Browns: Love and hate
Browns: Camp tour | RapidReports | Training camp tour | Bleacher Report BEREA, Ohio -- Poor Cleveland. The Browns should be better this season, but they almost surely won't good enough to catch the rest of the pack.
I'm not talking about the AFC. I'm talking about the AFC North, where Cleveland finished last the past two seasons and looks like a hat trick waiting to happen.
That could change, but the Browns would have to play nearly flawless football -- with opponents making the mistakes -- for them to close on the field.
The good news: They're better, Cleveland fans. This football team is an improvement on the club that won its final four games a year ago when coach Eric Mangini fought to lay a foundation.
"If you have a bunch of guys who don't care about who gets credit and work together for one goal," Mangini said, "it can be powerful. It doesn't matter what your record is; it just doesn't matter."
The Browns were 5-11 in 2009, but when the season ended they were the league's second-hottest club. Consider that another victory, and a big one for Mangini. His message finally got through.
"It wasn't as much personal validation as it was I wanted these guys to see it," he said. "I wanted them to feel what it was like to have that chemistry and teamwork because it's magical. When you get that in sports it's the best.
"What was so satisfying was they got to experience it. Hopefully, we can get to that place a lot quicker this year. That's what we had in New England [in 2001]. You can't put it into words. You just have to experience it."
The Browns could, but a lot of things must go right. So let's go to the board to measure these guys.
Love
• Improvement at quarterback. OK, so there's no Otto Graham, Frank Ryan or Bernie Kosar. There's no Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn, either, and that can only be an improvement. The Browns were so bad last season that their 219 completions were 105 under the NFL average of 324. Think about that. This is a team that won five games by completing 33 passes ... total ... with one touchdown, four interceptions and a passer rating of 39.43. "Incredible," said president Mike Holmgren. Jake Delhomme not only brings experience and leadership to the lineup, he's a former Super Bowl quarterback who knows how to manage an offense, and that's exactly what he must do here. If the Browns are going to be successful it will be with the run, not the pass. "If you tried to make Jake throw 35 balls a game," said Holmgren, "that would be a huge mistake. And Eric knows that."
• The left side of the offensive line. With tackle Joe Thomas, guard Eric Steinbach and center Alex Mack, this part of the front wall is bulletproof. I'm not so sure about the right side, where rookie Shawn Lauvao steps in at right guard while Tony Pashos takes snaps at right tackle in place of John St. Clair while St. Clair is out of camp with an excused absence. All I know is that I'm hitting the gap between Thomas and Steinbach again, again and again.
• The running game. The Browns didn't overcome opponents by playing solid defense and passing them to death; they won on the run, with Jerome Harrison producing 561 yards over the final three games, including 286 against Kansas City, and five TDs. Add to that rookie Montario Hardesty and veteran fullback Peyton Hillis, and the Browns could be better than their eighth-place finish in rushing. "There are no excuses not to run the ball," said Harrison. "We know what we can do. Each week [in 2009] they knew what we can do, and they still couldn't stop us. We just have to build on that. It's like: Don't look back. Take the good and the bad from it, and build on it."
• Their cornerbacks. A year ago Brandon McDonald was a starter, the next best cornerback to Eric Wright. Now he's the fourth, with Wright, Sheldon Brown and rookie Joe Haden ahead of McDonald on the depth chart. That's not a knock on McDonald. It's a testament to how much better the Browns are in the secondary, where rookie T.J. Ward has been a pleasant surprise at safety. The second-round pick is a big hitter, and he's hitting enough people that he should start. All I know is that if you're going to beat Cincinnati this season, it's probably a good idea to have the defensive backs to cover Carson Palmer's targets.
• Return specialist Josh Cribbs. There is no one better, with Cribbs producing an NFL-best four touchdowns on returns last season, three on kickoffs. Cribbs is fast, elusive and a key element to the league's top special teams unit in 2009. He's also a wide receiver whom the Browns will use to invigorate a passing unit that ranked 32nd. Normally, I'm not big on taking a Devin Hester or Josh Cribbs and having him take snaps -- only because you can compromise the guy's abilities as a returner. But the Browns need something, anything, to produce big plays, and Cribbs is their most dangerous weapon. "What we're going to do with Josh," said Mangini, "is give him a certain amount of reps collectively to make sure we don't lose what we have as a returner because that's the first place he can make explosive plays." Sounds good to me.
• Avoiding fatal mistakes. Over the final half of last season the Browns were a different club, winning half of their eight starts, including four straight victories to close the year. The reason: big-time errors; they didn't make them. Not only were they the third-least penalized team last season, behind only Jacksonville and Indianapolis, they committed just eight turnovers in their final eight games -– third best in the NFL. Only San Diego (six) and Carolina (seven) had fewer.
Hate
• Let's start with the division. The AFC North is top-heavy, with Baltimore the best I've seen there this season. But the Ravens aren't the division champions. Cincinnati is. Plus, the Ravens need cornerbacks, while the Bengals may have the best tandem in the NFL. And Pittsburgh? The Steelers are playoff regulars, winning two of the past five Super Bowls, and routinely knock off Cleveland. When the Browns nosed out the defending Super Bowl champions last December it ended a string of 12 straight defeats to Pittsburgh.
• The schedule. They open at Tampa Bay, then return home to play Kansas City. OK, 1-1 is possible, and 2-0 is not unimaginable. But then look what happens: Five of the next seven opponents are playoff teams, including New Orleans at the Superdome. The Browns lost 11 of their first 12 last season and four of their first six the season before. Another slip like that, and it's not an effective offense that Mangini will need; it's an effective Realtor.
• Delhomme's interceptions. While Delhomme and Seneca Wallace are upgrades at the most important position, it's hard to ignore what Delhomme did last year -- lose a lot of games and produce a lot of turnovers. In his past 12 starts he has 23 interceptions, and that won't cut it here. If Delhomme doesn't eliminate the loose play -- and he set a career mark last season with 18 interceptions in only 11 games -- the Browns are doomed.
• A dearth of playmakers. I'll give you Cribbs, and I'll give you Harrison. But then what? Yes, I like the addition of tight end Benjamin Watson, but he's not someone I would consider a big-play weapon. Mohamed Massaquoi? Nope. I know he led the team in catches, but he had 34, for crying out loud -- tying him with Harrison. What I do like about the guy was the 18.4 yards he averaged per catch, but Steve Smith he is not. Neither are Brian Robiskie or Chansi Stuckey. The Browns have competent receivers; they just don't have pass catchers that back off defensive backs from the line of scrimmage.
