OK, this is a total rebuild for the Browns. Now that is clear to everybody. It should have been evident for some time, but that was the theme of our previous post and we’re not going into great depth on that again. Rather, we’ll just skim over the major points.
The Browns are blowing this thing up – really blowing it up – starting over. This new regime is constructing the team from ground up. Please excuse the wrecking ball, and the dust.
When you mess up as much as the previous regimes did – when you whiff on high draft picks again and again and have a general manager and a head coach who put their personal pride way ahead of what’s good for the team – a complete do-over is what’s absolutely necessary for the Browns to have any chance to get out of the quagmire in which they’ve been trapped throughout almost all of the expansion era.
I commend the Browns for doing it. It should have been done a long ago instead of these dreadful quasi-rebuilds they have undertaken in the past. Either go all out and try to be a contender, or do what the Browns are doing now and gut the place and start anew.
There is no middle ground. There can be no middle ground. That middle ground is called no man’s land, which never gets you close to a championship nor does it get you close to the bottom. It keeps you right in the middle running in place and getting nowhere fast.
It’s like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day,” stuck in the same spot trying over and over and over again to get it right and move on, but being unable to do so until he purges himself of all of his many faults – not just some of them or most of them, but all of them, ever single, solitary one.
This regime is trying to rid the organization of its numerous warts. It won’t happen overnight. It will take some time.
Now that we’ve established all that – now that the Browns, without coming right out and saying so, are once again asking their fans to be patient while they’re trying to get themselves straightened around – the fans have a right to not just ask, but demand, that the Browns do some things to hold up their end of the bargain.
Indeed, if the fans are to be patient, then the Browns must:
*Be cognizant of the plight of the fans. They’ve been asked to be patient since about 2000. It’s now 2016, and there is still no light at the end of the tunnel. I realize that the Browns are a business and not a non-profit, but they must give the fans something tangible, such as absolutely no ticket price increases, with which they can chew on and bide their time until things get better.
And that’s just the start. The Browns need to be goodwill ambassadors like they’ve never been goodwill ambassadors before in their history, dating all the way back to 1946. The fans deserve that. No ifs, ands or buts about it.
*Make good decisions in the NFL Draft. It’s great to have all these draft picks, but they’re worthless if the Browns select more players like Barkevious Mingo, Justin Gilbert, Johnny Manziel, Brandon Weeden, Danny Shelton … etc. Yes, the right way to build a team is through the draft, but only with players who turn out to be good pros. Who are those players? That’s up for the Browns to determine. Those top execs are being paid a lot of money to make those decisions, and they need to earn that money. Get to work, guys! Don’t botch it!
*Be on solid ground by the third year of this plan, which would be 2018. This doesn’t mean the Browns need to win the Super Bowl or even have a chance to make it there. That would be asking too much. It would not be reasonable.
Instead, by solid ground, we mean the Browns would, by 2018, have just about all of the players they need to start moving up the ladder and winning a decent amount of games. Perhaps the Browns still don’t make the playoffs, but they need to finish with at least a .500 record. They need to be in the mathematic playoff hunt going into December. No more 3-13 finishes, No more blowout losses. No. No. No.
*Refrain from blowing it up again and starting over. The Browns have started this difficult, excruciatingly painful and incredibly miserable process. Now they need to take a deep breath, grit their teeth, stand their ground and hold on tight to see this thing through.
They may be tempted to take a shortcut. They have to resist that. They’ve laid out a plan and now they need to follow it completely, right down to the very end.
And if the Browns don’t adhere to the four points we’ve listed, then the fans should march on team headquarters in Berea and voice their displeasure in no uncertain terms.
Enough is enough. Too much is too much. And what the Browns have done to their fans – and to themselves, sullying the image of a proud, tradition-rich franchise – is way, way, way too much. It has to end. And it has to end with this regime.
The Browns need to understand that – really, really understand that. They need to understand that the clock is ticking.
If the Browns are OK with all this, then the fans will be patient.
But if the Browns stray off course, then all bets are off and the patience will end.
So Browns, do we have a deal? You have no choice but to agree to the fans’ demands. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re not exactly dealing from a position of strength.
