Looking Forward to the 2019 AFC North

When do we start an "Off-season needs" thread or a "Looking forward to the 2020 AFC North" thread?




Edit I know what they need.......it's a competent head coach. How about a coaching search thread while we're at it?

 

Much as I resist the "start over" approach, our Head Coach is failing. It's year one, and frankly too much was placed on his plate, with the "win now" Dorsey work done this off season.

Can Freddie become the HC Dorsey thinks he hired? I don't know. He certainly hasn't so far.

Credit where credit is due: we did eliminate the turnovers and penalties this game, but the randomness of the O, and the Big Play vulnerability of the D undermined that progress.

 

Home games coming. Will the team be cheered or booed?

 

Fair questions. For me, once a winning season is out of reach (so two more losses), I'm on to the draft.

Silver lining time? The 0-16 Bengals, 1-15 Jets, and 1-15 Dolphins should all be in the market for QBs and the Browns could have a real shot at Chase Young.

 

Probably not an accident this got tweeted out yesterday...

 

Hard pass.

 

Disclaimer: posts of tweets are not to be considered endorsements.

 

We didn't get beat yesterday because of scheme or game plan. We got beat because of desire, which we really seem to lack at crucial times, and it was glaring yesterday. It's inexcusable. Gotta put it on the coaches, the GM, everybody. Where are John Dorsey's "real players"? I'm not seeing it. I'm seeing a lack of focus. A lack of discipline. And a lack of everything else that it takes to win in this league. It's disgusting. On Lindsay's TD run, what was the defense doing?? It was like they were in slow motion and everyone was waiting for someone else to make the tackle. The big play that Noah Fant broke, reminded me of the same thing I've been watching from this defense for the last 20 years. Embarrassing....

 

Agree. Add "lack of effort" to the ever growing list of things this version of the Browns exhibits.

 

Y'all... I think the "real" football players point is what's most disappointing right now - at least for me. They played relatively mistake-free in that game. No turnovers, a reasonable five penalties for 40 yards -- all against an inferior opponent... and they lost by 5 which is really a lot closer than it felt.

Sure... Freddie could have made some better calls in certain situations and everything still could have been cleaner, but they seemed to correct a lot of the problems they'd inflicted upon themselves previously (3 turnovers, 13 penalties, 85 yards in the week prior against an unbeaten Patriots, as an example)... and lost on talent.

 

Too Bad..........So Sad.........Move on.............

 

@beachbum the real MVP today, coming in and liking all our posts to prop up our spirits.

Cheers, pal.

 

TD that Stan Marsh/ Mayfield avi is awesome

 

https://www.cleveland.com/browns/20...riticized-for-selfishness-and-immaturity.html


Good read .

 

I get what Pluto's going for in the article, but he cites Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and New England. In Baltimore, John Harbaugh has been the guy for 12 seasons and although he stepped down, Ozzie Newsome's front office and blueprint has been in place since 2000. In Pittsburgh, Mike Tomlin is entering his 13th season and GM Kevin Colbert has been in place since 2000. Belichick, despite the relentless cheating, has been with New England since 2000 and came with five years of head coaching experience before that. He's been the de facto GM since 2000 as well.

We're comparing that to John Dorsey, who for all his praise, is only entering his 7th season as a GM and almost completing his second season since being hired late in 2017 with Cleveland. Freddie Kitchens is eight games into his first head coaching tenure.

Cleveland has been the model for what not to do as a franchise since 1999 and chiefly among the issues has been rampant turnover at all levels. Folks are coming out of the woodwork now calling for Kitchens to be fired... I don't know Dorsey's head, but my gut tells me he's gone in the offseason without some unexpected 7-1 run to finish the season with a winning record.

I don't know how turning over *again* makes us a better football team.

Was Kitchens the right hire? I don't know... he hasn't proven to be very successful this year, but something clicked with him and Baker in 2018 that had Baker performing as a Top 5 quarterback in this league and the Browns' offense being almost as productive as the St. Louis Ram's 1999-2000 "Greatest Show on Turf" - and we had Rashard Higgins, Derrick Willies, Breshaud Perriman, and Jarvis Landry catching passes.

