a game was game #13 for the Browns a year ago, a 41-32 loss to Denver. That’s a seven-game span.

We think he wants to run the ball. With Minnesota, his offense ranked fourth in the NFL in rushing attempts and in his first four years in Cleveland, the Browns were in the top ten. Of course, he had Dalvin Cook with the Vikings and Nick Chubb here, so of course you would want to run it.

Since Chubb got hurt last year, the Browns are throwing the ball a lot. It would be great if they had a tremendous stable of wide receivers, but they don’t. Through two games, the leading receivers are rookie TE Harold Fannin and rookie RB Dylan Sampson.

The team drafted Quinshon Judkins in the second round, presumably to be the primary runner, and hopefully, he gets a heavy dose of carries going forward. So, we shall see if that’s the case.

We will say that it’s hard to run the ball without solid offensive line play, and right now, it doesn’t look like the Browns have that. They didn’t really bother to make changes in the off-season, signing a couple of reverses in Cornelius Lucas and Teven Jenkins, and bringing back the oft-injured Jack Conkin.

Perhaps a change there is in order. Dawand Jones has struggled at left tackle, but does the team have an option? It has been said they like Luke Wypler, who missed last season with an injury, so why not take a look at him?

But we digress. The point is the NFL, and all professional sports are results based, and right now Kevin Stefanski needs to show some results. It’s only two games in, but the natives are getting restless. A few more games like last Sunday, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, and the discontent will get louder.

QB Or No, Browns Need Offensive Help In Draft

Most of the recent debate about the second overall pick in the NFL Draft for the Cleveland Browns is whether or not they should take a quarterback or Penn State’s edge rusher Abdul Carter.

Most analysts say Carter is one of the top three players eligible for the selection process, while those same pundits have the top two quarterbacks, Cam Ward and Shadeur Sanders, outside of the top ten.

However, because QB is so important, every year, passers ranked lower than many players at other positions get taken higher because if you don’t have one, you need to get one.

Carter might wind up being a fine pro, possibly a Pro Bowl player, and certainly could be a fine addition to any NFL team. However, the Browns’ defense ranked 19th in the league in yards allowed last season, 13th in sacks, and 9th in pressuring the quarterback.

They allowed the 5th most points, but we will get to that later.

On the other hand, the Browns’ offense was 28th in yards gained, dead last in points scored, and was the 4th worse rushing team in the NFL. And they also turned it over more than any other team in the league except for Tennessee, who they were tied with at 34.

Simply put, the offense has to improve.

If Cleveland isn’t sold on Sanders at #2 (assuming Ward will be the first overall pick), then they need to trade down, get more picks, and get some players who can help on the offensive side of the football.

The Browns have an aging offensive line, although they did sign Teven Jenkins, who has started 38 games in his four-year career, including 14 starts a year ago. They have one solid wide receiver in Jerry Jeudy, and the running back spot also needs an upgrade.

For years, the Browns had Nick Chubb, perhaps the best (in our opinion, the best) runner in the league. Last year, Jerome Ford led the team in rushing with a paltry 565 yards, but he doesn’t consistently get the four or five yards on first down needed in Kevin Stefanski’s offense.

He is kind of a home run hitter, capable of breaking off a long one, but again, lacks consistency.

By the way, we still want the Browns to sign Chubb because of what he means to the franchise, and also to see what he can be after another off-season of rehab on his knee.

Yes, the Browns ran an offensive scheme last season totally unlike anything they ran under Stefanski since he arrived as head coach. And with Ken Dorsey gone, all indications are they are going back to that style of attack.

But they need to upgrade the talent on offense and still get a quarterback somewhere in the first round. This is a draft supposedly loaded with running backs, so could they trade out of #2, draft a back at say around #10, and trade back into the first round, albeit late, to get a young QB?

That could be a possible scenario. We would like to get more choices in the draft, because the Browns need to get younger and faster on both sides of the ball.

Yes, another pass rusher would be nice. We have said too often it appeared the team’s plan was for Myles Garrett to get there. There was no “Plan B”.

But you have to score more points and have a respectful offense. One of the reasons for the high total of points allowed by the Browns is the offense couldn’t stay on the field and turned it over way too much.

Cleveland’s offense was dreadful in 2024. That shouldn’t be swept under the rug.

Garrett Is In Concert With The Fans In Saying Get It Fixed

Myles Garrett caused quite the commotion last Friday in his weekly chat with the media, telling the Browns’ front office to get their act together.

And as usual, there was a lot of overreaction from the media and Browns’ fans.

