In just a matter of hours, the 2006 Cleveland Browns will be joining Saddam
Hussein in wherever it is such nightmares go after their not-soon-enough demise.
And it can’t be quick enough.
You don’t need me to tell you 2006 had been an absolute, unequivocal
catastrophe. The performance on the field has left no room for confusion. This
team is bad. Very bad. One of the worst teams in franchise history.
Is that surprising? No. Is there any question as to why this team is so
awful? Not really.
The reasons, and you can pick your favorite poison but all apply to some
degree, are legion:
~ Injuries.
~ Inferior talent.
~ Poor discipline.
~ Poor coaching.
~ Bad luck.
~ The usual variety of Cleveland curses, hexes, afflictions, banes,
bewitchments, bedevilments and vexations.
None of this, as you likely recognize by now, is new. You can choose to
believe simple bad luck or some sinister necromancy is at work here, but the
bottom line remains the Cleveland Browns remain mired in something less than
mediocrity.
Cleveland is the K-Fed of the NFL. We’re a joke. Other teams use us as a
doormat, and an entire generation of football fans have no idea that his team
was ever any good. The "dog pound" at Cleveland Browns Stadium isn’t the "Dawg
Pound" of 1986-1995. These days, it’s some plastic, corporate, sterile product
of focus groups and marketing professionals. And that matches the fake team on
the field.
My team is long dead and gone. What’s in its place is a cheap, low-rent
imposter wearing uniforms it does not deserve. These are not the Cleveland
Browns. They died in December 1995 at the hands of a greedy huckster in a murder
plot approved by the NFL. And our Faustian deal to get a team back has resulted
in this absurd Greek tragedy unworthy of the glory that proceeded it on the
southern shore of Lake Erie.
What to do? Give up? I can’t, and most of you can’t either. So we adapt and
hope and erect monuments in our minds to those wonderful Sundays of yesteryear.
And this team before us, wearing our team’s colors and using its name, but
failing to live up to its legacy, sloppily marches on and continues to drag us
deeper and deeper into the mire to the point Pittsburgh dismisses us as an easy
victory and considers that Maryland team its true adversary.
After digesting all that, it’s not easy to find much to cheer about. I
question my DirecTV purchase, wondering if it’s worth spending hundreds of
dollars to basically watch a loved one get raped every Sunday. But I guess
enough of that collective misanthropic Cleveland spirit remains inside me that I
cling to this team, even a false one, in hopes that one day my investment of
emotion, time and money will pay off.
This team can redeem itself and build its own legacy. Despite the gory
spectacle on the field each Sunday, there have been a tiny collection of bright
spots amid the madness of 2006.
Here are the positives I see:
# SEAN JONES: Of all the players on the roster, Jones excites me the most. He
made tremendous strides in 2006 with almost zero help around him. Nearly every
play he’s around the ball. He can take down ball carriers. He can blitz the
quarterback. He can strip and intercept the ball. His awareness, knowledge and
technique at the professional level are growing manifestly. His career,
interrupted by a season-ending injury in his rookie preseason, reminds me of the
Steelers’ Troy Polamalu, who was dreadful his rookie season, then quickly grew
into a game-changer. Jones has that very same potential. He appears to have
finally grasped the pro game and adjusted to its speed. With some consistent
talent around him, he elevates himself to among the league’s elite safeties.
# LEIGH BODDEN: A quick, hard worker who’s earned the respect of a lot of
receivers in the league. The injuries are worries – we already pay Gary Baxter
tens of millions to not play. But when Bodden is on the field, he’s as good as
any corner in the league. Add a pass rush in front of him, and he, too, becomes
one of the league’s elite. He’s not a theatrical player, so he’ll never get the
airtime, but I’ll take his play over Sportscenter nonsense.
# KAMERION WIMBLEY: Carving out 10 sacks through 15 games on this team
deserves some type of Congressional award. He’s shown promise as a pass rusher.
If the Gods are smiling on us, he develops his run-stopping skills, too. He may
never become a Lawrence Taylor on the field, but if he evolves into at least a
consistent threat, that’s a vast improvement for this franchise.
# KELLEN WINSLOW: This year, despite some boneheaded actions, he proved he’s
elite. He’s another victim of a dearth of ability around him. If he gets a
consistent quarterback throwing to him, along with a ground game to take
attention from him, he’ll be the NFL’s best tight end. And I think he showed
enough this year that he no longer needs the "II" after his name. He’s as
physically gifted as his father, if not better. He needs to prove it over time,
but he can’t do it alone. And the maturity stuff will come with time. I’ll
accept some 15-yard fouls if his overall play outweighs any negatives.
Thirty-one other teams would love to have this guy, keep in mind.
# DEREK ANDERSON: Yes, he of the four-interception performance against Tampa
Bay. I’ve included him because I’ve seen enough that I’m truly intrigued. His
ability to beat the blitz is something Cleveland has not had at quarterback
since a gangly young kid named Kosar was doing it ugly style two decades ago.
Anderson has a cannon arm that’s also quick – meaning he has a strong arm that
can immediately deliver the ball. More interesting is that he finds the correct
receiver to get the ball to, something that Kansas City and Baltimore discovered
to their chagrin. What Anderson needs to work on is his overall accuracy and
touch. That comes with time, and let’s not forget the sum total of his game
experience in the NFL is three-and-a-half starts. And that’s three-and-a-half
starts on one of the most dreadful, injured teams in franchise history. By all
rights, he should have looked far, far worse than he has. That quick release and
strong arm, if developed, could turn him into something we’ve never seen in this
town.
