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2017 Browns Off Season Thread

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There seems to be a lot of smoke that way coming from a lot of the media watching. This is only ignited further by the fact that Hue and David Lee are smiling out the sides of their mouths when they try to temper expectations on the kid.

There's still a lot of time left in camp, but if he continues to progress ahead of schedule, this is where it is all pointing to.

I remember a little buzz on Russell Wilson turning heads in camp a few years ago in Seattle. Smoke rolled in that he was going to beat out Flynn. Next thing we knew, he was the guy to beat in late August.

Here, Kizer has the luxury of no real good option to beat out. Don't be surprised if they miss their supposed early August deadline to name a starter, though. That would be a sign it's the rookie's gig but they want him to continue to earn it.

Turns out Russell didnt have a good option to beat out after he beat out Flynn who is hot garbage.

Not saying anything you said was wrong, but it turns out beating out Flynn was much easier than thought, lol.
 
Turns out Russell didnt have a good option to beat out after he beat out Flynn who is hot garbage.

Not saying anything you said was wrong, but it turns out beating out Flynn was much easier than thought, lol.

Absolutely true, but at that time, he was their "prized" free agent signing.
 
Absolutely true, but at that time, he was their "prized" free agent signing.

Just funny how it works out. Kind of proves your point more.

We are all "excited" about Kessler as he showed accuracy and hope year 2 is better. Like Flynn who was drafted later for a reason, we know Kessler has his flaws like arm strength, but hope he makes up for it with Moxie and arm strength

Then there is Kizer, completely looks the part of a qb. The size, arm strength, demeanor, everything but he dropped in the draft because on flaw, coul dhave been Kelly's fault, but Kizer just didnt win his last year and lost accuracy. Russell fatal flaw was he was only 6' tall.

Now Seahawks had a far superior roster than the 2017 Browns, but we shall see how it plays out,.

This has been said a million times but if Kizer shows he can be the man, it so sets up for next draft. I didnt want to draft Kizer, but now that we spent a low 2nd on him, I sure the hell rooting for him to succeed.
 
NFL teams most likely to improve -- and decline -- in 2017

Five teams most likely to improve

3. Cleveland Browns (1-15)

Point differential: -188
Pythagorean expectation: 3.5 wins
Record in games decided by seven points or less: 1-5 (.167)
Strength of schedule: 0.522 (Fifth-toughest in NFL)

I'm not going to waste your time by arguing that the Browns were secretly good last season. They weren't. Cleveland finished with the league's worst point differential, and only the Jets posted a worse DVOA. The Browns were bad.

I will argue, though, that they weren't quite as bad as that 1-15 record suggests. Cleveland played a brutally tough schedule; I have them facing the fifth-toughest slate in football, while DVOA pegs it as the most difficult schedule of any team last season. FPI estimates the Browns will have a league-average schedule this season.

And while the Browns didn't win until Week 15, they were competitive in other spots. They led the Ravens during the fourth quarter in September. They were a 46-yard field goal away from beating an eventual playoff team in Miami one week later. The Browns weren't historically awful. They were just a run-of-the-mill terrible team. There's a difference there, although it's academic for last year's team.

In part, the Browns were flummoxed by a nearly unprecedented revolving door of quarterbacks. Cleveland probably wasn't going to look good under any circumstances, but coach Hue Jackson was down to third-string rookie Cody Kessler by the end of Week 2 after both Robert Griffin and Josh McCownsuffered injuries. In the end, five different quarterbacks threw 20 passes or more for the Browns last season.

The only other time that has happened in the modern NFL without a strike being involved is in 1984, when Mike Ditka cycled through five quarterbacks for a 10-win Bears team. A year later, he narrowed down his list to two and the Bears went 15-1. That isn't about to happen for the Browns, but the trio of Kessler, Brock Osweiler and rookie second-rounder DeShone Kizer should be able to make it through 16 games and outperform the likes of McCown and Kevin Hogan.

Kevin Zeitler. Generally useful veterans like Kenny Britt and Jason McCourty were added to the roster, although the former comes as a replacement for breakout wide receiver Terrelle Pryor.

