The 2-1 Browns Might Be Good. Or Maybe Not.

 

I'm not sure of what to make of this Browns team.  In Week 1 they looked like a Hue Jackson era team, perhaps the worst in the league.  In Weeks 2-3 they have a scrappy defense and somewhat capable offense that looks like a midtier NFL team.  Which team is it?  Against what seems like a very good Jacksonville team they got fucking smoked, but against the much more mild competition of Carolina/Tampa they look very competitive.  If this is one of those teams in that NFC South/Steelers/Jets/Colts/Vikings level, the Browns season might somehow be engaging.  That's one of those years where you get the delusional fan calls into sports talk that go, "This is Jim from Mentor and if we can beat Baltimore this week we are only one back from getting home field for a Wild Card game.  If we can get the Watson we saw in the 4th quarter of the Panthers game, I think we could make a run to the Super Bowl.  Love the show.  I'll hang up and listen.".

The best part of the NFL is that it's truly just a wins and losses league.  It doesn't matter who you played.  If you're 2-1 it's all backslaps and Mountain Dew at the facility.  If you're 0-3, guys on the coaching staff are asking each other questions like "Do you still keep in touch with Barry over at Oklahoma State?  You think they might need an OC next year?".  Nobody gives a shit that you beat what appears to be a 4 win Tampa team and a sub .500 Panthers.  You're 2-1 baby!  Look at us with a winning record!  And you know what?  That's the attitude to have because everyone keeps their job and no one is talking shit about you all week as long as you win on Sunday.  Food tastes a little better.  Drinks are a little colder.  Jokes all land a little funnier.  Working hard?  Hardly working!  Haw haw haw haw!  

If we can talk quietly amongst ourselves, I have some concerns...  The nine penalties in the first half was classic Browns.  They "only" finished with 12 so I guess there's that, but the offensive line seem like they might not be exactly what one is hoping for overall.  The team only gained 259 yards which is mostly because Watson averaged 3.8 yards per pass.  Watson was 16 of 30 for 144 yards.  That's going to make it tough to win a lot of games.  The dude cannot push the ball upfield, so the team is going to have to dink and dunk their way to victory.  I just don't see that being sustainable unless the defense wins on all of their blitz gambles.  Bryce Young is just a little fella, and if you get pressure on him, he sorta blows.  You can't do that shit on Lamar and Burrow.  We'll see what happens.

My other concern gets back squarely on my Doomsday Scenario coming into the season.  My fear is that Watson plays just well enough that we are stuck watching that dude for another three or four years.  Let's give him some props.  That throw he made to Concepcion in the corner in Q4 was a fucking big time professional athlete play where he got absolutely crushed by the Panthers rushers.  The throw in the opposite corner was also right on the money.  Watson does have his moments, there's no debating that point.  Of course, he also has those long stretches like in Q3 where he looked like he might have never played football before in his life.  This seems to be lining up exactly like the situation you'd want to avoid.  The Browns win 6-7 games.  Their draft position falls to where they can only take the fourth QB off the board, undoubtedly some overhyped Notre Dame/OSU/Penn State player doomed to be a backup or, worse yet, Arch Manning.  Then the team has no other choice but to cut ANOTHER monster check to Watson for three years at which point he immediately stops working out again and goes shopping.  Shiver me timbers.

By the way, did Jerry Jeudy play yesterday?  Jerry Jeudy is making $17.5M this year and in three games he has had four passes thrown his way.  If you want to talk about a great way to make a living, that's it.  He is going to gross $52M from the Cleveland Browns for what was a brief stretch with Jameis Winston in 2024.  He makes Dwayne Bowe look like a bargain, and that ain't easy because Bowe spent his time as a Brown wearing gold headphones and catching passes in warmups in sweats.  If I were Jeudy, I'd stop going to practice until someone notices that I'm not there.  "Hey, have you seen Jerry?"  I think he was in our film session this morning.  Wasn't he?  Maybe they can unload him to the Giants for a Jameis reunion.  That seems like something the Giants would do.

It's a short week for Browns fans to hype themselves up as the Steelers come to town on Thursday.  To me, the Steelers look almost exactly like the Browns.  It's a team that in your bones you know isn't very good, is somehow 2-1, and you wonder how the hell they won those two games as they always look so shitty when you watch them.  This has all the makings of one of those gruesome 13-9 Thursday night games where both offenses look terrible and someone fumbles late to lose the game.  Here's the thing though... The Browns probably should win, and if they do the Rubber Dog Mask Crowd is going to be ALL IN.  If you look at the schedule, as of right now, the Browns have ten games against sorta shitty teams like they are (Pittsburgh twice, Jets, Tennessee, Giants, Raiders, Texans, Colts, Bengals twice).  A fumble here, missed field goal there, and somehow the Browns are 8-6 and "In The Hunt" around Christmas.  The counterpoint is that the Browns opponents start to exploit that Watson can't reliably throw downfield and they stack the box, they lose those fumbles, and then they are 5-9 at Christmas looking for answers.

I'm not sure how long this fiery Coach Monken act is going to play, but as for now it's getting results.  There is no doubt in my mind that with Stefanski that this team is 0-3 and we are watching him talking about "cleaning things up".  The margins are so razor thin in the NFL, but all that matters is putting up Ws.  By the time the ball is kicked off on Thursday, the calendar will say "October" and the Browns will be tied for first.  The team is either a little better than average or just fortunate.  I suppose we will know more by Friday morning.

Go Browns.