Why I Believe The Cleveland Browns Are On The Right Track

Storyline: If the team sticks with Hue Jackson, the front office, and stays with the process, the Browns will be positioned for success–unlike any team since the Browns returned to Cleveland. Written by Connor Bailey, Cleveland, OH

There aren’t many ways to spin the Browns’ 2016 season: they went 1-15 and it was ugly. But I think the Browns’ future is bright. Before I explain why, I’ll review the ’16 season.

Courtesy: USA Today

New Coach (Again)

As most Browns seasons do, 2016 started with the hiring of a new coach. The Browns hired Hue Jackson in January. Jackson immediately went to work with recently appointed GM, Sashi Brown, and the Browns’ newly hired chief strategy officer, Paul DePodesta of Moneyball.

Free Agency

Once the Browns decided on a coach and a front office they shifted focus to free agency. But the team’s free agency decisions confused a lot of the fans. It was clear what the Browns sought: accumulate draft picks. The Browns let go six unrestricted free agents in the off-season.

Cleveland signed one player in free agency, Demario Davis, which canceled out an accumulated compensatory pick. That left the Browns with five projected compensatory picks for the 2017 NFL Draft. It was announced late in 2015 that compensatory picks would be tradable in 2017, which left the Browns with options by letting go players in favor of acquiring future draft picks.

The other notable move the Browns made in the 2016 free agency period was signing Robert Griffin III. RG3 signed to a two-year, $15,000,000 deal–a deal that had the 27th highest cap hit in 2016 among NFL quarterbacks.

The Draft

After the free agency dust settled, the Browns (along with the rest of the NFL) began focusing on the upcoming NFL Draft. Cleveland stuck with a the mentality of doing everything they could to accumulate draft picks. The Browns traded the #2 overall pick to the Eagles, causing them to move down to the 8th overall pick and acquire multiple draft picks to use as building blocks for the future.

The Browns then traded the 8th overall pick to the Titans for the 13th overall pick–accumulating even more picks in the process. When the draft was over, the Browns drafted 14 players and acquired multiple high picks for the future.

The Dismal Season

Courtesy: Huffington Post

The Browns proceeded to lose 18 straight football games, including preseason loses. The only event that saved their ‘perfect’ (0h-for) season was a missed 45-yard field goal as time expired in Week 16 by San Diego kicker, Josh Lambo.

Why I’m Optimistic

Despite only winning one game, there’s hope for the Browns. In their continuing pessimism, here are multiple bright spots that many Browns’ fans are overlooking.

The Offensive Line: Many of the fans with whom I talk believe the Browns’ offensive line is bad and want the team to draft linemen high in the draft. While I agree that the Browns could benefit from some additions on offensive line, I also feel that additions would be for depth purposes only.

Joe Thomas (photo, fastphillysports.com)

In Joe Thomas the Browns have one of the best left tackles in football–and Thomas at the very least has one more season in his tank. The Browns also have one of the best left guards in football in Joel Bitonio. If Bitonio can stay healthy, the left side of the Cleveland offensive line is well above average.

Working left to right across the line, that brings me to the center position and Cam Erving. Erving is not exactly a fan favorite because he’s considered to be a less-than-ideal option at that position. But Erving has some potential. He’s young and just finished his first year with a dedicated position.

I’m not ready to give up on Erving yet. Why? Consider this. Right around this time in Mitchell Schwartz’s young career a lot of Browns fans wanted his head, referring to him as a ‘Human Turnstyle.’ But, today, Schwartz is now one of the best right tackles in football. He signed a five-year $33,000,000 contract with the playoff-bound Kansas City Chiefs.

At right guard, the Browns have John Greco, who has been consistent for the Browns for about five years. This year, Greco looked like a solid option at guard until he was injured in Week 12. At the right tackle position there’s Austin Pasztor, who played most of the season. While I think he’s ok, I also don’t believe he’s a long-term solution.

Cam Erving (photo, Cleveland.com)

The Browns invested two draft picks in offensive linemen last year, Shon Coleman and Spencer Drango, who both played more down the stretch. These guys look very promising as future starters.

Finally, there’s another issue that has to be addressed–but it’s not an issue with the O-Line. It’s the issue of why did the Browns give up so many sacks? The team gave up a little over four sacks per game and 17 more sacks than any other team this season.

While those are bad numbers, much of the carnage can be attributed to injuries, inexperience, and quarterbacks holding the ball longer than they should. And despite high sack numbers, let me point out that the O-line was tremendous in the run game. While the Browns were tied with the Lions for least rushing attempts this season, they trailed only Buffalo in yards per rush.

The Defense: I think most Browns fans knew the defense was lacking talent, but I’m not sure many people thought the Browns would be as bad as they were this year. Easily one of the worst D’s in the league in 2015, many people (including me) expected a lot of improvement with the return of Ray Horton as defensive coordinator.

But that was nowhere near the case. The Browns finished the season as the 31st-ranked overall defense. The Browns gave up 23 points or more in all but one game and that was the game they won, 20-17. In any professional sport it’s hard to win when you’re constantly playing from behind. That reality caused the lack of rushing attempts. The Browns were forced to pass because they were always behind.

Courtesy: Getty Images

The Injuries: The Browns finished the season with eleven players on the injured reserve and two on the non-football injury reserve. Among these players are six starters–two on offense and four on defense. While it’s difficult to overcome the loss of one starter, overcoming the loss of six starters is nearly impossible.

Clearly these injuries have greatly hampered the offense’s ability to move the ball and the defense’s ability to stop the opposition.

The Browns planned on having RG3 start all 16 games this season, but that quickly changed as he was injured in Week 1 against Philadelphia.

That made for a catch-as-you-can approach to QB. Cleveland had three different starters and six different players, total, have multiple pass attempts this year. It’s always difficult to develop chemistry when there are so many moving pieces, especially so when that piece is quarterback.

The Upcoming Off-Season: Strategically, Cleveland let go a lot of key players in free agency last season in an attempt to accumulate draft picks. And the team didn’t sign many players in order to keep those draft picks. The Browns will likely spend some money to keep upcoming free agents – Terrelle Pryor, Jamie Collins, and Isaiah Crowell.

If the Browns don’t allow any of those players to leave in free agency, then they likely won’t receive many, if any, compensatory picks for the upcoming season. That would allow the Browns to go after some players in free agency. While it maybe difficult to convince high-profile free agents to come to Cleveland, there are definitely good and  young upcoming free agents available, such as A.J. Bouye, Latavius Murray, and Tony Jefferson. These players would make an immediate impact.

Danny Shelton (photo, Acast)

The Youth of the Roster: Can you guess how many players on the Browns current 53-man roster have been in the league five or more years? It’s just 11 players. That shows that Cleveland has an incredibly young team with many key contributors who are rookies or second-year players. And that’s a promising stat.

A perfect example is nose tackle, Danny Shelton, who looked awful in 2015 and couldn’t manage to stay on the field at times. However, Shelton not only improved in 2016, he evolved into one of pro football’s best defensive tackles. If other young players can improve, the Brown’s future is bright.

The Promise of Continuity: For the first time in a long time I’m not hearing Cleveland fans say that they want a new coach, even after this past one-win season. I believe the Browns have finally realized they need continuity to be successful.

If they stick to Hue….

If they stick to the process they’ve committed to….

And if they stick to the front office….

Then I believe they’ll be positioned for success … unlike any team since the time the Browns returned to Cleveland.