Cleveland Browns 2020 Regular Season: What a Ride!

Sebastian said:

I'm going to start this discussion:

With the chaos in Detroit, and the departure of another regime, do yo go after Matt Stafford?

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Here's the thing. You have to find a guy who is willing to take a backseat to the running game and play somewhat safe ball and not turn it over.

Yea, it'd be nice to have someone with a more talented arm and better awareness. And if Stafford is willing to play game manager who throws deep 3 or 4 times a game, then go do it.

Rich said:

Here's the thing. You have to find a guy who is willing to take a backseat to the running game and play somewhat safe ball and not turn it over.

Yea, it'd be nice to have someone with a more talented arm and better awareness. And if Stafford is willing to play game manager who throws deep 3 or 4 times a game, then go do it.

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If you have a QB who is able to carry an offense you don’t need to rely on the run as much. He could have an equal part in the offense.

FrontPageNews said:

If you have a QB who is able to carry an offense you don’t need to rely on the run as much. He could have an equal part in the offense.

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He can't carry an offense. That's been proven over the course of his career.

It's the same thing with an aged Matt Ryan. They'd have to come in knowing and willing to accept that they'd be here to compliment Chubb and Hunt and not the other way around.

Rich said:

He can't carry an offense. That's been proven over the course of his career.

It's the same thing with an aged Matt Ryan. They'd have to come in knowing and willing to accept that they'd be here to compliment Chubb and Hunt and not the other way around.

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There is a fair bit of difference carrying a corpse and carrying an offense with a good O-Line (something Stafford has rarely had), good receivers and, something he has never had, a good running game with real RB1s.

Here are Stafford's bare-bones numbers.

It is rather startling that even his worst years in the past six seasons would be a number of starting QB's best seasons:

I’d be all over Stafford. His arm strength, experience would be amazing in our environment. Yes and thank you

Rich said:

He can't carry an offense. That's been proven over the course of his career.

It's the same thing with an aged Matt Ryan. They'd have to come in knowing and willing to accept that they'd be here to compliment Chubb and Hunt and not the other way around.

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no that has not been proven. He’s carried an offense very well his entire career. He’s had terrible talent around him. I’m not saying he has to throw 50X a game but he doesn’t need bakers play not to lose offensive game plan.

Cement said:

Insane.

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Based on Covid protocols, they have to miss TWO games, right?

FrontPageNews said:

no that has not been proven. He’s carried an offense very well his entire career. He’s had terrible talent around him. I’m not saying he has to throw 50X a game but he doesn’t need bakers play not to lose offensive game plan.

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Never had a Chubb behind him....wait a second

Rich said:

Here's the thing. You have to find a guy who is willing to take a backseat to the running game and play somewhat safe ball and not turn it over.

Yea, it'd be nice to have someone with a more talented arm and better awareness. And if Stafford is willing to play game manager who throws deep 3 or 4 times a game, then go do it.

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I should think the only reason Baker is a game manager right now is because they are not sure he is up to the challenge of being the full-blown franchise QB.

So, they hide his deficiencies and are hoping that letting him get comfortable is the way for him to improve. To return to the Baker of 2018.

Stafford is a proven high-level QB. At his worst he's better than every QB the Browns have had since 1999. Baker's rookie season, by far his best, is a slightly below average year for Stafford.

He has rarely had a good team around him, in Cleveland we might see him play at level hitherto unknown in Detroit since 2011 or 2015 when he had a passable O-Line (they have been ranked lower than the Browns O-Line the past four years) and WR corps. He can run a full offense. He would thrive with real running backs. Stef could open things up with him and we might even see OBJ thrive.

We have a high-powered offense (when healthy) that was designed to take advantage of a great QB that the Browns thought they had with Baker. With someone like Stafford they could take off the training wheels and turn on the jets.

The question that needs to be asked is, with only a 3-4 year window with the talent in Cleveland, can they wait for Baker to return to form? How long does it take?

Secondly, are the Browns good enough to win the Super Bowl with Baker as a game-manager? This year? probably not, but that is because of the D.

So, does a Browns team with a revitalized D (with some additions at LB and S), and a run-orientated offense with a game-manager QB, become a legitimate contender?

And is that team better than a team led by Matt Stafford with the offense?

Matt Stafford is incredibly overrated, imo. I don’t think he’s even in the same conversation as Matt Ryan, who’s also overrated.

Stafford had that one monster season in his third(?) year and has been living on its reputation since. Hard pass.

Cassity14 said:

Matt Stafford is incredibly overrated, imo. I don’t think he’s even in the same conversation as Matt Ryan, who’s also overrated.

Stafford had that one monster season in his third(?) year and has been living on its reputation since. Hard pass.

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How so?

Dude is averaging a 90+ QBR over the past decade and better than a 2.5:1 TD/INT ratio. Baker's best year is only a (slightly below) average season for Stafford with a worse O-Line and weapons.

And he has played on mostly terrible teams with ludicrously awful O-Lines and no running game.

And overrated compared to whom? No one says he's Aaron Rodgers, but has consistently been a good, to very-good, QB for a while now.

It is ironic that after one good season by Baker, Browns fans feel they are in a position to rag on a guy whose numbers would make him the Browns number two all-time QB if he played here.

If Baker Mayfield put up the same numbers as Matt Stafford for his career, we would be ecstatic.

Cassity14 said:

Matt Stafford is incredibly overrated, imo. I don’t think he’s even in the same conversation as Matt Ryan, who’s also overrated.

Stafford had that one monster season in his third(?) year and has been living on its reputation since. Hard pass.

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Also, this is not an attack on you. I am just using your argument because I have seen it a couple times.

So I am will ask you:

Do you feel that the Lions built solid teams around Stafford insofar that their lack of success is on him, rather than the lack of talent?

Because, surely, people can see the difference between a good QB on a shitty team not finding success, and a good QB on good teams who choked, and was mediocre when the time came to step up.

Because I have watched more than a few Lions games the past few years and from my point of view, those Lions teams were not good. Stafford has had little to work with since Megatron retired and their line is putrid which leads to a non-existent running game. Their O-Line has ranked in the bottom half of the league the past 4/5 years. To put that into perspective, the Browns O-line was ranked higher than the Lions' O-Line in 2017, 2018 and 2019 when the Browns' O-Lines were considered awful.

Moreover, at least since 2015 or so, their Defense has been wanting. It was ranked in the bottom half of the league the past 4/5 years. I have never seen a team consistently lose so many games in the fourth quarter or after larger leads (until the Falcons this year).

Of course, I will add that if Baker plays really well for the rest of the season it probably shuts the door on any talk of switching out QBs.

But if he doesn't? Hooo boy.

It will be a loud off-season.