SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR, UNFORTUNATELY SO

By STEVE KING

Hard as it may be to believe, since everyone thought those days were, thankfully, long gone, but the Browns are just about at the same place they were last season at this time.

That is, once again after a fitful, disjointed and frustrating first half of the season, they have come to the halfway point trying to figure it all out and, somehow, finish the year strongly.

Last season, the Browns were 2-5-1 when General Manager John Dorsey fired head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley and replaced them with defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and associate head coach/running backs coach Freddie Kitchens, respectively. The result was that the offense got jump-started and that, in turn, caused a jump-start of the team overall, as the Browns went 5-3 in the second half of the year and became one of the coolest stories in the NFL.

Now, a year later, the Browns are 2-5 as they prepare to play the Denver Broncos on Sunday at Broncos Stadium at Mile High. Their hopes for a great year, to take another leap and be a real contender, and beyond, in 2019, seem like a pipe dream right now. They are, as everyone keeps saying, hanging by a veritable thread.

Everything is a mess, the offense showing flashes of excellence but struggling – really struggling – overall as the unit tries to find itself. The defense hasn’t been healthy for much time at all, but when it has, it has shown signs of excellence, too.

And at the top, Kitchens, now, of course, the head coach of the team following a bold hiring/promotion shortly after last season by Dorsey, has to find himself and his niche – prove himself – all over again.

Beginning with the Broncos, who are 2-6, direction-less, without a competent quarterback now and going absolutely nowhere – yet again – under the watchful eye of GM John Elway, the Browns face a remaining schedule of teams from here on out that they mostly should be able to beat.

Can they finish strong again, this time with so much more on the line?

We shall see.