# JASON WRIGHT: He showed some quick moves that proved a nice balance to
Reuben Droughns’ more hardcore technique. This is a player who needs to see more
touches to show if there’s something more there, of if he’s simply a body on the
roster. My gut instinct is the more experience he gets, he’s going to develop
into something unexpected. Wouldn’t that be nice in Cleveland? For once?
These guys did a workmanlike job this year, under awful circumstances: Joe Jurevicius, Andra Davis and Dave Zastudil. They earned their paychecks and can
provide powerful support to the core of a rebuilding team.
Now, for the rogues, malcontents and busts.
OFFENSIVE LINE: The slide began on the first day of training camp with
LeCharles Bentley’s knee injury, then played out as a some pathetic and bizarre
comedy as a parade of centers either got hurt or went crazy. And only in
Cleveland does the team lose its best remaining lineman to a mental disorder.
The remainder are a collection of has-beens and never-will-be’s. Until this unit
at least is elevated to the level of "undistinguished" this franchise will
continue to drift aimlessly in the NFL’s sea lanes.
DEFENSIVE LINE: Ted Washington isn’t worth the money. He’s good for about two
plays a game. No other lineman did enough even to get noticed. The pass rush
simply was nonexistent. Run defense was there a couple times, but quickly
evaporated. If this unit had done anything at all this year, the play of the
linebackers and secondary would have looked decent.
BRAYLON EDWARDS: I’m not ready to proclaim him a bust, but he’s flirting with
Detroit Lion wide receiver mediocrity. The inopportune drops that plagued him at
Michigan have followed him to the NFL. Jerry Rice suffered through an early
reputation as drop-prone, then shed it to become a legend. Edwards still has
time to blossom into something special, but this far he’s been more hype and
hope than reliable.
These guys were low-grade disappointments: Dennis Northcutt, Charlie Frye,
Brian Russell and just about everyone else.
And some one tell me why we drafted Travis Wilson. Why? Are we saving him for
something, or is he so magnificently unready to play the pro game that former
quarterback Josh Cribbs is the third wide receiver?
That thought leads me to Phil Savage, perhaps the biggest question mark on
this team.
He has shown he recognizes the weaknesses of this team, and tried to address
them the past two off-seasons with free agents. This year’s free-agent batch
looked especially exciting, but proved to be a titanic flop. Washington and
Willie McGinest basically had nothing left in their respective gas tanks.
Bentley was a great signing, but bad luck cancels out that move. Getting Hank Fraley seems like the best move they could have made to find a stop-gap.
You hit and miss on free agents. Getting Reuben Droughns paid off. Signing
Cosey Coleman and Joe Andruzzi was good at the time, but they’ve degraded
quickly.
What we’re not seeing are the home runs that Savage was credited while
working for The Illegitimate Entity™ under Ozzie Newsome. That franchise seems
to nail draft picks that instantly develop into dominating Pro Bowlers. It’s too
soon to turn Savage loose, but the time is drawing near to see some return on
investment, no?
And that brings us to Romeo Crennel and the eternal question asked to the
tune of the famous Clash song: Should he stay or should he go.
Thus far, I’m unimpressed with Crennel. His unwillingness to fire Mo Carthon,
his poor record at challenges and his inability to put out the Braylon Edwards
attitude fire is disturbing. Crennel was hampered by a ridiculous number of
injuries this season, but at the end of the day a coach is judged by wins and
losses. And this was the first Browns team to lose all of its divisional games,
and it clearly regressed from 2005.
If he’s fired, it should come as no surprise. If he’s given another year,
that’s no shocker, either.
Crennel leaves me the impression he’s a non-entity. There’s not much control,
and there’s not much personality to this team. Even the Borg-like Bill Belichick
has a feel to his teams. The great coaches field teams that leave you with an
impression.
Crennel’s Browns get hurt and lose, a lot. Not that sort of impression,
please.
I’m not really sure if dumped Crennel would help or hurt. That decision has
to be made by Savage and Randy Lerner. At this point in the team’s development,
acquisition of talent outweighs coaching, in my mind at least. Until this team
fields players on par with the rest of the division, it doesn’t matter who the
coach is. They will lose.
The losing must end. No profound statement that, but the hour is growing late
for this team. There’s serious risk of forever losing the magical love these
fans have with this team. The empty seats we see by midway though the season
could be there at the start. The current twenty-something generation of fans
does not have the deep connection to this team, a connection that’s only built
by winning.
Hope springs eternal, but patience are limited. The franchise is at a
crossroads, and the wrong move sends it spiraling further into a tailspin not
unlike the Bengals of Buccaneers of the past. The correct move sets us on a path
that leads the fans to a place where the new team can no longer be
differentiated from the Cleveland Browns that we fell in love with all those
years ago.
Former Ohio newspaper editor and reporter Bill Shea has written the Doc Gonzo
column each week for The Orange and Brown Report for six years. He now writes
for a business magazine in Detroit and was recently named vice president of
communications for the Port Huron Pirates of the Continental Indoor Football
League. E-mail him at docgonzo19@aol.com.