Building the Browns

The Browns are now 3-5, and having seemingly MORE offensive struggles than when it was switching from DA, to Brady Quinn, to Gradkowski and some other guy (I forget who it was.) So, the one thread before explaining why our offense sucks and our defense is so good, well good considering the young age of our defense, got me thinking and I think I have an idea of the overall direction of the Brownies.

Anyway, like I said before, the idea that our defense is better than our offense is quite obviously true. Well the post I mentioned explains it quite well but in simple terms, our top 2 picks in the last 2 drafts have been defensive (Haden and Ward in 2010, and Phil Taylor and Jabaal Sheard in 2011.) It looks to me like we're building through the draft in chunks. We drafted Secondary in 2010 and D-Line in 2011. On defense we need only a quality starting safety and a good corner to come in when Sheldon Brown fades, which it is still possible Skrine, Patterson and Hagg could fill these small needs. Now Linebacker is a different story. Aside from D'qwell, we need some better LBs. Fujita is just too slow. He can't cover the tight ends to save his life. And Gocong? I don't think I've heard his name all season. I actually almost forgot who our other OLB even was. So, in short, we're set on defense except Linebacker.

Now, the offense, oh the offense. What offense? The Browns offense, yes we actually have an offense. Its there, just look harder. See it? No? Didn't think so.

Where do I even start? O-Line is a good a place as any. We have Joe Thomas, aka Creator and Ruler of all that exists at LT, so that's a lock for, what, thirty more years? Fifty? Well I am not great enough to estimate the playing life span of Him. At Center we have Alex Mack, a draft pick I was dumbfounded by but now realize that is why I'm not an NFL scout. The rest of it is well terrible. Pashos at RT is like a glass figurine. I could probably break his arm by throwing a paper airplane at him. Lavauo is bad and so is Pinkston. Maybe they need more time but, frankly, I doubt it.

Then you have the Running Backs. Ogbonnaya, and Clayton right now. Ogbonnaya is a good back to give a feature back some rest, but no starter by any means. I saw one run from Clayton and he seems okay for the same role Obi would be good at, but not when the starter actually IS Obi.

We have some receivers other than Little and Cribbs... I think anyway. We have NO production from them when it counts, save for the ONE game winning TD against the Dolphins, but that's not impressive... AT ALL.

The tight ends are actually good if used properly. Watson has been quiet but rarely targeted. Smith and Moore are good too. But if you ask me, Shurmur isn't smart enough to use what we have better.

Finally, Colt, our QB. Not much for me to say except that I am out of his corner. Until he shows PROgression rather then REgression, I will refuse to support him. Although I do hope he improves and is our QBOTF.

So where does all that leave us, the fans. It leaves us screaming at the TV and drowning our frustrations in alcohol(not me, I'm not 21 yet.) Our plan seems to be that we are building the defense up first. You can't have your offense worried that they need to score every drive. So, that project is almost finished. Then we need to protect Colt better, so expect RT or perhaps a Guard. Then we need Receivers. Badly (BLACKMON PLEAAASEE /doubt.) Another RB and we're good. It may take two or three more years even so we need to be more patient. You know they say when you train a dog, it gets worse at first, then he behaves like you trained him to. So we need to just wait for our Dawgs to be worse first, then they will behave like they were drafted to behave.