In my extensive career as a sports journalist, I’m not sure I have ever written a season preview amidst so much turmoil in the world. Like many others, I am welcoming a brief respite from the news cycle these days (election coverage, COVID-19, climate change, the Kardashian show getting cancelled) and turning my attention to the Cleveland Browns for a couple of hours on Sunday nights. Hope springs eternal, more so in Cleveland than anywhere else when it comes to unbridled enthusiasm for an upcoming season. Here are a few things I have actually heard said aloud in Cleveland about newly acquired free agents shortly before a season begins:
“Larry Hughes is is the missing piece for Cavs, he’s a real glue guy”
Andre Rison is a threat to score every time he touches the ball.”
“Keith Hernandez still has a couple of good years left in him”
“RG III is the perfect guy to bring into Cleveland and solidify the locker room.”
So it’s no surprise that the atmosphere in Cleveland is hopeful this weekend, at least in so far as I can tell from listening to some Cleveland sports radio and reading some of the local writers. I get it, on paper there is a tremendous amount of talent on the offensive side of the ball. Chubb, Hunt, OBJ, Landry are all back and we’ve added a pro bowl tight end, Austin Hooper. Jack Conklin was signed to bolster a terrible offensive line, and hopefully keep Baker Mayfield from running around like his hair is on fire. The Case Keenum signing might be the most interesting free agent acquisition, and let’s hope we’re barely talking about him during the course of the season. Suffice it to say, that there are lots of reasons for Browns fans to be pretty excited for kickoff today.
However, let’s take a second to consider how we went from despondent In December of 2019, to cautiously optimistic here in September of 2020. There is a very clear pattern of emotions that a Cleveland Browns fan experiences between early January and early September. After week 16 there is typically a numbing sort of sensation as we try to make sense of yet another sub .500 campaign. (2019 was punctuated for the Browns by a complete dismantling at the hands of the Bengals, who notched their second win of the season in week 16, and Baker was dismal, even by his standards; 12 completions and 3 picks.) In January, it's tough to be a Browns fan, because NFL playoffs are happening and once again, we’re left out of the party. (Very reminiscent of the grade seven Valentine’s dance at Litchfield middle school in 1986) For me, January is about coming to terms with the fact that I was tricked into thinking that the Browns could be a relevant franchise, a team that we could be proud of at the end of the season. But more often than not, January means yet another coach and a GM and this year we welcomed Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Berry into the organization.
So by February, the Browns are pushed to the far corners of our minds as we try to pay attention to the Cavs, or maybe start reading baseball previews. Then in March we start to think a bit about the upcoming NFL draft and the smallest bit of optimism begins to take root. We watch Rich Eisen run the 40 yard dash at the NFL combine, an otherwise completely overblown, boring event that takes place in Indianapolis prior to the draft. Then in late April, there is a little enthusiasm as we start to think who might be available to draft tenth overall. This year we went with Jedrick Wills Jr. who played exclusively at right guard for Alabama. We promptly announced that he would be switching to left guard, maybe the most important position on the field, at least as far as Baker Mayfield is concerned. Apparently the front office in Cleveland believes that overall athleticism is more important than experience at a particular position. Jedrick certainly has that athletic ability, he’s 312 lbs with a 34 inch vertical leap and can broad jump almost 10 feet. (Side note: it’s a real shame they removed the standing long jump from the olympics, just look at how magnificently Gustaf Malmsten flies through the air in the 1912 Olympic Games. Barefoot nonetheless.) Tonight we’ll know right away if he can play, certainly the Ravens will try to get future hall of famer Calais Campbell lined up across from Wills and harass the rookie all night long.
Anyway, the month of May is a time for Browns fans to analyze the picks, sometimes with excitement (Joe Thomas, Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, Nick Chubb) but more often confusion/anger (Barkevious Mingo, William Green, Justin Gilbert, Deshone Kizer, Jabrill Peppers, Johnny Manziel). There are also a few meaningless rookie events and maybe there is some instagram video of Baker Mayfield throwing passes in an empty high school football stadium in Texas. So despite the lack of actual football activities, sports radio in Cleveland is consumed with calls about the Browns and a season that is still four months away. (It makes me crazy that Cleveland sports fans can ignore the Indians, an almost perennial playoff team that has the most regular season wins in the American League over the past 5 years) Regardless, June and most of July pass uneventfully in the life of a Browns fan.
Then, around the end of July we usually kick off training camp in Berea to much fanfare, with loads of events for the fans and families. Clearly that was not the case this year, as OTA’s happened via Zoom, and the coaching staff is probably still figuring out everybody’s name. (To be fair, masks really make that difficult, I’m 4 weeks into a new school year, and still stumbling here and there with names) Usually, footage of the first team offense scoring TD’s on the second team defense is featured prominently on the news, and once again we find ourselves putting aside our skepticism, finally that moving on from the previous season, and fully embracing the latest iteration of the Cleveland Browns. As we approach week one, the excitement continues to build, the transgressions of the past are mostly forgiven, and we can finally see this team take the field.
Which brings us to kickoff, in about 2 hours from now. This is a weird year (obviously) and despite all the Cleveland podcasts and blogs I have been reading, I really don’t know what to make of this Browns team. We’ve got a new coach, a whole new staff, a new offensive approach, but we can’t even glean a little information from preseason games. However, I know exactly what to make of the Baltimore Ravens. They are a team that has lost three games since last season began, they’re well coached, they have a MVP quarterback, and got better on defense as well. For the Browns, tonight really is a preseason game, and for Baltimore it’s business as usual when they come out of the tunnel. It pains me to pick against the Browns, but I just have a hard time seeing how Cleveland can score more than 17 points, and with the Browns defense in shambles (particularly in the secondary) it seems like that Baltimore can almost score at will. I hate to say it, but I think Baltimore comes out on top, 34-17.*
Go Browns.
*Seeing how this is the first football post of the year, I feel compelled to pick an overall season record for the Browns. I’ve been saying all off season that last year they should’ve been 9-7, and that Freddie cost them three games single handedly. However, no preseason and an entirely new coaching staff points to 8-8 in my book, but I really hope they can get a couple of unexpected victories along the way and take advantage of the extra playoff spots this year.
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