The Browns’ World Isn’t Ending Folks

We understand that 24 seasons of pretty much horrible football has made Cleveland Browns’ fans very sensitive. Three winning seasons since 1999 will do that to you.

However, logic seems to have gone out the window concerning this version of the Browns. Not to ignore the entire history of the expansion Browns, but the last three seasons have resulted in a 28-26 record under the Andrew Berry/Kevin Stefanski regime.

While not great, it’s a far cry from the 4-44 record from 2015-17 or the 27-69 mark from 2008-2013. Cleveland football fans have seen plenty of not just bad football, but historically bad football.

They should know better that that’s not the 2023 Cleveland Browns.

First of all, this team has a great defense, and by the end of the year, we might be able to say it is the best defense the Browns have had since we can remember, which dates back to 1965.

They have an excellent pass rush, led by Myles Garrett, who is the best pass rusher the franchise has ever had. And he has a lot of help in Za’Darius Smith, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, Shelby Harris, and Dalvin Tomlinson.

They are good and deep. Jim Schwartz’ unit also has an outstanding secondary. Last year, Martin Emerson and Denzel Ward led the team in passes defended with 15 for the entire season. And only Grant Delpit also was in double figures with 10.

This season, Ward already has 5, Emerson 3, and three other players have 2. We understand the Baltimore game was a disappointment but check again. It was really one bad quarter.

Good defense keeps you in every game and gives you a chance to win. And barring injuries, the Cleveland Browns are very good on that side of the football.

Fans are convinced there is something seriously wrong with Deshaun Watson, and maybe there is, but we doubt it. He won’t play tomorrow, but should be back in a week or two, and let’s not forget he is coming off his best game as a Brown.

If he’s out for a longer period, the team is pretty much screwed offensively. But that’s nothing new, we have been saying that since the end of last season. He is the key to making a playoff run.

Look, the Browns handled the situation poorly. Before the Ravens’ game, we are sure they were betting on Watson’s durability and history of pain tolerance. Once he didn’t play that game, they should have been more transparent. Not doing so, opens the organization up for questions about being secretive.

And if he’s back, look at the rest of the schedule. Now, we don’t like to play the “schedule game”, but it would seem to us that after tomorrow’s game, the schedule isn’t overly difficult.

We also know you have to play the game on the field (which we would also say for today) but we see some teams we would classify as terrible remaining: Arizona (sorry, Jon Gannon), Denver, Chicago, and a Jets team without Aaron Rodgers.

Also, we would consider the games against the Rams, Texans, and Colts very winnable, especially if Watson is playing. If they emerge victorious in those contests, that’s nine wins and that makes them a playoff contender.

Again, there are a lot of variables to consider, especially injuries. However, even with a loss tomorrow, there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the Cleveland Browns.

Imagine that…the words optimism and Browns in the same sentence.

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.