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| It's been a rough first year for Banner and Co. |
The dialogue from local sports
scribes these last few weeks has centered on whether
or not the Browns are better than last year. Remember that relaxing bye
week we had in early November? Cleveland
had just beaten the champs and a glorious season of seven or eight wins seemed
possible. A month later and the team is staring at the possibility of not even
matching last year's five-win total, a song so part and parcel of Browns'
fandom that we should be collecting royalty checks.
Comparing the 2012 and 2013 seasons
is like choosing what strain of herpes you'd rather contract. Even the numbers
are basically the same: As compiled by The Plain Dealer, last year's team
finished 25th in the league in points; this year's offense is actually worse in
that rather important category, ranking 27th before yesterday's washout against the
Jets. The 2013 Browns are giving up more points this season, too, standing at
21st in the NFL as compared to a 19th-place finish last year.
There's also this happy
little nugget from Pat McManamon, encompassing an entire decade of futility
rather than just a paltry two year's worth:
"The Browns now are the second franchise in NFL history to lose 10 games in 10-of-11 seasons. The last was the Tampa Bay Bucs, who lost at least 10 games 12 seasons in a row from 1983 through 1994."
Well, whatever. Not even the
gravitas of the late NFL Films
guy could make either season look good. The Browns were awful last year and
they are putrid this year. In a week Cleveland
fans will be - heaven suffer the little
children - turning their aching eyes to the NFL draft.
If only there was some real sign of
progress amid all the losing. In October, Browns
CEO Joe Banner told a luncheon crowd that this year's squad would be
measured on how the coaching staff implemented its systems rather than how many
games the team won:
"Change the culture of the organization, change the work ethic, the attitude and the optimism," Banner said. "It’s important to see the team play hard, no matter what happens. We want to see the young players make progress as the season goes on."
After a surprising 3-2 start to the
year, the culture is right back to where it's always been. Lack of talent is
one thing, but the Browns did nothing of significance to improve the running
back position after trading Trent Richardson. Nor did this star-crossed
franchise seek a quarterback after Brian Hoyer blew out his knee. Even an
admittedly risky pickup like Josh Freeman, now an afterthought with the
Vikings, would have been a better option than running Brandon Weeden out there.
It's just hard to plug in a scheme when
you don't have the players to do it.
Meanwhile, a defense that once
looked stout and aggressive now seems tired, giving up leads as well as swaths
of yardage to opposing skill position players.
Point is, the systems in place once
again feel fatally flawed, while the Browns' evident talent deficit likely
means another roster overhaul heading into 2014. Two supposed core players -
center Alex Mack and safety T.J. Ward - will become free agents this
off-season, possibly giving the franchise even more gaps to fill.
It's difficult being optimistic about the state of the Browns' union considering its profound and
depressing regression over the last two months. The roster does have one or two
game-changing players as opposed to previous years, but that's just a testament
to how poor past leadership has been at selecting talent, not some bright
beacon illuminating future success.
Sooner or later, the wins will have
to come, and all the business-speak buzzwords fans hate will be shunted to the
side. It's no fun taking a microscope to two seasons of bad football to figure out which one sucked less. It's a shame that's what the Browns have
relegated us to.