The Browns suck.
Now that we've knocked that out, I can leave the more detailed and emotional bashing to literally everybody else.
It's weird, though. This team took the Denver Broncos to the wire, almost beat the Steelers the first time...they put up a fight.
Cincinnati has a great team, and it's no shame to lose to the Bengals. But by 30 points?
I must repeat this: Now that the Cleveland Browns are top contenders for the first overall draft pick, there is every chance that they'll upset one or two teams in order to prevent that.
As it stands, Jimmy Haslam has little choice but to fire Mike Pettine. But if the team rallies late, Mike has a chance to pull it out.
I normally wouldn't harbor any such hope, but I'm a Browns fan. Just when you start thinking that a first overall pick could be the light at the end of the tunnel...well?
Some boob at Yahoo Sports mentioned the fictitious power struggle over Manziel and decided that Mike Pettine, who hates him, won't start him the rest of the season.
Inanity and gossip aside, I'm pretty sure Adam Shefter is right: Manziel will start the rest of the season.
The Yahoo article described Austin Davis as a "terrible third string quarterback", which was ignorant.
Davis didn't have much of a chance, and the Bengals did to him what they did to Manziel in the second half a few weeks ago.
But Davis has been around a lot longer than Johnny Manziel, and now we know: He's ok. Just ok.
Johnny, barring injury, should get the last four starts. We'll get to see what he can do.
Take it in context. He is still almost a rookie. He won't be as good as he will become with more experience. He doesn't have a true number one receiver or much run support. His blockers...almost inexplicably...can't seem to give any quarterback more than 2.5 seconds to throw. His defense will have him playing from behind in must-pass situations for most of his games.
He'll probably backslide some, and revert to his instinctive and sometimes premature scrambling.
We have Josh McCown to compare him to. If he can come close to that as a raw player on the same team, we'll know: Johnny Manziel can become a franchise quarterback.
I'll also be looking for how his teammates respond to him. These guys all get paid to play, and have their own contracts and futures to play for. There's plenty of built-in motivation.
But you just can't help digging a little deeper for a guy you believe in, like, and want to stay with.
Regime change? If you were Jimmy Haslam, could you force yourself NOT to fire Mike Pettine without a big turnaround-at least close games vs elite teams? Even then, would that be enough?
I'm waiting to hear "the team has quit on him". I won't believe it, but something is very wrong.
We've heard it from real experts: Blocking scheme, overly complex defense, and (my addition) predictability in the run game.
Jimmy Johnson said it's lack of talent. Does he mean the offensive line, Whitner, Haden, Dansby, Duke, Des Bryant, Jamie Starks, Shelton, the other cornerbacks, Barnidge, Benjamin?
Is it nature or nurture? These are good players who have proven it. That's nature. Now they don't look so great. Maybe that's nurture, i.e. coaching and scheme.
Looking at the roster, the players with under two years experience include: EJ Bibbs, Ibraheim Campbell, Coons, X Cooper, Cam Erving, Hughlet (long snapper), Luke Lundy, Jamie Meder, Nate Orchard, and Danny Shelton. Desir and two more good cornerbacks belong here as well.
Campbell has already played well, Desir is growing rapidly, Gilbert showed signs of life...
The other day I heard some clown talk about Erving as if he were a bust when he did poorly at left guard. "I don't know why they even drafted that guy".
Well, in reality second-year player Joel Bitonio hasn't played much better! But he's another guy in only his second year. Anybody who plays left guard here will get swamped because that's where a defense seeks penetration to stop the run. Guess why!!!
There's a lot of upside here, if you look for it. I will add Terelle Pryor and Josh Gordon to this mix.
These two alone could turn the whole offense around in 2016.
For now, they suck. Ok. But for me, there's still lots of guys to watch, in addition to Manziel. The most interesting one is Terrelle Pryor.
His hamstring held him back while he was here, but at least according to him, he's been running routes with dedication.
I'm hoping that Mike Pettine is desperate enough to override his Hargrovian and Martonian instincts and allow him to play at least a little.
Too bad that could cause the Browns to win one or more games. It's more important to get him some reps at receiver before the season ends.
Part of the problem with the offense; and one reason the quarterbacks tend to hold the ball past their first and second reads so often, is the lack of a big wide receiver other than Brian Hartline.
A big receiver can be "covered", but still make the catch or at least prevent an interception. A West Coast quarterback can throw to a predesignated spot without necessarily seeing the receiver, because he knows that the big guy won't get knocked off his route, and will use his physical advantages to make the play.
The quarterback can't trust a Travis Benjamin like that. We've seen it a lot. If the cornerback is running with Travis, he can break it up. Benjamin needs at least one step, and a very accurate pass.
In re draft strategy, I go back and forth with guys on this: What the Atlanta Falcons gave up for Julio Jones was ridiculous. It didn't buy the Falcons so much as a playoff win, despite Matt Ryan.
Truly, Jones is awesome. But bashing the Browns for accepting their pot of gold for him isn't logical.
The Browns gave up the 6th overall pick for #27, Atlanta's second and 4th round picks in that draft, and Atlanta's first and 4th rounders in 2012.
In that draft, the Browns drafted Phil Taylor, Jabaal Sheard, and Greg Little in the first and second rounds. Taylor and Sheard were good players at first, and Sheard is doing great with the Patriots now. Nuff said about Little.
In the fourth, it was fullback Owen Marecic (a bust). Little and Marecic were from Atlanta. They were misses.
In 2012 they used Atlanta's pick on Brandon Weeden (after trading up to draft Trent Richardson third overall). Their fourth rounder wound up being James Micheal something--another miss.
After Weeden went: Riley Reiff, David DeCastro, and Dont'a Hightower. While I'm at it, Tannehill went five slots after Williams.
There was nothing wrong with this present-day trade for the rebuilding Cleveland Browns. What went wrong was Weeden, Little, and Marecic.
Who was going to throw the ball to Julio? What about the whole rest of the team?
The trade would have been lauded in retrospect if the players it yielded had been more like Sheard and Taylor.
You can certainly bash Tom Heckert (not Ray Farmer) for making bad picks, but not for making the Jones trade.
What about the coming draft? Well, the team isn't really rebuilding, despite its record. There is, believe it or not, a lot of talent here.
Some of the older guys will be leaving, probably including Mack; possibly Dansby, and there are other needs.
If Johnny Manziel impresses over the last four games, do the Browns have to draft a quarterback? If so, there are three and perhaps more they could take.
Do they need a number one receiver if both Pryor and Gordon are coming back?
So yes, maybe they could move down a little, and still get what they need...
If they make the right picks. Grossi won't like it.
I just wonder who will be making those picks.
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