Cleveland Browns: 4 biggest questions heading into the 2020 season
By Chad Porto
The Cleveland Browns have a lot of questions heading into the new season but these four are the most imperative for getting the Browns back to the playoffs.
This article isn’t meant to discourage, look down, mock or belittle any of the moves the Cleveland Browns have made in the 2020 offseason. The Browns probably get an “A” for their off-season. Why wouldn’t they? They addressed a majority of their holes in the off-season but there are still some holes that need to be filled. There are still lingering questions about this team.
The new additions should aid in the team’s success. Should, a keyword in any team’s offseason. There are no guarantees here, people. The best you can do is target your biggest issues on your team, develop a scheme, and fill those holes accordingly. It’s never full-proof, and there are always things that can happen that are unforeseen.
Think about Joe Jurevicius having his career ended due to a staph infection in his knee. What about that time the Browns signed the best IOL in the league in LeCharles Bentley only for him to tear his patella tendon. A significant injury but one that requires a singular surgery and about six weeks of being off your feet. Except if you develop a staph infection, get three more surgeries, and find out that your career is over.
These were unforeseen issues. Two local boys come home, in the same off-season, and both have their careers ended due to staph infections in their knees. Yikes. Then there’s the Paul Kruger’s of it all or the time the team signed Dwayne Boye. That worked out well. Oh, wait, no, it didn’t.
The NFL Draft is always a crapshoot as well too. The best quarterback out of the 2012 NF Draft wasn’t first overall pick Andrew Luck, second overall pick Robert Griffen, eight overall pick Ryan Tannehill or 22nd overall pick Brandon Weeden. No, it was the 75th overall pick in Russell Wilson.
“But some of them dealt with injuries,” exactly the point. You can’t predict how one becomes the man from the draft. The odds that Jedrick Wills or any of the other three highly touted tackles become the next Joe Thomas are not in their favor. Sure, there’s going to be a borderline Hall of Famer linemen int his draft, probably, but there’s no way to say who.
This is all madness that people at ESPN, Fox Sports, and other sport media outlets try to tell you is controllable. It’s not. It’s all unpredictable. The greatest quarterback of all time is some 40-something year old, out of shape, schmuck, taken in the 6th round. This is nonsense and it can’t be predicted.
That’s the point. We can only acknowledge what’s wrong, bring in the pieces we think can fix it, and pray that it doesn’t all fall apart by week three. So with that said, these are the four biggest concerns the team is facing in 2020.