Judge Mental

I just got an email from my swamp-dwelling friend Judge Mental.  It said "Browns suck."

At least he's more eloquent than Adam Schein, who says the Browns are the worst team in football, and could go 0-16.

Adam and the Judge are entitled to their opinions, and I don't take a game seriously enough to get mad at them over it.  I would just never want either of them as a GM.

Schein is extreme in everything, and chronicly overstates and generalizes.  Recently, he lumped Tom Heckert in with everybody else in the organization as people who "need to go".  Adam isn't impressed by Heckert at all.

D'Qwell Jackson, Joe Thomas, Mohammad Massequoi, (I think) Alex Smith, and Brian Scheffering are the only players that remain from the roster Heckert inheritted.  (I'm probably wrong, I haven't checked).

Heckert's first draft was for Mangini's offense and his 3-4 defense.  He drafted Haden, Mack, McCoy, TJ Ward, Hardesty, Luavao, and Maiava.  He acquired Scott Fujita, Ben Watson, and Seneca Wallace.  He got Peyton Hillis and a draft pick for Brady Quinn, and signed Jordon Norwood.

Conventionally, you don't really judge a draft until after the third year, but I guess this is an emergency, so...

Joe Haden: Shut-down starter, still improving.  All-Pro calibre.
Alex Mack: Easily one of the three or four best centers in the AFC.
Ward: Above average starter.
Hardesty: Recovered from injury, now proving Heckert right.  Were it not for Richardson, he'd be the starter and do well.
Luavao: Starting right guard.  Not great, still inconsistant, but decent and improving.
Maaiva: Depth player currently starting.  He can't get bigger, unfortunately, but has great range and does a decent job.  Hybrid suited for nickle and dime defenses.
Jordon Norwood: In a truly surprising scenario, fighting for a roster spot after being the Browns most reliable reciever last season.
Colt McCoy: He was a Holmgren pick in the third round.  After showing promise as a rookie, last season he spent running for his life and having passes dropped.  So far this preseason, he has predictably mastered the complex West Coast offense and predictably outperforms everybody else.
He should be retained as the primary backup quarterback, and as such would be one of the best in the NFL.

That's five starters and three quality depth-players, all of whom are still on their steepest growth curves.  I've omitted Watson, Fujita, Sheldon Brown, and Gocong among others, but these were Heckert moves as well.  All of them starters.

Heckert stubbornly (and wisely) refused to sign overpriced old one-year free agents in order to retain and cultivate young players, and is building a quality team which will remain intact, and last awhile.

If anything, Heckert seems to have improved since this amazing first draft.  While Luavao is still spotty, Pinkston has emerged as a very solid starter.  Taylor is a wrecking crew, Sheard a QB-killer, Cameron has predictably turned into a dangerous pass-catching tight end, Schwartze an insta-starter with upside, Benjamin is surprising everybody but Heckert himself, and Josh Gordon has already shown flashes of lethality.

I told you about Trevin Wade.  Pundits are talking about his taking over the nickel slot.  Short term, that's accurate, but Wade has the ability to take over for the aging Sheldon Brown this season.

It's irrational, and maybe insane, to bash Tom Heckert.  In all, thirteen to fifteen of his draft picks will start this season.  Those from his first draft only now have the experience of veterans, and young players will make mistakes.  Any objective analyst factors youth and inexperience in.  Anybody who can think straight understands that this team won't actually contend until 2013, but recognizes all the young talent that Heckert found.

Adam Schein and the Judge might cite wide reciever as a reason for the Browns being the worst team in the NFL.  They have to ignore the greater range of Weeden, the predictable progress of second-year Gregg Little, the promise of Travis Benjamin, the flashes that Josh Gordon has already shown, and the return of Massequoi to his solid, productive form.

Schein being Schein, he'd no doubt argue with me over the offensive line being among the best in the NFL.  He'd say they're average.  He'd be full of crap as usual.

He'd grudgingly concede that the tight ends are above average, that Richardson is a stud, and that Weeden has great talent...and I'd ask him does that offense sound like the worst in the NFL?

He'd say yes.  Like I said, irrational.

What about the defense, with four new defensive linemen, rapidly emerging back end players, quicker/faster young linebackers...on a defense which ranked tenth last season?

Adam would point at the linebackers and question their talent.  Adam assumes everybody sucks until he hears somebody who knows what he's talking about say otherwise.  These linebackers, except for D'Qwell Jackson, aren't elite by any means, but just gave the Green Bay Packers hell.  This secondary should be one of the best in the NFL, and the defensive line, especially when Taylor returns, should catch up to them this season.

Does that sound like the worst defense in the NFL?

Yes, says Adam and the Judge.

Adam points to their tough schedule and dares anyone to find any wins.  Fair enough.  That's exactly what he said before the 10-6 season.  Nothing he saw during that whole season changed his mind.  He kept predicting that the Browns would lose the rest of their games.

For Adam, the Ravens losing their best player and their other key players putting one foot in the retirement home are irrelevant.  Lacking forsight or insight, he can't imagine any team being any worse than it was last season, unless it's the Cleveland Browns.

But as we all know, players get old, leave in free agency, salary caps get unsupportable, stars get injured, and for every team that improves, another declines.

The Browns will beat some of those teams, and sneak up on one or two of the better ones.

Because of their youth and inexperience, especially at quarterback, the 2012 Browns can't be ranked in the top 20 or anything, but the worst team?  Really?

YOU STAND CORRECTED.