Browns Daily Dose - Browns Daily Dose

Browns Daily Dose for the week of August 16, 2020

IT’S BAKER OR BUST FOR BROWNS

By STEVE KING

The key to the Browns season this year – if indeed it starts or can be completed, both of which are far from guarantees at this time, in my opinion – hinges, of course, on quarterback Baker Mayfield.

That’s obvious, for it is the quarterback, who plays the most important position in team sports, around whom all NFL teams are built. The good teams have the good quarterbacks. Why do you think there is optimism in Pittsburgh with the return of Ben Roethlisberger? Or that there is unbridled joy in Tampa Bay with the arrival of Tom Brady? Or that there is much angst in New England with the departure of Brady? Or, finally, that there is tremendous confidence in Kansas City with the return of Patrick Mahomes, who is by far the best quarterback in the game right now?

Mayfield was taken with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, and when teams make that kind of investment in any player, especially a quarterback, they are placing the franchise in his hands for the foreseeable future. If he turns out to be who and what they thought he was, then those teams are set for the next five to 10 years. And if he’s not, then those teams are set back for three to four seasons.

So, then, the Browns – every player, every coach and every front-office employee, plus their fans – have to be rooting hard for Mayfield to succeed by having a big comeback year. The team around him on offense is good, so there is an opportunity to win now, which is something these expansion-era Browns have never been able to say heading into a season.

The answer at quarterback is not – NOT — Case Keenum. He was a great offseason addition and gives the Browns a top-flight, accomplished veteran backup. But if the Browns have to go to Keenum for any reason other than injury – Mayfield struggling instead of getting hurt – then they are in big trouble, especially in the long term.

As such, while you watch the other Browns – and there are a number of them to watch now – focus mainly on Mayfield. His success – or failure – is tied directly to that of the Browns.

Tuesday:

EX-BROWN WRIGHT THE RIGHT MAN AS HISTORIC HIRE

Sometimes you just know.

Whether it’s me, you or someone else – or everybody, all of us, as a whole – you just know.

You just know greatness when you see it, even when that greatness is still in the building process, and even when the person doesn’t see that greatness, or even the potential thereof, in themselves.

It was that way when I was covering the Ohio State football team in the early 1990s with a quarterback by the name of Kirk Herbstreit.

It was that way when I was covering the University of Akron football team in 1978 with a young assistant coach. “Mark my words,” head coach Jim Dennison said to me in the tiny Zips locker room at the Rubber Bowl following a big win, “Jim Tressel will do great things on a grand scale in this game.

It was that way when I was covering the Browns nearly 30 years ago with an assistant coach by the name of Nick Saban, and another assistant by the name of Kirk Ferentz.

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It was that way when I was covering the Browns about 15 years ago with a young assistant by the name of Mel Tucker.

And it was that way when, during the same time as with Tucker, with a young Browns running back by the name of Jason Wright.

Wright, a versatile player who could perform on all the special teams and on offense as a runner, receiver and blocker, didn’t do much during his four years with the Browns from 2005-08 for head coach Romeo Crennel, but you could just see that with his communication skills, personality, friendliness, intelligence and ability to see things for just exactly what they were, that he was going to do something special.

So it was the other day when the Washington Football Team named Wright, who turned 38 just five weeks ago, as the first African American team president in NFL history.

Washington will not regret that hire. Instead, the club will look at it as being one of the transformational moves as it tries to rebuild itself, and its image, both on and off the field. He is perfect for the role of leading that effort from an administration standpoint, and I couldn’t be happier for him.

And when I say that, I know I speak for everybody on and around the Browns back then who knew him, including Doug Dieken. The longtime radio color analyst does not hand out praise freely, and in fact only sparingly – he is really hard to please — yet he really thought highly of Wright from the moment he met him, and said so.

Turns out, just like Jim Dennison 42 years ago, Dieken was spot-on right with Jason Wright.

