The Cleveland Browns are a team on the edge, it seems. There's this belief, at least internally, that this is a team that can contend for the playoffs. Their offensive line is mostly intact from years past, despite a decline in production and an increase in injuries. The team drafted and acquired young playmakers on the offense to help bolster a team that was once very dangerous with Joe Flacco under center.
The hope is that Flacco, now in his second stint with the Browns, will be able to come in and do some serious work with this new-look Browns offense. With the new young players, returning starters like David Njoku and Jerry Jeudy, plus four-fifths of last year's offensive line, the belief is there. This team can compete. Why else would they give Myles Garrett the massive contract he got, knowing he'll (nor anyone else) could ever live up to it?
Because this team believes it can win today. But can they?
Shedeur Sanders Can Change Browns' Plans as a Rookie
That's a huge question and one that will be asked constantly if rookie Shedeur Sanders lives up to the hype that some have for him. Once a second or third-overall prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft, Sanders bombed his pre-draft so hard that he fell not to the fifth pick, but the fifth round. A fall that left many perplexed and bewildered.
Was his fall due to a perceived bad-faith evaluation period? Or was his fall something tied directly to him, and how did he handle things? We'll find out, but no rookie in the NFL could cause more uncertainty and upheaval for a team than Sanders.
If he starts playing well, then all bets are off, and the chorus for him to play will be too loud and deafening to ignore. Even if Flacco is playing as well as he did the last time he was with the Browns in 2023. It's not something we haven't seen before. Remember in 2004, when Kurt Warner was having a good start to his career with the New York Giants, but got benched anyway for Eli Manning?
Warner proved he wasn't washed up, as we saw in Arizona. We could see something very similar play out in Cleveland with Sanders and Flacco. A strong training camp could throw a wrench into the entire thought process behind this team.