CLEVELAND BROWNS DRAFT THREAD

My biggest (sports) fear.

 

While I think that's true for the external expectations, I have to believe the internal ones are even more overwhelming than they were last year. Consider that was overhauled the *entire* staff from coaches down to trainers and from front office executives down to scouts. And they're trying to all get on the same page under the specter of Covid -- hard enough in a normal season but even tougher in these strange times.

Call it homerism (and several extremely low-IQ Bears posters might), but the Browns and specifically Baker Mayfield have the single best offensive unit in the NFL -- they will go as far as Baker can take them. From that standpoint, the pressure on Baker has to be tremendous. Was his 2018 season just the start of his development and a glimpse into what he could be? Or was 2019 a regression to the mean and his ceiling is much lower than expected? This season may very well tell the story.

There will of course be built in excuses (new regime, the 'Rona) but internally, they may not believe them all that much.This front office didn't draft Baker. They for sure will have their eyes towards 2021 where we have legitimately good QB prospects (unlike this season). The Browns have a poor season and that season runs through Baker (nearly leading the league in INTs again won't help) and you can for sure believe the Justin Fields drumbeat will be deafening.

This is a team that, on offense, is built to win now. The defense is clearly lagging, and for that season a Super Bowl may not be in the cards in 2020 but this team needs to make a legitimate playoff push, I believe. The windows are extremely narrow in the NFL and we're already into the discussion phase about guys like Myles Garrett's second contract - which, spoiler ahead, is going to be a monster. Eventually, the team is also going to be squeezed by the cap. Baker is facing the biggest season of his career, IMO.

 

No question about that.

I'm honestly not worried one bit about Baker Mayfield. He didn't suddenly forget how to play QB. Last season was a complete shitshow, and he gets his share of the blame, but I fully expect him to fit Stephanski's offense like a glove. We won't see Mayfield in every other commercial this year. Baker will light it up this season like we all were expecting him to in 2019. Having Case Keenum on board was a brilliant move and will only help Baker's development.

 

100 percent agreement, for the record. I don't think we'll necessarily see record-breaking offense in just Year 1, but I think we'll all see the start of a prolific, and sustained successful offense for years to come. With the ridiculous load a talent, it'd be almost impossible not to.

 

Baker won’t have the luxury of Winston being a starter to shield him from the INT lead this season.

 

lol! Yeah. Nice try Gid...FTR, I'm only responding to your obvious instigation because I'm getting fired up about how good these Cleveland Browns are going to be this year.

Rudy will probably take the pick crown.

Bottom line: Roethlisberger is getting up there in age, and his propensity to hold the ball way too long is likely going to lead to him getting hurt again. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it...My guess is Mason leads the league in picks this year.

 

Color me smacked down.

I am pumped about what the Browns could be this season too.

I'm hoping Baseball and Basketball can show us a way that works. Maybe 5 weeks of isolation is getting to me.

 

Me too.. And I apologize for that outburst. I know you are solid Browns fan. ...

I'm just sick of this year entirely. Honestly, (i saw this meme yesterday) If 2020 was a person , it would be Ramsey Bolton. (G.O.T.)

 

Roethlisberger has a bionic arm now. He probably will play another five seasons

 

Cowboys signing Cameron Erving....yippie ki yay.

 

Without knowing the exact schedule I think it's easy to project Baker having a better season than last year.

However, I find it difficult to see him replicating the type of year he had coming off the bench to close out his rookie season.

His TDs should hover around 30, his INTs should hover around 15 and it will be enough to keep the Browns in contention for a season anywhere around 9-7 to 7-9.

But, that's been my thoughts on it since they first hired Stefanski.

And I'm reserving the right to change my mind on that after seeing the schedule and how the rest of this off-season plays out. If Cleveland doesn't get a real chance to get together under the new regime and work out the kinks on the new offense then those numbers are going to skew a little less friendly, IMO.

 

Only problem is ol' "Stars 'n Bars" Rudolph is probably (A) still concussed from the helmet swing, and (B) is for sure going to use the N-word *again* and get clobbered for it.

Don't know that he lasts enough games to lead the league, but he'll for sure be replaced in the offseason.

 

They leaked a bit of it ahead of the noon release today.

Wild Card Round - BYE
Divisional Round - vs. Houston
AFC Title Game - vs. Kansas City
Super Bowl - vs. New Orleans

 

FWIW... I think the opponents versus timing of said games probably matters more.

The other leaked part of the schedule looks like this:

Indianapolis
@New York (NFC)
@Tennessee
Pittsburgh
@Jacksonville
Baltimore
Las Vegas
@Cincinnati
BYE
@Baltimore
Washington
Houston
@Dallas (Thanksgiving Day)
Philadelphia
@Pittsburgh
@New York (AFC)
Cincinnati

... who knows what'll actually happen, but let's go with that. Quite easy (for me) see to 3-1 for Q1, 4-0 for Q2, 2-2 for Q3, and 3-1 for Q4. That gets you to 12-4 based on mostly names.

 

For those wondering the actual splits.

 

This is why knowing the exact schedule matters. The beginning of the season for the Browns last year definitely set them up for early struggles.

Based on that schedule, I see a chance at going 5-3 into the bye and 4-4 coming out. That would give CLE a 9 win record and a chance to make it into the post-season.

Again, I'll reserve the right to change that projection until I make my yearly for all 32 in a couple months.

When you look at the rest of the AFC North - Baltimore really put themselves in position to put a stranglehold on the division for at least another season, Pittsburgh is coming into 2020 as an unknown commodity based on the return of Ben combined with a defense that needs to prove its growth is real, and the Bengals are going to be an improved team in the second half of 2020 with some stability in knowing their future on offense for Zac Taylor.

The Browns story line is going to be whether or not Stefanski and Berry view Baker as the continued future at the end of this season and a lot of it is going to come down to how he approaches this off-season. He's kind of on his own to prepare for what could be a large chunk of this summer so if he comes in and plays strong immediately it is going to put confidence to his name. If he comes in and plays so-so while looking like he could have put in more work than he actually did, there will be questions from the new coaching staff and front office on whether or not to attach their futures to Mayfield's.

It's a shitty situation for both team and player with what is happening globally. It will be a lot more difficult to evaluate the entire roster and set some defined long term structure for what Berry and company want to implement.

 

Any team with a new coaching staff or QB is going to struggle mightily for at least 4-8 weeks. This is going to favor teams like the Ravens and Chiefs