Andrea Hangst of the Bleacher Report zeroed in on Josh Gordon as a premier wide reciever now, in his second season. As the sentient adults among us search for reasons to feel good about the future, Gordon is indeed the biggest.
In fact, Gordon could thwart my own hopes of the Browns losing a bunch and setting themselves up for an awesome draft.
Peter Smith (Dawg Pound Daily) deserves a leaping high five for his answer to another "NOW NOW NOW" temper tantrum by a frustrated writer.
This is nothing I haven't repeated over and over, and I still suspect that when I sent him this link in an effort to write for him, he saved it, and now checks it for unattributed stuff he can rewrite and put his name on...
But he's really really smart without my help, so for my weekly audience of about five readers (including him I think) I just try to be honorable myself.
At any rate, we're right again: Prior to the last game, a bunch of us had caught the playoff bug and felt that the Browns actually had a chance to make it sooner than expected.
Sooner than EXPECTED. When the new regime NEW regime came in to install their new offensive and defensive systems they were very honest in not promising an instant turnaround. Banner in particular spelled it out: This front office meant to build a strong perennial contender from the ground up, and fans should not expect instant gratification in 2013.
While the frustrated children started throwing tantrums immediately, the majority of us accepted this. After all, the Browns are in the very same division as the Ravens and the Steelers, and want the Browns to be like them.
These two teams--even in this season as the one ages and both have lost talent--seem insinkable.
This front office is using the same model as these teams and the Patriots, and 2013 is the first year of that project.
But then along comes Hoyer, looking almost like his old mentor Tom Brady. Then here comes Campbell, looking like I always knew he'd look (at least I'm right about something), and the Browns won games they weren't expected to win.
I have to mention this to Peter, who remains wrong about Campbell: I do believe that his ribs were hurting him a lot, and his health was the main reason he played badly more recently.
When they lost to Cinci, especially since they did a lot of that to themselves, it shouldn't have surprised us as much as it did. The Bengals are stacked with talent from top to bottom, and are well-set in their systems.
When they lost to the Steelers--that sucked. OK, now we know. We got our hopes up, but now we see that there is still work to do. Just like Joe Banner said when he first came here.
For me, it was going from hoping they wouldn't improve too much too fast and screw up their draft status, to hoping they would win and make the playoffs, and then back to plan A.
One commenter said they should win now, even if they had no shot at the playoffs. He mentioned a winning culture.
I can't bash that. The habit of winning is very important. I just feel that it's not as important as talent, and that each new season cleans the slate.
The team Joe Banner and Chud inherited wasn't perfect, but did have a whole lot of young talent. They wisely didn't automatically get rid of it before they saw how the guys looked in their systems.
This really boosted my own confidence in them, because it showed me that they were thinking with their brains, and not their egos. This is why, when rumors circulated about trading Josh Gordon, I thought that was sad, funny, and rediculous.
Weaknesses are now being exposed. Hoyer and the healthy Campbell showed us what the most important weakness was, as they won with the team as-is. But the injured Campbell, and now the troubled Brandon Weeden (We Done haha) brought us back to 2013 reality.
Peter did a great job of drilling down into this, including why they didn't sign a third quarterback.
Unfortunately, Weeden knows he's fighting for his very career, and the Jaguars, despite their recent success, are a bad team, so the Browns will probably beat them.
But then the Browns hit a meatgrinder of top contenders. Although they are more talented than the Steelers and might beat them, there's a good chance they can lose the rest and finish 6-10...
I'm feeling good about the Browns highest first rounder being somewhere in the top ten. Only now that I've said that, naturally Weeden will suddenly look great and Campbell will heal up fast and resume kicking butt and the Browns will finish strong and then watch the playoffs on TV.
I don't share Peter's low opinion of Campbell, but he's getting up there and is not the future. I'd love to have him stick around as a backup. I'm higher on Hoyer than some people are.
In his brief stint, he rallied the team from deficits late, when the bad guys knew that he had to pass, and focused on stopping that. He learned under Tom Brady, and he looked and acted like Brady. Now he has that real game experience under his belt to digest as he heals.
The Browns will still need to draft a quarterback high, as Campbell ages and as Hoyer could yet stumble, or prove injury-prone. Quarterback is the most important position in football, and this upcoming draft is probably the last chance they'll have to draft a real stud without coughing up their whole draft.
With Hoyer/Campbell, upgrades at guard and right tackle (I believe Mitchell Schwartze belongs at guard), better backs (who may well already be on the roster), an upgrade at reciever, etc. etc. etc. they will win consistantly, and draft lower and lower.
Alex Tanney (article by Grossi--see I attribute) is regarded by most as a novelty, but I'm not sure why. He's looked good in preseason (except for the 1:2 TD-to-pick ratio), now has an NFL year under his belt, and has all the physical tools.
He's taking a big step up from Division 1AAA to be sure, and a QB needs to read, decide, face the rush, etc. so he has a lot to prove, but as I've said many times:
For a quarterback, level of competition in college means much less than it does for other positions. The talent surrounding him is on par with the talent he faces. He still faces a passrush, still has to find open recievers, and all that.
Tanney is also a pocket passer. If he were an athletic running quarterback, the level of competition would mean more, as defenders in the NFL could slow or stop that part of his game.
As-is, Tanney set all sorts of records by standing and delivering.
I have no idea what he will become with more NFL experience, but I think a whole lot of people are foolish to just write him off.
Well it's time to take my shower and get ready for my niece to pick me up for T-Day.
I am thankful for a smart front office and great coaches.
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