Make absolutely no mistake about it, this is the biggest week for the Browns since the NFL Draft four months ago.
The Browns are in Tampa Bay to practice today and Wednesday against the Buccanneers. Then the two teams will meet Friday night at 8 at Raymond James Stadium in the third preseason game, which always serves as the dress rehearsal for the regular season. The starters are expected to play three quarters, and if your name is Danny Shelton, you may be asked to stay out there even a little longer.
By just after 11 p.m. Friday, we’re going to know a lot more – a whole lot more – about the Browns as to where they’re at heading into the regular season, and how much work they still have to do. The Browns, of course, aren’t going to win the Super Bowl. They aren’t going to contend. For that matter, they won’t even finish .500.
But this week’s work will provide some strong indicators as to what is a reasonable expectation for the club.
Browns players have been practicing against each other since training camp began 3½ weeks ago. That has run its course. Nothing more can be gained from that. The Browns need to practice against another team so as to get some different looks from some different players with some different skill sets. And they’ll get that chance – and then some — over the next two days.
Two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Joe Haden and rookie wide receiver Corey Coleman, the team’s first-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, have not played in either preseason game thus far because of injuries. So this week they will get their first work against players from another team. According to Browns head coach Hue Jackson, then, this is an even bigger week for Haden and Coleman. They’ve got to start getting ready in a serious way, for the regular season begins in 19 days. These are not end-of-the-roster players. The Browns are counting – heavily — on those guys.
The Browns offense is making some big strides, but it still has all kinds of work to do. Let’s see if quarterback Robert Griffin III can continue to connect with wide receiver Terrelle Pryor, and if he can begin to develop a stronger relationship with Coleman and fellow wideouts Josh Gordon and Andrew Hawkins as they all round into form. What would a receiving set of those three, plus tight end Gary Barnidge, do against an opposing defense? We’ll find out this week.
And the defense’s struggles, especially with a complete inability thus far in the preseason to stop the run, are well-chronicled. There’s no way to go but up in that regard. Being just bad would be an upgrade. The Browns are horrific right now.
Indeed, the problems of the defense will really test coordinator Ray Horton. If he can figure out a way to make this group at least competitive sooner rather than later, then he will start taking some big steps toward getting serious consideration for a head coaching job someday. Or he could be canonized. But it won’t be easy.
Right now, the Browns are going to have to score a lot of points – and score something most times they have the ball – to be able to stay in games. The offense is better indeed. But it’s not good enough right now to be able to do that consistently, and may not be good enough at any point this season.
So how do the Browns make up that difference? We’ll see. Perhaps it will start to materialize this week. If it does, then it may come from an unlikely source. That’s how wide open and hard to judge this roster is right now with all of its youth and inexperience.
Thus, it’s obvious that this week will be exciting and interesting as well as extremely telling. So stay tuned.
