The Cleveland Browns

For all my fellow Cleveland Browns fans out there, this one's for you!

I'd like to take a minute and evaluate our team: the Browns. Always seemingly at the bottom of the barrel, I want to provide some hope in light of recent events. Hope is a word Cleveland fans in general loath since that's all we ever can attain. It's always "next year" for our teams. Well, maybe the next "next year" will provide some hope for us.

First off, I want to identify the positive changes we've seen in the past couple years. A lot of this is due to the man recently fired, Mike Holmgren, but we'll get into him later. Here we go!

QB

Alright, so right now we have Brandon Weeden controlling the offense. I'm not saying he is the best QB we could have, but he's the best one we've had in a while. Think about it. We've had Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, Jake Delhomme, Seneca Wallace, and Colt McCoy. Does anyone know where these guys are today?? Derek Anderson was always overrated. He had about 4 or 5 really good games at the end of a season a few years ago and we thought we had our franchise QB. I was telling everyone we should trade him since he currently had some value! We could've gotten a first round pick for him (and probably some others) from Atlanta or Baltimore that year and gotten Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco as our quarterback! As it was, we had 0 first round picks that year. Want to hear some of the names of guys who went in the first round of 2008? I mentioned Ryan and Flacco, Chris Johnson, Rashard Mendenhall, Felix Jones, Darren McFadden, and Dustin Keller (Matt Forte, Ray Rice, and Jamaal Charles all went 2nd round).

But instead Anderson turned out to be a fluke, so we went with Brady Quinn. Would anyone like to repeat that era? No thanks. Jake Delhomme would be a great #2. He's a veteran with leadership qualities, but he's not a great starter and we overpaid for him. Seneca Wallace just retired on my Madden 2012 game. He had a couple years to prove he was capable but never did. Then we grabbed Colt McCoy in the 3rd round of 2010. That was a nice attempt. We didn't reach for him in the first round like we did with Weeden, so he was cheap. He was a proven college QB but just didn't have the arm or the reads for the NFL game. Swing and a miss, but it was a good try.

So even though Weeden isn't great, he's steadily improving. And he's the best QB we've had in the past 7 years.

RB

Right now, we have a tandem of Montario Hardesty, Chris Ogbonnaya, and Trent Richardson. Aside from possibly the injury-prone Peyton Hillis, Richardson has been the best back we've had in a long time and he's only a rookie! Great pickup in last year's draft with Richardson. He changes the dynamic of how defenses prepare against the Browns. Even he is adapting to the NFL game (so is Weeden, btw), so in a year or two we can expect some great things out of him. Hardesty serves as a nice complement to Richardson.

WR

We've always lacked great wide receivers. Even Kosar didn't really have anyone to throw to. A few years ago, Mohamed Massaquoi was our best receiver. Now, he's probably third. It's not a huge upgrade, but it's one of the areas the Browns have been steadily improving in. Josh Gordon was a fantastic pickup and worth a 2nd round draft pick next year. He's a solid 6'3" and has some play-making abilities. The only thing is he's a rookie. He's adjusting to the NFL game and not doing a bad job, either. He just needs some time and possibly another really good WR so he won't see double-coverage all game long.

Greg Little would be a nice #3 option instead of #1 or #2. Josh Cribbs isn't a great WR much to his dismay. Great return guy, though. He'd be a perfect slot receiver for his speed but we just don't have enough other WR weapons to really use him the way we could.

The Rest of the Offense

So our best QB, RB, and WR are all rookies. Most of the 2nd stringers are second or third-year players as well. The good news is we have some good-to-great players on offense. Our O-line is a pretty good one, but Joe Thomas stands out among them. He's the best OT in the game. If he resigned with us because he believes in us, shouldn't that give Browns fans a reason to feel good? He could've left us for a championship team and easily taken the starting spot.

Benjamin Watson at TE isn't a bad option. He's a middle-of-the-pack player for his position. The reason other TE's might get more hype is they usually have a good-to-great QB and WR options to distract the defense. As our QB and WR's improve, so will Watson's numbers.

Defensively

Joe Haden and D'Qwell Jackson are elite players at their positions (CB & LB). So we have a couple great players there. Even with Jabal Sheard and Ahtyba Rubin on the D-line, it still needs some tweaking. It's one of the more important aspects of a football team, so unless there are significantly better talent-options in next year's draft, this is what we solidify. I'd LOVE it if we took Johnathon Hankins from Ohio State with our first pick. Scott Fujita is also a very good LB.

The rest of the defense is just okay. We can upgrade position by position, but that starting D-line should take priority. We need a pass rush and we have got to be able to stop the run, especially in the AFC north with backs like Ray Rice & Rashard Mendenhall.

Special Teams

We have one of the best kickers in the game in Phil Dawson. We also have one of the best kick returners in Josh Cribbs. Special teams is an area that we're actually doing well in. As the roster improves with defensive backs and linebackers, we'll be even better in this area.

Administration

Some great news: we finally have an owner who cares! He actually WANTS to win! Despite being an investor with the Steelers, the league today voted 32-0 to let Jimmy Haslam take over the Browns. So many people have great things to say about this guy. I think Cleveland should start getting gas primarily from Pilot Flying J from now on.

Pat Shurmur has been doing a good job with this team, and as a former coach, I'm really not a fan of firing coaches every 2-3 years. I understand it's a business, but look at some of the coaches we've had: Marty Schottenheimer, Bill Belichick, Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini. These are guys that had success on other teams and are some of the better coaches around. We ran Crennel out of town and he's really picked up Kansas City. Magini started the Jets turnaround before Ryan got there. I think Shurmur is doing a good job and I really like Childress resigned to the OC position. Not a great coach, good assistant.

Mike Holmgren. I said I'd get back to him. I don't know how I feel about him. He's done some very good things in Cleveland to really get the ball rolling, especially with draft picks. Historically he's swung and missed with a lot of draft picks, so I know there are better CEO's out there. But I don't know if Joe Banner will be better. He was CEO of the Eagles from 2001 until this year. Aside from Jeremy Maclin, I don't love any of his draft picks. He's done a lot of things via trading and free agency, but that task will be significantly harder with a team like the Browns.

Fans

I really do think we have the best fans in the NFL. We're loyal, outgoing, and we actually care about our team when they're good or when they're bad. We've had a lot of bad years...I think some good years are on the horizon. Actually, the horizon is an imaginary line that receeds as you approach it... so maybe I should say that next year, the outlook for the Browns hasn't been this bright in years. Stay faithful, Browns fans! Our turn is coming!