The decision recently to supposedly, allegedly and reportedly simplify the catch rule, thus making completed passes out of what used to be incompletions, is just another example of the NFL’s 40-year effort to take something away from the defense and give it to the offense.
In that way, then, the league continues to do everything it can to increase scoring, because every survey it takes of its fans – especially the younger ones — indicates that they want to see scoring, scoring and more scoring. The more points, the better.
Whereas in the past, when the Browns edged the New York Giants 6-3 (as they did in the 1957 opener in Jim Brown’s first regular-season game) as the two best defenses in the NFL at the time completely dominated from start to finish, everybody in the crowd of 58,095 walked out of Cleveland Stadium thinking they had just seen the greatest exhibition of football ever.
But young today’s people don’t want to see great defense. They yearn to see great offense. They don’t want to sit through a game that’s decided by one team having a 3-2 edge in field goals.
Instead, they want it to be as if it were a video game, with both offenses moving up and down the field at will, producing a score of 45-40 and a situation in which the team that’s behind has a first down at its opponent’s 20-yard line with 20 seconds left with four chances to throw into the end zone to try to score the game-winning touchdown.
I say all this because a number of media “experts” seem to be shifting their predictions for what the Browns will do with the No. 4 overall pick in the NFL Draft in less than three weeks. They no longer think there’s any chance that the Browns will select Penn State running back Saquon Barkley, considered the best overall player on the board. They now believe it will be North Carolina State defensive end Bradley Chubb, who is rated as the best defensive player available.
It may well happen that way – it remains to be seen – but if it does, then I think it’s twisted logic. With the way the game is played today, a team should always go with offense if there’s a choice between pretty equal players from different sides of the ball.
Free-agent signee Carlos Hyde, the former Ohio Stater, and Duke Johnson, who has played the last two seasons with the Browns, are decent running backs – Hyde with his ability to power his way between the tackles, and Johnson with his knack for catching the ball out of the backfield and turning into a good gain.
But Barkley is a great, great back. He is a real difference-maker. He’s a player – the Browns currently don’t have one on offense – whom opposing defensive coordinators are going to have to worry about on every single play. He can score from anyplace on the field, at any time.
There’s no doubt that the Browns must add more difference-makers on both sides of the ball, but the need is more pressing on offense because of their inability for almost all of the expansion era to score points. And when you struggle to score points, then you’re going to struggle to win, as evidenced by the Browns doing 0-16 last year and 1-31 over the last two seasons, and having posted 10 straight losing records overall.
I hope the Browns understand this – really, truly understand it.