First, Garrett did not ask to be traded. In fact, he said he wanted to finish his career with the Browns. He said he did not want to be part of a long rebuilding program such as the one the team started in 2016 when they stripped it down and rebuilt from the ground up.

Garrett was the first pick in the ’17 draft after Cleveland went 1-15. He played on a team that went 0-16 in his rookie year.

He will also be 29 years old next season and understands his NFL future isn’t going to be lengthy.

We compare it to LeBron James’ second tenure with the Cavaliers in which he continually put pressure on the front office to put a winning team on the court. He didn’t want to be on a real good team, he wanted to be with a group that can compete for titles.

Garrett has played for the Browns eight seasons and has participated in three playoff games, winning one. He will likely be named to his sixth Pro Bowl this season, and of course was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year following last season.

And when he retires, he will likely head to Canton to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

Since 1960, he’s the greatest defensive player the Browns have ever had. He’s just would like to see how the team is going to compete next year and the following seasons. He’s tired of wasting his talents on what has turned out to be a mess of a season.

In a way, Garrett was talking for the fans. He was on a squad that made the playoffs a year ago, with coaching and leadership that guided the team through four different quarterbacks.

After the season, the front office decided to make wholesale changes to that coaching staff and overhaul an offense that proved to be pretty effective.

Gone were people like Alex Van Pelt, Bill Callahan, and Stump Mitchell. Since Cleveland’s first run to the playoffs in 2020, the Browns have been a running team, led of course by Nick Chubb. In the defensive end’s comments Friday, he talked about the lack of a running game this year, and how that impacts his side of the ball.

He probably can’t believe after all these years; wholesale changes were made to a winning season. Frankly, we thought the same.

And all the changes were made to suit a quarterback who came here with great numbers but hasn’t really produced since he arrived in town.

As the best player on the team, he feels it is fair for the powers that be show him what the plan is going forward. Maybe he saw the reports that they were planning to give Deshaun Watson a shot at the QB job next year, and he knows that’s not going to work.

Perhaps he just wants to be reassured this isn’t going to be another total rebuild again. Teams in the NFL go from fourth to first place every year, why can’t the Browns do the same thing next season?

That 1-15 team that Garrett and David Njoku arrived to play with didn’t have players like Denzel Ward, Grant Delpit, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Jerry Jeudy, and Wyatt Teller on it.

We are sure the front office’s plan didn’t include making their best player upset.

Garrett is with the fans on this. He’s saying to the front office, “get it fixed”. He’s earned the right to make that comment.

This QB Looked A Lot Like The One Who Started The Year For Browns

The ugly season authored by the Cleveland Browns continued on Sunday with another abysmal offensive performance in a 24-6 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the Queen City dropping their record to 3-12.

It was the 10th time this season the Browns failed to gain 300 yards of total offense. Of the five games they exceeded that total, Jameis Winston was at the controls in four of them.

Dorian Thompson-Robinson was the starting quarterback and frankly, the offense looked a lot like it did in the first seven games with Deshaun Watson at the helm. He was skittish in the pocket, looked to escape very early, not giving receivers a chance, and of course, running himself into sacks.

The game started promising for the Browns as Jerome Ford ripped off a 66-yard run on the game’s very first play. But true to the Ken Dorsey offense, Ford carried just nine more times on the day, gaining 92 yards on the ground as Cleveland felt the need to have a very inexperienced QB throw 34 passes.

The Browns rank 28th in rushing attempts and 27th in yardage this season, which is by far the worst ranking for any offense coordinated or guided as a head coach by Kevin Stefanski.

Until last year, his teams were always in the top ten in rushing, and last season finished 12th and that was with Nick Chubb being injured in the second game of the year.

And when you think about it, the identity of the Cleveland Browns is the running game, tough, physical football. The greatest running back in the history of the game, Jim Brown, played here.

So did Marion Motley, Leroy Kelly, Greg Pruitt, Mike Pruitt, Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner both gained 1000 yards in the same season, and of course, Chubb has been one of the best runners of the last 10-15 years of NFL football.

It’s in the DNA to run the ball in Cleveland, and currently the Browns have an offensive coordinator who doesn’t like to run the ball.

Apparently, Stefanski’s success of running the football and using the play action pass didn’t figure into the decision in choosing the offensive coordinator because their ideas on offense seem to be at odds with each other.

To us, the first step to making this football team respectable when it has the football is to go back to the identity of the franchise and what the head coach clearly likes to do, and that is establish a solid running attack.

