Cleveland Browns Contending In AFC Soon Will Happen

Cleveland Browns owner, Jimmy Haslam, recently told reporters that he won’t blow up the team if 2015 ends up being a bad year. This is big news for the Browns. Although I don’t believe this will be a bad year for Cleveland, it sure could be a difficult one.

Cleveland has the ninth toughest schedule for the upcoming season. Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati all made the playoffs last year and being division opponents, will each play Cleveland twice. With games against Denver, Kansas City, San Diego, Arizona, St. Louis and Seattle also on the schedule, the Browns will have their hands full.

Cleveland finished last season with a 7-9 record. The team expects to improve upon this mark in 2015. Even if the team is better than it was last year, the schedule could cancel out roster improvements. I was worried about this since Haslam has shown that he’s not gun-shy. I was afraid that if the Browns record didn’t reflect the roster upgrades, Haslam would fire either head coach Mike Pettine, general manager Ray Farmer, or both.

Farmer and Pettine are both in their sophomore seasons at their respective positions. The Browns roster has been overhauled and I really believe that they are only one draft away from having the team make a run to the Super Bowl.

Haslam fired Rob Chudzinski after one season as Cleveland’s head coach. Chudzinski’s team didn’t have the talent this one does and is also full of blue collar types of players that loves the game. In short, the Browns have heart.

Ray Farmer is responsible for bringing in most of the talent Cleveland has. Although he made two questionable first round draft picks in 2014, he did end up drafting Joel Bitonio in the second round, Christian Kirksey and Terrance West in the third, and Pierre Desir in the fourth.

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Those players were all solid picks who have contributed to the team outside of Desir, who should make strides in this season. Farmer bought himself a year of exemption from being fired by what he did after the 2014 draft.

Farmer also signed undrafted free agents K’waun Williams, Isaiah Crowell and Taylor Gabriel. Those players could all be starters for the Browns already! Every team in the NFL would take that success if those three end up starting in their second seasons in the league.

If you told Farmer he would wind up drafting or signing five players (Bitonio, Kirksey, Crowell, Williams, and Gabriel) that ended up starters on the team, he’d have taken it. I believe Cleveland also found at least five more starters in the 2015 draft.

Danny Shelton, a run stuffing defensive tackle, was the first player selected by the Browns in 2015. Adding Duke Johnson, Nate Orchard, Xavier Cooper, Cameron Erving, Malcolm Johnson, Vince Mayle to the mix, the Browns have an exciting draft class to watch. They are all going to start games for the Browns. Shelton is going to be a starter for a long time in Cleveland, while Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, who is out for the season, is a very good player and once he gets back on the field also could start for a long time.

The Browns had 12 selections in the 2015 draft and they have 11 in 2016. Obviously I’m prognosticating with the 2015 players Cleveland drafted, but if Farmer has the same sort of success rate in 2016, the Browns will have put the final touches on building a championship caliber roster.

Mike Pettine was instrumental in the growth of players like Desir, Williams, Crowell, Gabriel, and West. Cleveland has had a losing culture for far too long. Pettine changed all that in just over a year. Bringing in players like Karlos Dansby and Donte Whitner helped too.

Whitner and Dansby are born leaders, who are true professionals and they are proven winners. Even though the Browns didn’t have a winning record last year, they had a winning attitude and it has spread into the offseason and now with all the players in the locker room.

Cleveland was eliminated from playoffs contention after losing five straight games. Even though they had nothing to play for, the Browns played the game the way it should be played and that can be attributed to Pettine.

I have absolute faith in Farmer and Pettine. Even though I didn’t agree with the selection of Johnny Manziel, the addition of Dwayne Bowe, or passing up on Michael Bennett in the 2015 draft, I’ve realized that Farmer has an eye for talent and that is undeniable. Pettine can coach them up too!

Haslam made two really good decisions when he hired Farmer and Pettine. He made another when he decided to stick with the duo for the immediate future. If Haslam can exercise patience through this season and retain both Farmer and Pettine at least until the end of 2016, we’ll all be rewarded with the results.

I am supremely confident that will be the case. Stability will have taken root in Cleveland and if Pettine and Farmer are allowed to remain at the realm, the Lombardi Trophy will reside in Cleveland before the year 2020!

Next: 5 Reasons To Be Optimistic About The 2015 Cleveland Browns

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