That Top 5 talent is still in Baker. That creative, successful play-calling is still in Kitchens. Hell, John Dorsey finding gems in free agency and the late rounds of the draft - not to mention the top guys (Mayfield ,Ward, Chubb, etc.) is still in him... they just need to rediscover it. That takes all involved looking inside and having very real talk with themselves. Is Freddie trying to do too much in his first season? Absolutely... it's time he focus on just the play-calling and Mayfield, in my eyes. Promote Monken to Assistant Head Coach and let him run the sidelines on gameday... the timeout usage, challenge flags, and in-game progressions cannot be worse at this point.

For Dorsey? It's really too late now to repair the damage on the roster, but maybe let's focus less on troubled talent and more on just talent. As Pluto very accurately points out: we don't have the locker room, culture, or team to handle it right now. Maybe when Kitchens is hitting his 13th season and Dorsey is going on 16th we can talk about the next generation of Kareem Hunts and Antonio Callaways. For now, quit playing games and put Rashard Higgins in the football game. Extend some talented vets (Randall, Tretter, Schobert). Show the team that strong play, positive attitude, and leadership will get you paid -- not your timed speed in shorts or ability to live-Tweet threats to local radio show hosts. I'm not in the locker room, so I don't see it there and I haven't seen it outside, but if Odell is a problem... sit him. Send a message.

What's frustrating is that everything so far that's gone wrong is fixable. What's maddening is that they haven't corrected it yet.

 

To wit...

Antonio Callaway leads the team in drops and is projected to finish this season with 32 receptions, 356 yards, and 0 touchdowns. He's catching roughly 53% of his targets.

Rashard Higgins, who somehow cannot find the field and is playing behind KhaDarel Hodge, had 39 receptions, 572 yards, 5 touchdowns, and caught 73.6% of his targets in 2018 in 13 games. That Kitchens, Monken, and Dorsey cannot find a role for him on this offense is *astounding*.

Beckham and Landry are now both projected to finish slightly about the 1,000 yard mark but more alarmingly are projecting only 2 touchdowns each for the season. It would be career lows in touchdowns for both guys and the lowest receiving yards total for Beckham in his career for a full season. Both are also currently at their lowest catch rate of their careers with Beckham at 58.2% and Landry at 53.7%.

Despite a very poor game in Denver, Nick Chubb is still second - behind legit MVP Christian McCaffrey - in yards per carry (5.2) and yards per game (100.4) on the season. And yet, he ceded seven touches to Dontrell Hilliard in that Denver game. The coaches took the ball away from the team's best player and currently second-best running back in the NFL on nearly 25% of the teams' total running back touches.

It's time to dig out the 2018 playbook, call some quick passing plays and put the ball in the hands of the guys who can make something happen.

 

Maybe there is a learning curve...

 

All good points, @SAS . However, I think Terry Pluto has hit the nail squarely on the head in regard to having a talented roster versus having a "team". John Dorsey was applauded by us and most of the media for the roster moves he made since arriving in Cleveland. Some have appeared to work, some worked short term while others have been complete flops. That's pretty normal across the league.

But, his most significant move was his choice for Head Coach. If Haslam tasked him with the responsibility to build a team then I submit his choice was counter productive to that task. IF he was hired based on his relationship with Baker Mayfield alone, which certainly appears to be the case as his credentials didn't support that hire, then what message does that send to the other 52 players? IMHO, the Browns should have maximized that Kitchens/Mayfield relationship by retaining Kichens as the Offensive Coordinator and hired a Head Coach capable of effectively dealing with those other 52 players.

If you recall, there was an individual who (a) had previous Head Coaching experience, (b) had a previous working relationship with Kitchens and (c) publically stated his desire to coach in Cleveland. To our knowledge, Dorsey didn't even give him an interview.​

As I write this now, I fully suspect there are players on this roster that feel they are more important to the Browns than is the Head Coach. Antonio Brown and LeVeon Bell both felt they were more important to the Steelers than Mike Tomlin - the Steelers front office thought differently. {checks notes} The Steelers are doing okay and still have a legitimate shot to win the AFCN without them. Our guy? He won't even demand his players wear cleats that conform to existing NFL rules.

 

Agreed completely.

 

Can confirm this is not my burner account on Twitter: