NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
The Cleveland Browns are back to being a bad football team after enjoying a brief period of success. After a stint in the playoffs, they went all in on Deshaun Watson to try to establish elite quarterback play and unfortunately, it did not work out. Watson played below average before tearing his ACL, and while rehabbing, he tore his ACL again. Now the Browns are stuck with a heavy contract and no elite QB. It’s too bad that the real problem isn’t just in the quarterback position.
Statistically, the Browns were just terrible. They were in the middle of the road on defense and near the bottom on offense. Jameis Winston came in and provided a little spark for Cleveland, and Jerry Jeudy went off for receiving yards, but that’s where the positive ends. No other player made it out of the 500-yard benchmark at their position. Their best running back was Jerome Ford with 565 yards rushing. After Jeudy, their best receiver was Elijah Moore with 538 yards receiving and TE David Njoku with 505 yards.
Stats don’t tell the whole story, but play on the field does and that’s what HC Kevin Stefanski needs to address.
Instead of trying to fix just the QB position, or fix the entire team, the Cleveland Browns need to establish an identity on one side of the football or the other. The first thing they need to address in the offseason is which side of the football do they want to try and dominate on. Yes, you want to have a completely well-rounded team, but they don’t have the cap space to attack that aggressively.
If the Browns think they can build a top 5 defense that can keep them in games and negate poor offensive play, then they should focus on defense in the offseason. Defense wins championships and in an ever-growing passing league it wouldn’t be a bad idea to bulk up on defense and try to slow down the rest of the division. A good defense can make up for a developing QB and a developing offense.
If they feel like they have more to work on with the defensive side of the football and can’t get there right away, then go heavy on offense. Put a team together that can hang points on the board and keep up with the fast pace opponents. You’ve already got Jeudy, Njoku still hasn’t reached his ceiling, and you can probably bring Chubb back into the fold. Go out and get an offensive line that will give your QB more time and an instant upgrade at WR that can make plays opposite of Jerry Jeudy.
The Cleveland Browns aren’t fixing their team in an offseason and they need to realize it’s a fool’s errand to keep trying. They can throw as much money around as they want and spend on guys they think will be elite, but if they can’t focus on one side of the football or the other, then they’ll forever be in a state of rebuilding. Find where you can dominate and then slowly fill in the rest.