Back to Sunday’s loss. After that opening run by Ford, the Browns got no points because D’Onta Foreman fumbled on the one-yard line, presumably his last carry as a member of the brown and orange.

Cleveland’s biggest weapon of late, WR Jerry Jeudy was made useless by the switch in quarterbacks from Winston to Thompson-Robinson, who mostly dinked and dunked with short passes to Ford and David Njoku.

The turnover issues didn’t end with Winston’s benching as DTR threw two, and his career ratio now stands at one touchdown and nine picks in 180 attempts. We think we can all see he is not a legitimate starter in the NFL.

Congratulations to Myles Garrett on getting his 100th sack of his illustrious career. The front office has work to do in rebuilding this roster quick so Garrett will want to remain a Brown.

And of course, Dustin Hopkins missed an extra point, his only kick of the day. His confidence is clearly shaken, and he should not be kicking any more this year.

Not that these last two games really matter. It will be interesting to see at what point Stefanski pulls the plug on the DTR experience and goes to Bailey Zappe.

Merry Christmas! The Browns don’t play until Sunday!

Mistakes, Turnovers, And Other Assorted Errors Lead To Yet Another Loss

When you lose the turnover margin 6-0 in an NFL game, we would guess the odds are monumental against winning the game, so perhaps the best thing we can say about the Cleveland Browns is they only lost 21-7 to the defending Super Bowl champs despite that turnover margin.

The game started well with the defense forcing a three and out, but unbelievably, James Proche fumbled the punt and Kansas City recovered and quickly scored a touchdown.

It was the first of several special teams’ errors, mostly penalties, although Proche also caught a punt inside the five-yard line, and fair caught a few more because we assume he was cautious about fumbling another one.

Jameis Winston was benched after throwing three interceptions for the second game in the last three games and has now thrown eight the last three contests. Who starts next week? Our guess would be Dorian Thompson-Robinson, although on a postgame show, both Josh Cribbs (can he come back and return kicks) and Eric Metcalf both thought Winston still is the best option.

Before the game, it was reported that the team could bring back Deshaun Watson next year. We understand Watson is still under contract, but why would anyone in the organization leak that news, especially now? If asked about him, just say “no comment”.

Whether or not the Browns stay with Winston, there is simply no way you can bring Watson into training camp next summer, salary cap hit or not. Seeing his name infuriates most fans, so what is the point of having discussions about him?

Back to the game, another downer was the injury to Nick Chubb, lost for the season with a broken foot. Chubb did lose a rare fumble, but also had 41 yards on nine carries, and seems to be getting some of his explosiveness back. The last two games he has 20 carries for 89 yards, more like traditional Chubb numbers.

The Browns need to bring him back next year.

Also, kudos to Jerry Jeudy who caught 11 passes for 108 yards, his third 100+ game in the last five and we went over the 1000-yard mark on receptions, the first time he accomplished this.

We were concerned about him early in the year, but he has found a rhythm with Winston, so at least there is that.

As happens on losing teams, players seem to play their way off the roster. Last week, we mentioned Kadarious Toney and Dustin Hopkins. This week, we became tired of Germain Ifedi, who can’t seem to get lined up correctly (and picked a dumb unsportsmanlike conduct penalty last week).

Geron Christian started last season for the Browns at left tackle and did a decent job, and he’s with the team. Why not start him for the rest of the year?

We already discussed Proche, but let us add Elijah Moore, who kind of has no role with the team. Moore was supposed to be kind of an all-purpose player who can make big plays, but he’s averaging 8.7 yards per reception on his 55 catches.

Let’s just say, we’d like to see more of Michael Woods II and Jamari Thrash going forward.

Three games left in this dreadful season. Who takes the snaps next week at Cincinnati? The guess would be Thompson-Robinson, but who knows, perhaps it’s Bailey Zappe.

It feels like the season can’t be over soon enough.

A Winston Air Show Gets Grounded Late Monday

The Cleveland Browns put up a lot of points Monday night, but they gave up a lot as well, and yes, they also gave Denver two touchdowns in a 41-32 loss in Colorado to drop their record to a still disappointing 3-9.

Many folks painted the game as the full Jameis Winston experience because he threw two interceptions that resulted in Bronco touchdowns. We get it, his history shows he throws picks.

You know who didn’t throw passes to the other team? Deshaun Watson. He also never threw for 300 yards in a game (heck, not even 200 this year), he couldn’t pick up first downs, he couldn’t keep the offense on the field, and he made the wide receiver positions into glorified blockers.

