2017 Season The Good, Bad and Ugly

Yep Thanks

 

3 for 7, -12 yards, INT

smdh

 

96 yard drive and a touchdown. The key? No pass attempts.

 

Keep setting records.

 

Worst. Quarterback. Ever.

 

It's criminal that he's still the starting QB and Kessler is inactive.

 

Why does it matter? They already know their drafting a QB early

 

I’ll link to it tomorrow, but Hue today conceded he “didn’t know” if Kizer would “ever get it”. Yikes.

Another lost season and “Clueless” Hue and Kizer are to blame. Two lost seasons in a row - the only common thread left is Jackson.

 

Are they? Or is it the fact the front office would rather, cut veteran Josh McCown who could have set the table for a rookie to progress, then would rather trade for a QB...ONLY IN ORDER TO GET A 2ND ROUND DRAFT PICK OUT OF THE DEAL, then cut said veteran, who also could have started and let the rookie learn...and leave the cupboard for Hue Jackson of a 1st year rookie QB who obviously had more tools to run the offense than the only other two QBs on the roster in BOTH 2nd year backup "veterans".

Look, we can discuss how this year went down ad nauseum, "Why wasn't Kessler staring" etc...The short answer is this, Kessler started 9 games in 2016 and went 0-9..Hue KNOWS what he has in Kessler and it isn't a winning formula either.

All we can do at this point is move forward...To me, that means bringing in a veteran free agent AND drafting a QB in April.

The more I think about this and ponder..and dwell....and lose sleep....and tear my hair out.......

I hope they trade for Alex Smith, then turn around and draft Baker Mayfield #1 overall. I don't care what the rags/sites are writing about Mayfield being a second (or lower) prospect...he will be a first round draft pick and he is the best QB of this class imho. Don't mess around, just go get him and let Alex Smith plat as long as Alex Smith is a viable option. Preferably at least 3-4 years...Give Mayfield his 5th year option, then start him year 4-5 depending on where you are with the currently 33 year old (will be 34 to start the 2018 training camp) Smith. Give Smith a 4 year extension onto his current contract that only has one year left and the offense is set to see if Mayfield is a viable option...if it isn't obvious (and I don't expect it to be obvious), then you draft another one in 2019. We have the cap space and draft capital to set this team straight in 2018...not a 3 year plan. This is year 3 of the plan, whether Sashi is here or not. The table is set, now the "football guy" needs to go get the remaining pieces for the biggest turn around in NFL history.

 

You want to draft a guy #1 and have him sit 3-4 yrs......LOL!!!!!

 

Yes.

Problems with the narrative there is that it runs contrary to the facts.

McCown was a veteran, who was inactive behind Bob Griffin and Cody Kessler the final four games of 2016. He was 1-11 during his time with the Browns. He was offered a QB coaching position with the team but insisted he could still start for an NFL franchise. The head coach (the guy who the F/O used to make their QB decisions) had made him inactive and the F/O decided to grant him his release early in the free agency process to see if there was a team out there who'd sign him to be as starter.

Brock Osweiler saw the same treatment. After splitting second-team reps with Kizer during training camp, Osweiler got the starts in the preseason. He played poorly and much like Kessler, played himself out of the starting role. Hue named Kizer the starter for the regular season after the third preseason game - Osweiler was made inactive and cut.

Hue Jackson - the "QB Whisperer" - made his bed with Kizer, despite him being a second-round pick and fourth quarterback taken in his peer group. Jackson has made no bones about covering his own butt and throwing the previous front office under the bus - at no point has he said it was their call to release the veteran QBs. DeShone has lamented the absence of a veteran QB but Jackson never has.

We agree. And I don't give Kizer nearly as much share of the blame as Jackson for 2017. Jackson owns 80+ percent of the blame for this season. He failed his quarterback, his team, and the fans of the Cleveland Browns.

He should have been fired months ago. It's a travesty he's still around and a slap in the face to fans of this team.

 

lol

Them Ryan boys crack me up.

 

It's really mind-boggling to me that Kessler isn't even mentioned considering the way he played last year with a truly awful team around him. Zac Jackson from The Athletic stating...

He went on about numerous other things never once mentioning the QB who now inactive started 8 games last year as a rookie. It's like the guy is invisible or something?

What could you possibly have to lose in letting him start and try to win football games? If he plays well you have multiple options available to you:

1) He's under contract for two more seasons. If you draft a QB in the first round he can be a bridge guy.

2) If he plays well he can be a trade opportunity.

3) If he plays well you can possibly win a football game and go into the off-season on the upswing.

