Now that training camp is over, there are still three glaring issues the Browns will need to see play out during the 2020 season.
The Cleveland Browns have a lot to figure out in 2020. While training camp may have answered some questions for some teams, it did not answer the questions for this team. Sure, this specific squad of Browns players didn’t really have to worry about much competition this year, with everyone who was expected to start, largely earning their spots. So the question of “who was going to start” had a pretty obvious answer.
Yet, due to a shortened training camp, no preseason games, and no off-season workouts, the Browns and every other NFL team will go into the year with a team that may not exactly be ready to go all out. There will be errors, there will be mistakes and there will be a lot of miffed fans.
That doesn’t mean the Browns are destined for doom, however. It just means that the Browns, like every other team in the league this year, have a lot of questions still unanswered. Those questions centered around reports coming out of camp that weren’t too kind to three specific positions.
Unfortunately, without even naming them, you already know the biggest issues surrounding this team. That’s because the team, while it made moves to improve those issues, made those moves with younger, mostly rookie type players. Guys with potential but not a track record. There’s no telling what this team will look like because of that. It could be the biggest disaster since 1995’s Judge Dredd or it could be as impressive as a once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece; like 2012’s Dredd.
(*Go watch Dredd, it’s good.)
Can Baker Mayfield put it all together?
The best part of this question is that you’re going to have half of the fanbase going, “Hell yeah, Baker’s going to turn it around, this offense is built for him! Something-something, Stefanski did for Cousins!” Then you have the other half “Mayfield sucks, bro! I can throw a ball better than him!” Hey, one of those groups of dude-bros has to be correct, right?
Is this the year that Baker Mayfield finally puts it all together? If camp is an early sigh then yes. Well maybe. Probably not?
See, it all depends on who you ask. Listening to 92.3’s morning show with Ken Carmen, they did an unofficial, mostly anonymous poll of the Cleveland Browns beat writers. They came back with several of the writers giving Mayfield anywhere from a B+ to a C+ for his camp. A couple of others gave him in the D’s. These are unofficial, progress reports. They’re not necessarily going on the end of quarter report cards, so don’t get upset, people.
Mayfield had some rough days in camp, and maybe that’s to be expected. He didn’t do great in the Browns Stadium scrimmage, and there’s some reason for some concern from watching the day to day practices. Not enough to go jump off the I-480 bridge, but enough that some extra sessions in the film room and working on route running would be a smart idea.
None of this is to say that Mayfield will struggle. This is only saying that during training camp he did in fact struggle at times. More than some would have been comfortable with. He could easily make this his year, or he could tank. Either way, he has to prove it on the field first.
Will the offensive line actually be better?
If you don’t have concerns about the offensive line, you haven’t been paying attention. There’s plenty of reason to be worried here. Firstly, Jedrick Wills has not been that good all training camp. Sure, some reports out of camp say he’s “improving”, but they’re not saying “he looks so good, omg”. Sure, maybe he does better on the test than he does taking notes. Maybe he thrives on the pressure and he’ll be fine.
Also, maybe he’s just not ready yet. Maybe he might never be.
It’s an unfortunate reality but fans often just regurgitate things they hear and state them as fact. Like that Wills is going to be a beast. That’s not true, there isn’t any way of knowing that. He certainly might be a beast, but every year the NFL Draft sees offensive line prospects taken near the top of the draft, and every year some of those players never pan out.
That may not be Wills. He may be the next Joe Thomas. There is no magic crystal ball to know until we see it. We don’t know what hasn’t happened yet. What we do know is that we’ve seen him have a less-than-impressive camp.
That should worry people, even if only until we see otherwise.
Secondly, the most important position on the line, the center position, is often times the play call-adjuster. If new blocking assignments have to be given out it’s usually his job to do so. He reads the defense the same as the quarterback.
Thankfully the Browns have a good center in J.C. Tretter. Unfortunately, he’s developing knee issues. A lot of fans will respond to concern over Tretter’s health with “WELL NICK HARRIS IS GOOD, HE CAN JUST START, WE’LL BE FINE, JUDGE DREDD ’95 WAS BETTER THAN DREDD ’12.” To which I’d say; “…everything you just said is wrong”. Harris might be good. He’s a rookie. Most times a 5th round rookie gets thrown into the starting lineup of an NFL team that rookie is walking back to the sideline asking, “what happened?” because he got lit up.
That may not happen to Harris, he might be the next Matt Birk. He also might be Melvin Fowler. Who’s to say? This line has issues still beyond just Tretter and Wills, however. The Browns still have to rely on Wyatt Teller at right guard as well.
If Wills can’t adapt, Tretter can’t stay healthy and Teller can’t improve then this could be an ugly season.
Can the repurposed defense actually do its job?
The defense is returning five starters from last year to open up the season against Baltimore. That’s it. That might be a problem. While the rush defense last year was a joke – the Browns were third-worst in the league against the run – the pass defense was actually quite good. The Browns were seventh-best in the league in fewest yards given up in the air.
Granted overall, they were 11th in the league in most yards given up by a team, but they were 20th in the league in points allowed. The team wasn’t that bad, it just needed some improvements at left end, a new outside linebacker, maybe a new defensive tackle, and one new safety. Instead, the team got gutted. Gone were the team’s two best linebackers to save salary, both starting safeties of a solid passing defense were gone, and the defensive line, the united that needed the most work, was brought back intact.
It’s entirely possible that this new, revamped defense is stellar. That it breaks the league, leads the team to a 16-0 record, and sets a new league record for points given up. It’s more likely though that a team of cast-offs from other teams on one-year deals, most of whom are inconsistent or injury-plagued, ends up being even worse than the year before.
Who knows? It could go either way.
It should be noted that the team, outside of Myles Garrett, spent no real money on the defense. They signed two backup defensive linemen and drafted two guys in the second and third rounds and everyone thinks that’s going to be enough. Maybe it is, but there’s no way to know until they play. Maybe a team full of misfits can do the unthinkable.
We’ll know fast too, as the defense was re-tooled mostly with the idea of stopping the Baltimore Ravens in mind. They’re up first, Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns. If the Ravens put on another 500-yard performance on this defense, then you know holes and issues that existed before are still here to worry about.