We would rather have a QB that threatens the defense. Winston does that. Six different Browns’ receivers caught passes that gained 13 yards or more. Jerry Jeudy looked like a terrible deal for Cleveland until Winston was at the helm. Monday night, he caught 9 passes for 235 yards and Elijah Moore had a 100 yard game at well.

Yes, the interceptions are an issue. So is having to put the ball in the air 58 times because the Browns simply don’t have a running game right now. They did run it 23 times but gained just 77 yards.

It’s not just Nick Chubb coming off an injury either. We are 12 games into the season and Cleveland’s leading rusher is Jerome Ford with a paltry 339 yards. Ford has the longest run this year (36 yards) and the second longest run is by backup QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson with a 34-yard scamper.

The third longest? D’Onta Foreman, who can’t even get on the field anymore with a 25-yard carry.

Whether or not the Browns stay with Winston in 2025 or not, what the last five games has shown is that Watson was the problem, something that many people (including us) thought after the first couple of games this season, and some of those folks had their doubts before that.

You have to think if Winston had replaced Watson earlier, the Browns may not be 3-9 right now, and throw in the incredible decision to have Thompson-Robinson be the backup against Cincinnati, the game Watson got hurt, and could the team have a 5-7 record right now?

We don’t think that would be a reach.

And while Winston does throw picks (his interception % is 7th in the league, FYI Jordan Love of Green Bay is 3rd), he also 10th in the NFL in average yards per pass attempt, which is an important statistic.

The leader in this category is Detroit’s Jared Goff, and others in the top ten are Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson, but Winston ranks ahead of Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, and C.J. Stroud.

Those guys are pretty good.

Besides the turnovers, the defense was problematic as well, allowing 28 points and 400 yards of offense to a team led by a rookie quarterback. It was the third time Jim Schwartz’ group has allowed at least 400 yards, all of them in the last eight games.

In the season’s first four contests, the most yards allowed was 340 by the Giants of all teams.

The loss of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Za’Darius Smith have hurt, but outside of Denzel Ward, who is having a tremendous season, the secondary has been shaky as well.

What is frustrating is there are periods when they absolutely shut teams down, and other possessions it is just big play after big play.

Oh, and Dustin Hopkins missed another field goal, his seventh miss of the year. He ranks second last in field goal percentage after being 11th a year ago.

The Browns should probably add kicker to the list of needs in 2025.

We would keep Jameis Winston as the starter going forward and if people really want to see Thompson-Robinson, start him in the last two games, at home vs. Miami and on the road against the Ravens.

Our guess is you will see he is nothing more than a backup.

Browns Turned Back The Clock To 2023 Thursday Night

The Cleveland Browns turned back the clock to 2023 for at least one night in their 24-19 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in a winter wonderland on Thursday night.

Kevin Stefanski’s crew seemed to be embarrassed by a real or perceived lack of effort in the loss to the Saints in which Taysom Hill ran, threw, and caught all over the Cleveland defense, leading New Orleans to three fourth quarter touchdowns.

There were no major glitches in the operation, showing the Browns can win football games if they eliminated silly mistakes.

Myles Garrett spoke to the team before the game and then went out and backed it up on the field with his second three sack game in the last three, and one of the sacks caused a fumble which Cleveland recovered.

Jameis Winston gave the Browns solid quarterbacking play completing 18 of 27 passes for 217 yards. It was the kind of performance that Cleveland has received since Stefanski became the head coach, except for when P.J. Walker was at the helm.

Oh, and that other guy. Deshaun Watson.

It was Winston’s fourth straight game with more than 200 yards passing and we mention this because in the seven games Watson started, he never reached that figure.

We wondered after the game, playing the great “what if” game, what would have happened if the Browns replaced Watson at QB after the third game of the season, a loss to the equally woeful Giants, when Cleveland gained just 212 yards in total offense.

Or the following week after a loss to Las Vegas, or the following week after a terrible non-competitive loss to the Commanders.

Would they have two or maybe three more wins right now? Heck, we believe if Winston would have been the back up against Cincinnati instead of the bizarre decision to have it be Dorian Thompson-Robinson, they may have defeated the Bengals.

And despite an analysis of the game which asked why Cleveland threw the ball so much in the snowy conditions, it was about a fifty-fifty split, with 27 running plays, although one of them was a scramble by Winston (which resulted in a TD).

Nick Chubb’s numbers were up to his stats in 2020-2022, but he carried 20 times for 59 yards and two touchdowns, his most carries of the season. He still hasn’t busted one for 25-30 yards, but the flashes are there.