4) If he plays well you get a more honest evaluation of your other players heading into the off-season.

If he plays poorly you've lost nothing!

 

I don't know if I'd ever want Rob as any type of coach or around as a buddy. Now Rex would probably be a hoot.




I just wish he owned it at the presser. A man can like feet and especially his wife's.

 

Week 15: Baltimore Ravens

This was the first Browns game I didn't see - listed to the entire broadcast. I've re-watched some of the film/highlights and since there's so few "good" things to talk about, let's get right to it.

Good

Marvin Lewis Out? A report made the rounds before Sunday's game that Marvin Lewis was voluntarily walking away from the Bengals. They were Cleveland Browns bad before he arrived and while he's never had post-season success, he's built them into a perennial winner. He did that hamstrung by a cheap owner and no real scouting department.

While Lewis has refuted the report (what's he going to say on the eve of his team going into a game?) - the NFL folks in media/social media are running with it. Why is this good? Because Mike Brown's top choice is Hue Jackson. The Browns could have gotten ahead of them by insisting that Hue is back for 2018 forcing the Bengals to trade a pick for a coach who's destined to go 1-31. Fleecing Cincinnati out of their third rounder (projected at #76 overall) would give Cleveland seven picks in the Top 76.

A roster full of "un-real" football players. This is a 0-14 Browns team, so it's tough to say it's a good team. But when you isolate individuals on tape and watch the performance over production, only someone bereft of football knowledge would try to tell you there isn't a lot of young talent on this team. Larry Ogunjobi continues to play the 1-technique very well and could very well push Shelton out of the starting lineup. Caleb Brantley is coming on and flashing that talent that made him a Top 50 prospect. Myles Garrett is a freak and can dominate his man 1:1 most of the time. The list goes on and on but it's tough to watch this team knowing the disservice the coaches have done to these players.

It truly is a situation where the sum of the individual parts is greater than the whole.

Bad

Morale. After being missed several times by Kizer, Josh Gordon could be seen visibly moping. The losing is starting to affect these players. For all the talk of "changing the culture", the only thing that they've done is replace a perennial 5-win team with a worst-in-the-history-of-the-game team that is a national laughingstock and just recorded its lowest stadium attendance since announcing "The Move".

Gregg Williams. For the most part, the defense did hold and being on the field for an unreasonable amount of time obviously led to some collapses, but Williams continues to make head-scratching calls and utilize his players in questionable ways. He is still probably safe overall (unless we go complete overhaul) but he's definitely on notice for 2018.

Ugly

0-16. It's coming.

Offensive Coordinator. The Browns running backs had 12 carries - the lowest among all NFL games last week. They had five total carries (including Kizer) in the second half of the game. With the league's worst QB, Hue Jackson dialed up 37 passing attempts and the scheme once again called for vertical passing. They ran a pass from their own endzone (not unheard of) without keeping any running backs or tight ends to block and the result was strip-sack fumble recovered for a touchdown. Hue needs fired but the next head coach needs to have it written into his contract that there will be an offensive coordinator.

Shizer

DeShone Kizer. Kizer owns a 9.5 percent turnover rate in the redzone. The league average is 1.3. He's one turnover away from the record in a single season. It's not that he's just playing poorly, but he's making and exhibiting decisions that a high school sophomore would know better than to make. He called himself a combination of Tom Brady and Cam Newton - his ego will never allow him to be a successful NFL quarterback because he simply doesn't get it.

DeShone Kizer. For the season, he's 0-12 and getting worse. There's a 50/50 shot he even makes the 2018 Cleveland Browns' roster. No question the Browns bring in a veteran QB and draft a guy with either No. 1 overall or Houston's first. He simply does not get the position and all the analytics were correct - he projects as a bust. It's not all on him, obviously and that's a bummer for him, but he's a lost cause at this point. Cleveland should be starting Hogan or Kessler the rest of the way to try and eke out a win.

 

Ugly

Still maintain a non-Kizer led Browns would be 5-11 at worst this year.

 

Ugly

#StrongArm #AFNQB

 

Ya we get it SAS you have all the knowledge....you can spin it this way or that way but the defense is on the field and if their as good as you claim individually make a play Myles Garrett instead of 2 tackles...they guy is invisible and is not even close to the #1 pick w his lack of impact plays....hell Za'Darius Smith came off the edge and caused a strip sack fumble TD and he hardly plays

 

The throw, the block from Gordon or both

 

That was a Derek Anderson special right there...Kizer has perfected the bounce pass.