Wednesday:

JUST THE FACTS, JIMMY

Please, please, for goodness sake, somebody – anybody — hand Browns co-owner Jimmy Haslam a team media guide – one from 2018, the last time the team made a hard copy before going digital – and make him read it from cover to cover so as to understand a little – or a lot — of the club’s history, covering the lifespans of both the original franchise and the expansion version.

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Somebody – a person he respects and isn’t afraid to tell him, directly but nicely – should have made him do this years ago, when he bought the Browns. But really, did someone have to tell him that? Shouldn’t he have known to do that?

He needs to know the difference between Otto Graham and Otto Preminger, Jim Brown and James Brown, Gary Collins the wide receiver and Gary Collins the actor, Len Ford and Henry Ford, Bill Willis and Bruce Willis, and Webster Slaughter and Enos Slaughter.

When Haslam and his wife and Browns co-owner, Dee Haslam, did a Zoom press conference with the Cleveland media the other day, he erroneously said the Browns last made the playoffs in 2007. He sounded surprised when told it was 2002. The confusion likely stemmed from the fact the 2007 team had a slightly better record, 10-6 as opposed to 9-7, but barely missed out on the postseason.

Whatever the case, the owner has to know a basic fact like that. It would be like Henry Ford’s great-grandson, Bill Ford, who runs Ford now, saying in a presser, “Wow, you mean we make the Mustang?!”

Ugh.

Double-ugh.

To say it was – and still is – a bad look for Haslam does not do justice to just how much of a PR blunder it was.

With the Browns having struggled so much during his ownership, the fact he was unaware of when the last playoff appearance occurred makes his critics, of which there are more than enough, wonder what else Haslam doesn’t know and how it has factored into all this losing.

Somebody needs to have the nerve to tell Jimmy Haslam that as well.

Thursday:

BROWNS HAVE A HORRIBLE START TO CAMP

If you’re a Browns fan – and we assume you are if you’re on this website – then you have to be at least somewhat concerned, and likely much more so, about what has happened in the first few days of the team’s training camp.

Mack Wilson, perhaps the Browns best linebacker and possibly also the one with the most upside, is out indefinitely with what appears to be a serious knee injury.

It comes a day after Mack was demoted to the second team – probably just temporarily, but that’s a moot point for now — for leveling Nick Chubb in a way-too-aggressive tackle, causing the star running back to suffer a concussion that will sideline him indefinitely. Mack may have acted off emotion, being ticked off that the Browns linebackers have been ranked by some “experts” to be the worst in the NFL. If they weren’t that before, then they definitely are now without Wilson.

And as for Chubb, he is expected to carry much of the running load, teaming with Kareem Hunt to give the Browns arguably the best backfield duo in the league, and one that will play together on the field a good portion of the time when no one else in the NFL is doing that. It should cause opposing defensive coordinators headaches trying to scheme against this new/old look.

Also, the effectiveness of Chubb and Hunt, both together and singularly, is important in the effort to take some of the pressure off quarterback Baker Mayfield to make plays all by himself by keeping the defenses honest.

Also, in another knee injury situation, though perceived to be much less serious, center JC Tretter has been out indefinitely since camp began. Center is the second-most important position on offense, behind only quarterback, in that he makes the line calls and fortifies the middle-of-the-line blocking in both the passing and passing games. Tretter’s play is critical to that of Mayfield’s. Tretter has been replaced by rookie Nick Harris, a fifth-round choice in the 2020 NFL Draft.

So, until Tretter returns, the Browns will be starting two rookies on the line, the other being at the all-important position of left tackle protecting Mayfield’s blind side, in the person of top draft pick Jedrick Wills.

Now, did I mention that the Browns open the year in just several weeks, on Sept. 13 on the road against the two-time defending AFC North champion Baltimore Ravens?

So, then, yes, considering all these issues, there is reason for concern – even a lot of concern – because the Browns have a lot of work to do, in a variety of areas, in a very short amount of time.

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