Browns Want Winning To Be Easy. It Just Doesn’t Happen That Way.

Comedian Steve Martin used to do a bit where he would tell the audience he could make a million dollars and not pay taxes. His first step was “get a million dollars”, like that’s the easiest thing in the world.

We bring this up because we think that’s how the Cleveland Browns view winning in the National Football League and they base every decision they make on one principal: Get a franchise quarterback.

But in reality, it’s not that easy. It’s not easy to find a great QB and once you have him, it’s not easy to achieve success.

You want proof? Under the Haslam family ownership, the Browns already went through a plan to tear the roster down to the studs to get the signal caller the franchise has been lacking since Bernie Kosar was unceremoniously released by Bill Belichick.

They went 1-15 in 2016, drafted Myles Garrett, the cornerstone of some great Browns’ defenses and the best defensive player in Cleveland history and followed that up by going 0-16 the following year and drafted Baker Mayfield, who will be at the helm today for Tampa Bay against his old team.

The Browns went 7-8-1 in Mayfield’s rookie season and there was hope the franchise could be contenders once again. They went to the playoffs in 2020 at 11-5 and even won a playoff game in Pittsburgh. But we guess making progress from that wasn’t easy enough, and after the following season the Browns went in hot pursuit of Deshaun Watson, a three-time Pro Bowl selection who led the NFL in passing yards in ’20, the same year Mayfield was guiding the team to the playoffs.

Why go after Watson? Because the front office thought he was better, and therefore it would be easier to make a run at the playoffs every season.

Again, let’s go back to 2020. The worst record in the NFL that season belonged to Jacksonville at 1-15 and they selected Trevor Lawrence as the first overall pick. They went 3-14, followed by making the playoffs at 9-8 and winning a playoff game under Doug Pederson. They had the same record in Lawrence’s third season, before dropping to 4-13.

The Jags didn’t give up on Lawrence and go after some shiny new keys jangled in their direction, but changed coaches bringing in Liam Coen, and went 13-4 last season. We don’t know how it will play out, but Lawrence looks like a player worthy of the first overall pick.

As for Mayfield, he’s directed the Buccaneers to two playoff appearances and a win in his three seasons, and if probably in the top half at the position in the sport. The shiny new toy in Watson? Browns fans know all too well how that’s working out.

Yes, you need a quarterback, but there is so much more a franchise needs to win consistently year in and year out. And tanking is a ridiculous way to try. We bring this up all the time, look at the best QBs in the league right now, how many were taken with a top three pick? The list is short, Matthew Stafford and Joe Burrow. Lawrence might be on the cusp.

Here’s another example. The Miami Dolphins had Dan Marino and Don Shula, arguably the best coach in NFL history together. They made it to one Super Bowl, in Marino’s rookie season.

So, note to the front office. It’s not easy and stop thinking getting your QB solves all your problems. A solid roster, offense, defense, depth, good coaching are all parts of the puzzle. Until you get all the pieces, the puzzle isn’t complete.

Do You Trust Anyone In Berea?

The NFL Draft is about a month away and as usual Browns’ fans are both excited and showing their undying loyalty. It’s the tanking crowd, and one radio talk show host even recently said it is becoming irresponsible for the Browns not to trade Myles Garrett because he’s making the Browns too good to get one of the top three picks in the draft.

First of all, if you trade Garrett for say four first round picks, the odds of one of those players being even close to Garrett as a player is slim. The two-time defensive player of the year is headed to Canton when his playing days are over. And since 1999, the Browns have drafted two such players.

The Browns believe and have sold their fan base on the idea that there is one way to build a winning football team. Be bad enough to get a very high draft pick, let’s say top five, and draft a franchise quarterback. It seems like that is their only plan. They are always talking about “kicking the can down the road” until the following year to see if that can happen.

Apparently, that’s how other NFL teams have done it.

Oh, no they don’t.

The current NFL champion Seattle Seahawks worst season since 2010 has been a 7-10 record in 2021. The previous champ, the Eagles, have had two four win seasons in that same time span, but after their most recent poor season, they drafted a wide receiver in the first round.

Kansas City, who has won three Super Bowls since 2019, had one terrible season since 2010, a 2-14 record in ’12, following which they drafted Eric Fisher, an offensive tackle with their first selection in the next draft.

To be fair, the Rams won in ’21 and kind of did get their QB that way. Following a 4-12 season in 2016, the drafted Jared Goff with the first overall pick, and traded him for Matthew Stafford, a former first overall pick, who led them to their Super Bowl triumph.

