billmac91;2225085; said:
Christ....
I hope people can recognize this franchise is a good 3-4 years away from being competitive at the earliest. The offensive line is average even with Joe Thomas, and Alex Mack. Schwartz has been a turnstile thus far but maybe he gets it together, but our guards are terrible.
Our linebacking core is pretty horribole, especially when you consider D-Qwell will be pretty much useless by the time this team can be good. Scott Fujita sucks, and always has. An awful signing the day he became a Brown. There are some young guys showing glimmers, but nobody you can hang your hat on.
Weeden has shown some signs of being good, but dude is 29. To keep that in perspective, think about how much NFL and playoff experience Joe Flacco has at this point in his career. Flacco is 2 years younger than Weeden. Weeden will prove to be a waste of 5 years assuming the Browns give him extended time to be the franchise QB. Also keep in mind, our 29 year old rookie QB is also performing 4th amongst rookie QB's this year that are at least 6 years younger than him.
I don't know...I don't see the optimism...I think this roster is a joke, especially when you consider where we are player by player accross the NFL. Have we improved our talent? Maybe, I guess....but we sucked to begin with. Just saying we are the youngest team in the NFL isn't proof we are set-up to be playoff bound in the future.
We have one legitimate cornerback for the future. We have 1 legitimate safety for the future. We don't have any decent linebackers for the future. Joe Thomas seems to be losing his elite status. Alex Mack is good but he's a center. Evan Schwartz might be a legit starting RT in the NFL. Our wide receiving core is still easily the worst unit in the NFL and our best receiver was a running back for most of his career.
I love Richardson and the ability he brings. I just, unfortunately see, a MJD-like career where he plays for an irrelevant franchise a majority of his career. The drafting and management of this franchise since coming back to the NFL have really been horrific. And the worst part is, with the way the NFL is structured, a city like Cleveland has an opportunity to compete if they make the right decisions. But they prove every draft and off-season, they are incapable of making smart moves.
What?! SUPER BOWLZ, FUCKUZ!!!!11!!!!!!!!eleventy-Lombardi!11!!11!!
In all seriousness, I agree with you to a point, but I think you underestimate some of the young talent we have on defense. We have a couple of kids on the line and a couple at LB that have shown some promise, so I don't think we're as bad there as you think. We are awful (sans Haden) in the backfield, so we need corners. And a safety. Badly.
On offense, Richardson is a manbeast, and we have like 500 TEs, so if we had a WR1, a real one, then guys like Cribbs and Mass and even Norwood could do some things. What they need to do is stop taking fucking projects. I mean, I am not giving up on Gordon, but he looks like he could easily be Carlton Mitchell V2.0. Great body, not much else. We need a legit guy. Someone who can torch a defense right away, on any play. All the other guys would have more comfortable roles if we had that.
The OL line also needs help. I don't see it with Schwartz...he looks like he has move to guard like Leonard Davis written all over him. Of course if they did that, Lavao could go away and then we would only really still need a RT.
Oh, and we have no depth basically anywhere, so no one can get hurt
But that's the biggest glaring weakness with teams that are shitty trying to upgrade...you can only do it so fast.
Bottom line I think we are 3-4 good players away from being a 7-9 to 9-7 type of team...but they are 4 very important players (RG/RT, CB2, WR1, FS) that are damn important and very hard to find.