One group of people who probably weren’t happy with the win were the people expecting a coaching change perhaps after a loss to the Steelers, and definitely after the season.

Several national football writers have said that is not imminent, but although we would not fire Kevin Stefanski, who by the way, seems to have the Browns competitive within the division, but we would not run it back with the same group in 2025.

We would definitely consider a new offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. And you have to question why the organization has ignored looking for a replacement/back up for Chubb, and why they can’t find a pass rusher opposite Garrett.

The remaining schedule is tough, without a doubt, but there are winnable games remaining, and the Browns need to continue to show the effort and mistake free football they played with Thursday night.

The Creative Browns Find Another Way To Lose

There are years where teams are destined to do well. They get every break. Players come out of nowhere to make positive contributions.

Conversely, there are years when everything goes wrong for a team. And that’s the only way we think you can explain the Cleveland Browns right now.

Some of it was self-fabricated, no doubt. When you finish 11-6 and make the playoffs and then replace most of your offensive coaching staff, you kind of deserve what happens to you.

It is utterly amazing to have a starting quarterback throw for 395 yards, two touchdowns, and not turn the ball over and still score just 14 points. It should have been 20 points if not for two missed field goals by Dustin Hopkins, who was 18 of 21 from beyond 40 yards a year ago, and this season has missed six kicks.

Hopkins missed a 32-yard attempt which was nullified by penalty and then missed a 27 yarder right before halftime.

There have been too many games this season where the defense played well enough to win for Cleveland, but yesterday wasn’t one of them. They were atrocious. They allowed 200 rushing yards for the second time this season, and a season high of 473 yards.

If you can’t stop the run, you can’t win. And the Browns’ defense has held opponents under 100 just twice all year.

Taysom Hill, a 34-year-old QB/TE/RB looked like someone bound for Canton. When he’s in the game, you have to figure the ball is going to him, yet Cleveland allowed him to rush for 138 yards and three touchdowns, catch eight passes for 50 yards and complete a pass for 18 more.

And he turned it over twice!

Don’t forget, besides the two missed field goals, the special teams allowed a 53-yard punt return and returned three kickoffs for an average of 18.5 yards. Cleveland hasn’t had a viable kick returner since Josh Cribbs and it shouldn’t be that difficult to find a decent one, let alone someone as dynamic as Cribbs.

The one thing we feared was a seeming lack of effort from some of the players, which could cost Kevin Stefanski his job. The optics weren’t good in New Orleans where it appeared players were going through the motions at times.

What can be done at this point in the season?

Perhaps some accountability is in order. It will be tough because of the short week before Thursday’s game vs. Pittsburgh, but the Browns will then have some time off before a Monday night game at Denver.

If players aren’t putting forth maximum effort, then they should lose playing time or a roster spot. After all, with the playoffs out of the question, shouldn’t the coaching staff and front office be looking towards next season and who can help then?

Hopefully, the players themselves will get together and put up more of a fight at home in a rivalry game in a couple of days. The thought of getting embarrassed in front of a national audience should be enough for some players.

As for the organization? It’s hard to trust them to make the correct decision heading into next season based on their actions surrounding the coaching staff and casting their lot with Deshaun Watson.

It’s a shame for the long time Browns such as Joel Bitonio, Myles Garrett, Nick Chubb, David Njoku, and Denzel Ward that what should have been a promising season has turned to garbage.

Another Loss And A New QB For Browns

The Cleveland Browns’ season just keeps going downhill faster and faster. Last Sunday’s loss started with the Bengals taking the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, and although the defense played pretty well, the Browns fell to 1-6 with a 21-14 loss to Cincinnati.

The other significant event in the game was QB Deshaun Watson apparently tearing his achilles tendon on a non-contact injury in the second quarter thus ending his season. Watson has now been with Cleveland three years and has yet to play in more than seven games in a season.

Inexplicably, that did not give veteran Jameis Winston a shot at playing QB. Winston was demoted to the #3 quarterback, available only if the first two passers were injured. Dorian Thompson-Robinson was designated as the backup and was lackluster at best, completing 11 of 24 throws for a paltry 82 yards.

After the game, we saw a number of media people touting Thompson-Robinson (DTR) as the starter next week, with the opinion that the Browns need to see what they have in him.

We don’t get it. First, he was a fifth-round draft pick, so he was far from highly regarded coming into the NFL. Second, what has he shown when he has been on the field to make anyone think he can be a viable NFL quarterback?

