More than all of that, they are coming off a 3-14 campaign, finishing the year by scoring 26 points total in the last 4 games. That kind of record isn’t on accident, take your pick on the various reasons they were so bad:
- They have had only 3 picks in the first round of the draft in the past 6 years. (Thanks to the Watson trade, and it’s still unfathomable that they didn’t fire Andrew Berry) It’s impossible to build depth without good drafts.
- The pass-catchers were garbage, but to be fair they were trying to catch passes from Watson, Jameis Winston, DTR, and Bailey Zappe. Not exactly future hall-of-famers.
- The defense was bottom 5 in total points allowed. I’m unclear why people think this unit will be good this year. Maybe because of our wildly exciting first draft pick on an interior defensive lineman. (We could have had Travis Hunter, widely believed to be the most exciting player in college football and will certainly change the Jaguar offense considerably)
- Quarterback, quarterback, quarterback. We haven’t had this position nailed down since the 80’s. Insult to injury, we could have kept Baker Mayfield on a cheap contract, all he did was throw 41 touchdowns last year.
In any case, the reason they stink is an amalgam of these reasons, plus some others. The larger point is that the roster isn’t appreciably different from last year, except for Geriatric Joe. (That being said, I love Joe. I think he’s a super nice guy, looks like a proper QB, but just thrown picks as often as TD’s. I root for him to be successful this year, because I just want to see points scored for the Browns.)
So that brings us to week one, at home against the Cincinnati Bengals. Weirdly, these games have been entertaining, with lots of points scored. The Bengals are led by Joe Burrow, who despite the fact that he always looks a little high, can really "spin it”, as the kids say. They have a high powered offense, and we can expect 35-40 pass attempts from Burrow. A few years ago, the Browns had the better of the Battle of I-71 having won 4 straight, but Cincinnati has won four of the last six, very convincingly. The Bengals are historically slow starters (Burrow is 1-9 in weeks 1 and 2 in his career), but I feel like they will play like their hair is on fire. They are too good of a team to start 0-2 again. I do think the Browns are going to throw the ball all over the field, but nobody would be surprised if Flacco throws three touchdowns and three picks.
I think the Bengals are going to get a road win something along the lines of 34-20. (So bet the over). The following week on Cleveland Sports will be a repeat of every other year after a week one loss, and even the Orange and Brown Report will have a hard time spinning this one.
