As a long term Browns fan, one habit I devolved into over the years that cushioned me from the pain of non stop losing was to be critical of the team. That habit allowed me to take some small amount of pleasure when the team piled up the losses. You could state accurately that the existence of this blog which was created 17 years ago, is in large part due to the emotional release I enjoy when I dump criticism on the Cleveland Browns. For many of those years, I found the exercise of exposing flaws to be one that required some thoughtful analysis. What is remarkable today is that pointing out moronic decisions by the Cleveland Browns is so easy and obvious that doing so is almost pointless. It’s one thing to win a nuanced debate, but pointing out the Browns flaws has gotten way too easy. The blog has had over 150,000 visits in 17 years Hopefully the Browns get to a Super Bowl before it hits 1,000,000 visits.. it would be so nice to slice and dice the reasons the Browns won for a change
Sunday is going to be Cleveland Browns theater of the absurd in it's purest form. Baker Mayfield is going to pound the coffin nails of the worst trade in NFL history - BAM, BAM, BAM. (Stealing from Dave Lapham there )
I could go on but there is zero satisfaction in pointing out the obvious and utter stupidity of the Cleveland Browns. My biggest regret in the run up this season is that I believed that the Browns would only play Deshaun Watson if he were healthy. Watching him against Jacksonville it became painfully obvious that Watson's arm is not the same arm that made him a franchise QB. Yes Watson threw a 46 yard touchdown late, but even that play was revealing. In the NFL a split second marks the difference between elite and run of the mill. Watch Watson prior to 2020 and you'll see an elite arm. That 46 yard TD on Sunday looked a lot like a Dillon Gabriel long throw. Get a running start and put your whole body into a rainbow. Watson's interception was more telling. Not enough lift on that ball and not enough zip. Watson's injury was a displaced fracture of his glenoid, the socket that holds his arm. To my knowledge that injury was unprecedented for any QB in NFL history.
Below is an image of what a displaced fracture of the glenoid might look like.....
I forgave Deshaun Watson a long time ago for his off the field alleged issues, he is not a bad guy in my opinion. His teammates respect him too. But Watson is done as an NFL QB and the people who run the team and were supposed to be able to judge his physical state, were not able to figure it out....
Can the Browns be forgiven for hoping that Watson could play and succeed in the NFL at a fraction of his previous arm strength? After all, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning had success in the NFL in their later years with arms that were questionable. No they cannot because Watson clearly doesn't "operate" in the same galaxy that Peyton Manning did. For a weak armed QB to succeed in the NFL he needs to get his team into the right play the vast majority of the time. Watson so far hasn't shown he can do that and the Browns as a result are stuck in the quicksand of their own creation.
Brown BLog Predicts
Tampa Bay 38
Browns 17
The Brown BLog are 0-1 this season but we'll be fine now that we are predicting losses again every week.
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