More importantly for Cleveland's future, it imported a huge haul in the 2017 draft class. By Chase Stuart's chart, the Browns used 86.9 points of draft capital this April, which topped the league by a wide margin. The second-placed Saints spent 63.5 points on their picks, with the league average at 44.8 points. The analytically inclined Browns brain trust was able to pull this off while adding an additional 2018 first-round pick from the Texans. Myles Garrett & Co. might not make an enormous difference this season -- and there's no guarantee they'll succeed at all -- but ask the Falcons about how good draft classes can revitalize a defense overnight.

The Browns will be more talented. They'll be luckier. That's true of most 1-15 teams, who improve faster than you think. The Browns are the ninth one-win team since 1989. The previous eight squads improved dramatically overnight, winning an average of 6.6 games the following season. The 2008 Dolphins jumped from 1-15 to a division title and the playoffs. The AFC North will likely be too tough for the Browns to make that sort of leap, but remember that Miami beat out a Patriots team that had gone 16-0 the previous season for the most unlikely post-realignment division title. It took a season-ending injury to Tom Brady in the opener, but weird things happen. A five-win season might not sound like much, but it's a reasonable target for the Browns in 2017.


Comebacks: It's easy to make the lazy joke and say that this is Cleveland and good things don't happen to the Browns, but things could go wrong. Garrett is already struggling through a foot injury. There's no obviously good quarterback on the roster. The Browns shed their two best pass-catchers from last season, Pryor and Gary Barnidge. They may not be very good at developing draft picks. All of those are totally plausible problems, but even if they're true, sheer randomness should be enough for the Browns to triple their win total from a year ago.


 
Happy to offer you a gentleman's bet that at least seven defensive backs will get more snaps than whoever the Browns third linebacker ends up being.
I'm gonna be that guy.

Browns 3rd linebacker in snaps was James Burgess, who played 646 defensive snaps.

A total of 4 defensive backs (Taylor, McCourty, Peppers, Kindred) eclipsed that total.

Boddy-Calhoun had 535. Nacua 214. The 7th DB (the one who was supposed to have more than our 3rd linebacker) was Mike Jordan, with 209.

Should be noted that our 4th linebacker played only 6 games and had more snaps than our 6th DB; he was on pace to have more snaps than all but 2 of our DBs.

Congrats @sportscoach and @Triplethreat

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
I'm gonna be that guy.

Browns 3rd linebacker in snaps was James Burgess, who played 646 defensive snaps.

A total of 4 defensive backs (Taylor, McCourty, Peppers, Kindred) eclipsed that total.

Boddy-Calhoun had 535. Nacua 214. The 7th DB (the one who was supposed to have more than our 3rd linebacker) was Mike Jordan, with 209.

Should be noted that our 4th linebacker played only 6 games and had more snaps than our 6th DB; he was on pace to have more snaps than all but 2 of our DBs.

Congrats @sportscoach and @Triplethreat

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Admittedly, I was 100% wrong in this case.

Gregg Williams went against several years worth of his past trends with the Browns this year.

The case could be made that ridiculous insistence on playing three linebackers at all times was a big factor in the Browns 27th ranked DVOA pass defense.
 
I wanted to resurrect the Williams thread to ask this but since you're here, maybe you know: is this "angel" thing a hallmark of the Williams defense or is this also a newer concoction?

Sadly I was exited to see what this coach could do with the defense but what he did to Peppers, whose scouting report on NFL.com literally said under 'WEAKNESSES', "Just a guy when asked to play deep safety" was infuriating.

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Yes, let's pan a good player because the team didn't win much when he was here. Need Joe Thomas back to lead us to 0 wins again. Guy must suck, should get rid of him.
 
Poyer sucked while he was here. Anyone trying to spin it any other way is blind. I haven't paid attention, but if he somehow turned it around in Buffalo, then good for him. Having Micah Hyde and White in the defensive backfield with him probably makes it a lot easier. He has 7 INTS in his 5 year career. 3 of them apparently came within the past month.
 
Yes, let's pan a good player because the team didn't win much when he was here. Need Joe Thomas back to lead us to 0 wins again. Guy must suck, should get rid of him.
I mean, they should have traded him years ago. If only out of respect.
 

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