We know he didn’t prepare as a starter last week, but when he comes into the game, he looks like a gimmicky, run first QB. He’s doesn’t seem real accurate, and so far, six of his 136 NFL throws have been picked off.

As a comparison, Watson has had three interceptions in 216 passes this season.

Wouldn’t it be better to see if Winston can have a comeback to his career like Geno Smith, Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff, or Sam Darnold? And if the losing continues, they can always play DTR in the last couple of games.

Look, more than likely, the Browns are going to draft a QB with their first round pick next spring. Perhaps Winston can be your bridge quarterback to open next season if Watson isn’t ready or another move is made with him.

Anyway, back to the game. There were more mistakes. Motion penalties, illegal shifts, lining up offsides. We know the coaches don’t coach this, but there has to be consequences to habitual offenders. Perhaps the loss of some playing time would allow the message for these players to soak in.

The Browns couldn’t run the ball either, gaining just 77 yards on the ground with 44 of those yards on runs by Thompson-Robinson. The only good thing was seeing Nick Chubb back on the field, getting 22 yards on 11 carries. His longest run was five yards, but still it was great to see him back on the field after his terrible knee injury last year.

The defense played well mostly, although one of the Bengals’ touchdowns was a pass to Ja’Marr Chase with big play magnet Greg Newsome II in coverage. The defensive back just can’t avoid giving up a big play pretty much every week.

We would guess more players who were brought in for this season, veterans on one-year deals will be (and should be if possible) moved for draft picks before the trade deadline. We have no problem with that.

However, we don’t want to hear the word tanking. It breeds a losing environment that is tough to get rid of. Browns fans more than anyone else should understand that.

What needs to be done is getting a victory and getting back to the philosophy that worked for the most part over the last four seasons.

It won’t be easy for sure

Browns Flounder Through “Easy” Part Of The Schedule

When the NFL schedule was released, it appeared the first four games of the slate were the soft part of the season for the Cleveland Browns. Well, they now sit at 1-3 on the year after a 20-16 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, and it is getting late pretty quickly.

Now you never know for sure what is going to happen. We doubt many thought that out of the balance of the games before the bye week (Washington, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Baltimore, LA Chargers), that the Commanders would have the best record (3-1) at this point.

The Browns look like a team that hasn’t had a first-round pick for the last three years. They lack depth, particularly on the offensive line and at running back. As for the latter, don’t you think after Nick Chubb went down last season, the organization would have searched for a similar type of back?

We say that knowing Chubb is incredible, but we are talking about someone who can run effectively inside the tackles.

We continue to repeat the old football adage that remains true even though today’s NFL is a passing league: If you can’t run the ball and can’t stop the run, you are a bad football team.

Cleveland has run for 100 yards in a game this season just once, and true to form, it was the game they won, running for 125 against the Jaguars. Defensively, they have allowed 100 yards in every game, and it has deteriorated week by week, allowing a season low 102 in week one, and 152 last Sunday.

The pass rush still seems to be based solely on Myles Garrett, who is battling multiple injuries and still was the Browns’ best defender. He had the team’s only two sacks and half of the tackles for loss against the Raiders.

All that being said, the defense hasn’t allowed a lot of points after the season opener, and ranks 11th in yards allowed, a respectable ranking.

Which leads us back to the offense, which hasn’t scored 20 points in a game through four weeks, scoring a high of a paltry 17 points against the Jags. They have yet to gain 300 yards in a game, something they did 13 times last year, including five times with Watson at the helm before his shoulder injury.

Yes, the offensive line is banged up, but that doesn’t explain the total lack of production on this side of the ball. They still have Joel Bitonio and Ethan Pocic (although he was injured on Sunday) and Nick Harris has played before without issues.

And besides, they play well on the first drive of the game, so what happens after that?

The problem still comes back to the Deshaun Watson trade. The Browns could have drafted an offensive lineman, another pass rusher, and perhaps another running back with the pick moved to Houston to get Watson.

And it would have been worth it if they were getting a top five quarterback, but Watson has yet to show that, and at this point, he probably never will.

But how many other moves were made to protect the investment in that deal? They replaced a viable offensive coordinator. They let go a solid veteran backup quarterback.

The front office also keeps chasing stars in terms of playmaking hoping the coaching staff can keep producing quality offensive linemen.

Is the season over and should fans start looking to the 2025 NFL Draft? Not yet, but there has to be serious soul searching in Berea this week. And that should reach all the way to the top of the organization.