So surely, getting a quarterback with a top three pick guarantees success. Three of the four QBs taken first overall did make the playoffs last season (Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, and Trevor Lawrence).

On the other hand, here are quarterbacks taken in the top three from 2020 to 2024: Joe Burrow, Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Young, C.J. Stroud, Williams, Jaden Daniels, and Drake Maye.

Of those nine passers, four of them are hits, two would be considered huge mistakes, and the others it is too soon to tell. But the way the Browns’ front office talks, it would be a 100% thing and it simply is not.

Add in the Browns’ factor.

They did tank 10 years ago and did get the first overall pick in Baker Mayfield, who at the very least can be considered a serviceable NFL passer. And then they screwed it up.

They either didn’t put a good support system around him which didn’t force him to mature, or they allowed him to play hurt and/or the coaching staff or front office soured on him, and they were distracted by the shiny keys that is Deshaun Watson.

Either way, they mortgaged the future to make the ill-fated Watson deal.

We guess this is just our way of saying we don’t trust anything that comes out of 76 Lou Groza Boulevard and neither should the fans or media.

The reality is that group doesn’t know how to build a winning football team. They are just throwing crap at a wall and seeing if it will stick. Unfortunately, that’s what Cleveland football fans have gotten. Crap.

Everyone’s QB Question–Where Does Baker Rank?

We are in the middle of the NFL off-season and this is the time the football columnists start ranking players, and the position which draws the most attention is of course, quarterbacks.

Here in Cleveland, we have a QB that serves as a lightning rod for the national pundits, so there is constant debate around the football cognoscenti as to how good Baker Mayfield really is.

So we decided to enter the fray and decide where Baker Mayfield realistically be on the current ranking of NFL signal callers.

First though, some rules. Any rookie is not eligible for this list. So we will not be including Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, Zach Wilson or any other rookie on this list.

We are also not going to include any players entering their second year in the NFL, and that is because of Mayfield. Remember how everyone was hailing Baker as the next great QB following his rookie season of 2018?

So do we, and a year later, he was thought by many (and still is by some) to be nothing more than average. That same thing can happen to Joe Burrow, Tua Tagavailoa, or the new hot commodity, Justin Herbert.

The second time around the league, defensive coordinators start to see your tendencies and make adjustments to take away what you like to do. So, we aren’t going to rate someone real high based on a strong rookie year until we see what happens in a second year.

You can go ahead and call that the Mayfield Rule.

We can be accused of watering down the group, eliminating seven players who could arguably start for their respective teams this fall. However, we feel to give an honest evaluation of the position, you have to have a solid two years of performance to examine.

We will start with the QBs clearly better than Mayfield based on their body of work. Those guys would be Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, and Deshaun Watson. Tom Brady as well, despite his age. If this was a list of guys we’d rather have Mayfield than, we wouldn’t include the six time Super Bowl winner because of the number of years he will still play.

One can make arguments about Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Ryan Tannehill, Derek Carr, Dak Prescott, Matt Ryan, Kyler Murray, and Matthew Stafford, so whether or not you consider Mayfield better than them depends on how you evaluate quarterbacks.

So, at the very least, we’ve named 13 quarterbacks. If you think Mayfield isn’t as good as any of those names we’ve listed he is the 14th best QB in the NFL. We do not think all of them are better.

Personally, we would rate Ryan and Allen over Mayfield. Prescott is a solid QB and we will see this year on Stafford now that he is with a better team, the Rams. Our opinion is we would rather have Mayfield than those two, understanding both put up big numbers.

Understand in the NFL, if you are losing a lot, defenses give up a lot of yards. Take for example, Prescott’s statistics against the Browns a year ago. He was 41 of 58 for 502 yards and four TD passes. Great numbers, right? Until you understand the score going into the fourth quarter was Cleveland 41, Dallas 14.

It wasn’t Prescott’s fault they were losing that big, but it does make it easier to accumulate stats.

Jackson is a separate case for us, because really he and Mayfield play different positions. We know we are dating ourselves but the Ravens’ QB plays kind of a single wing tailback position. As a passer, Mayfield is better, but Jackson is the better player overall. After all, he won a league MVP.

With the same head coach and offensive coordinator for two consecutive seasons, 2021 should decide the issue on Baker Mayfield. Right now, we have him in the 8-12 range among the league’s quarterbacks.

Another playoff appearance and success there will have him rising up this list with a bullet.