Cleveland Browns: 8-8 might be a low expectation for the 2020 season

The Cleveland Browns are poised to be better than 8-8.

There’s an air of nervous optimism this season for fans of the Cleveland Browns. Smart, logical moves, with longterm and short-term planning on the scale of the Cleveland Indians. A team dedicated to winning today, and tomorrow. A novelty in the Cleveland sports scene for a time. The Browns have some genuine hype around them this year because of the smart moves made this past offseason. So is the hype warranted?

Depends on who you ask. Some point to last season as a reason for why fans should be trepidacious in their expectations for the club. Yet, there are others who point out that last year was mostly just two moves added to a roster that overachieved the year before. This year, as they note, the team overhauled several key areas. So it comes down to whether or not these new additions can live up to their lofty expectations or not.

If they can, playoffs?

Brian Baldinger, an analyst for the NFL Network, and former NFL linemen seem to think that an 8-8 record is the baseline for expectations in 2020. He went on 92.3’s Bull and the Fox and gave his opinion on the team and flat out said that anything less than .500 would be a real disappointment. “I think the Browns’ expectation should start at 8-8,” the former Cowboy stated. “I think anything less would be really disappointing.”

So is that the baseline? One could argue that it is. This team has too much talent to expect anything other than a winning record. Now, that’s not to say that a SuperBowl run is also something to expect, after all, one has to learn to walk before they run. With a new system in place, one that’s not as complicated to execute, the team should be able to get back to doing the one thing they’ve been doing since they were nine years old; playing football.

Gone will be the complicated schemes and assignments that follow in the trend of other overhyped coaching hires of the past five years. In its place will be good ol’ fashion Big Ten/AFC North power football.

An 8-8 record be damned. This team is playoffs or bust all the way.

Go Browns.