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junker-town · 5 years ago

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The defining Browns moment of each year in the 2010s

The Cleveland Browns did not finish with a winning record in any year of the 2010s.

All hail the only NFL team to get through the 2010s without a winning record.

Ten years, 117 losses, 17 starting quarterbacks, zero winning seasons.

Welcome to the Browns’ decade of sadness. Cleveland played host to the league’s most miserable franchise, one that managed to shatter expectations both low and high.

But while the Browns were terrible, each season was a unique snowflake in the 2010s crap blizzard that descended upon northeastern Ohio. Cleveland was subject to a decade in which even its peaks became woefully depressing. And just when the Browns appeared to be turning a corner, the football gods led them off the cliff again like a state full of Wile E. Coyotes.

How did we get here? Let’s examine every straight line and gently listing curve that led the Browns from very bad to awful and then back to very bad over the past decade, year by year.

2010: Eric Mangini is fired, loses will to coach

Starting quarterbacks added to the jersey of shame (and their record as a starter): Colt McCoy (2-6), Jake Delhomme (2-2), Seneca Wallace (1-3)

Eric Mangini, who once parlayed his wunderkind head coaching success into a cameo role on The Sopranos, plummeted out of the NFL’s coaching stratosphere after getting fired by Cleveland. He spent just three of the last nine years on an NFL sideline. A stint in San Francisco ended with his dismissal from a club eager to hand the reins to Chip Kelly, which, eeeesh.

There’s no evidence to suggest coaching the Browns sapped his will to coach ... but that certainly seems like the most likely scenario. Several coaches have taken the risk of helming the Browns. Few have ever been as irreparably damaged as Mangini was. And he might be the best coach Cleveland had this decade.

2011: Peyton Hillis makes the cover of Madden, promptly turns to dust

Starting quarterbacks: McCoy (4-9), Wallace (0-3)

Hillis was a surprising high point in Cleveland’s 2010. The 2008 seventh-round pick, a throw-in to Denver’s trade offer for Brady Quinn (ew), emerged as the Browns’ top runner in an 1,177-yard, 11-touchdown campaign. That led him to the top of EA’s fan vote for the following year’s Madden cover, and the Cleveland back immediately lent credence to the game’s vaunted curse.

Hillis and his 4.64 40 time couldn’t baffle defenses for long. He ran for just 587 yards and 3.6 yards per carry for a four-win Browns team in 2011. Cleveland declined to offer him a contract for 2012. It had better (read: much worse) plans in mind for its tailback spot.

2012: With two first-round picks, the Browns select ... Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden

Starting quarterbacks: Weeden (5-10), Thaddeus Lewis (0-1)

Richardson quickly became Exhibit A in the case against taking running backs in the first five picks of the NFL Draft. While he ran for 11 touchdowns as a rookie, he averaged just 3.5 yards per carry as a Brown before being traded to the Colts, somehow in exchange for a first-round pick (which was quickly squandered, keep reading). He averaged 3.1 yards per carry in 1.5 seasons in Indianapolis and was out of the league by 2015.

Weeden, a sprightly 29-year-old rookie, was drafted before quarterbacks Russell Wilson, Nick Foles, and Kirk Cousins. He was selected with a pick Cleveland acquired when it traded down in the 2011 draft to allow the Falcons to select Julio Jones. This turned out to be a wise decision for Atlanta.

Weeden rolled up a career 31:30 TD:INT ratio and a 6-19 record as a starter. Like Richardson, he was wiped clean from the Browns’ roster before the 2014 season.

Mitchell Schwartz, the best player from the 2012 draft class, played four forgettable seasons as a starter at right tackle in Cleveland. The Browns made no discernible effort to re-sign him in 2016 and he’s since gone on to have three straight All-Pro seasons with the Chiefs.

2013: Brian Hoyer begins his claim as the decade’s best Browns quarterback

Starting quarterbacks: Weeden (0-5), Jason Campbell (1-7), Brian Hoyer (3-0)

Here are all six quarterbacks who’ve started at least 10 games for the Browns since 2010.

Hoyer is the only one with a winning record. He’s the only one who isn’t at least five games under .500 as a starter. He started 13 fewer games than Mayfield and still had one more fourth-quarter comeback than the franchise’s No. 1 pick of 2018.

The stats only tell part of the story, but from a purely win/loss scenario Hoyer was the most successful passer the Browns had this decade. This is especially notable, because he wasn’t a very good quarterback in any typical definition of the word. Also, good lord, this table. If QB stats were wines, this would be a warm bottle of Night Train Express.

2014: With two first-round picks, the Browns select ... Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel

Starting quarterbacks: Hoyer (7-6), Manziel (0-2), Connor Shaw (0-1)

Holy crap holy crap holy crap it happened again! Cleveland’s two first-round players in 2014 would be out of the league by the end of 2016. The Browns traded up one spot from No. 9 to No. 8 in order to select Gilbert. He lasted two years in Ohio before being traded to the Steelers and would make three starts in three years as a pro. Anthony Barr, the player Minnesota chose one selection later, made four straight Pro Bowls between 2015 and 2018.

Gilbert’s fading star is nothing compared to Manziel’s, however. The Heisman Trophy winner, drafted using the assets acquired in the aforementioned Richardson deal, was out of Cleveland after two seasons and two wins as a starting QB. Off-field issues swirled around the mercurial dual-threat passer, who was released by the team in 2016.

He’d take his talents up north to Canada before being effectively barred by the CFL. No one’s quite sure if he’ll show up in Vince McMahon’s XFL reboot in 2020, but given Oliver Luck’s public trashing of the former Aggie, (and McMahon’s “no arrests” rule for active players) it appears unlikely.

2015: Yoooouuuuuur Browns player of the year ... Gary Barnidge!

Starting quarterbacks: Manziel (2-4), Josh McCown (1-7), Austin Davis (0-2)

The Browns won three games, ranked 29th in the league in points allowed and 30th in points scored. Despite all that, there was only one truly disappointing loss on the team’s resume (to the 5-11 Ravens).

Instead, this year’s sigil of Browns misery was the team’s top skill player. Barnidge, a not-especially-athletic 6’6 tight end, had just 44 career receptions in his seven seasons in the league prior to 2015. Then, thanks to a WR/TE corps led by Travis Benjamin, Brian Hartline, and, uh, Jim Dray, Barnidge shot up to the top of the progression tree for whichever underwhelming quarterback happened to be in charge that week.

Barnidge tied for the team lead in targets (alongside Benjamin at 125) and led the team in receptions (79), receiving yards (1,043), and touchdowns (nine). His touchdown count would drop down to two the following year, and then he’d be released in 2017. He hasn’t played an NFL game since.

2016: Hue Jackson’s hired and then, somehow, not immediately fired

Starting quarterbacks: McCown (0-3), Cody Kessler (0-8), Robert Griffin III (1-4)

Jimmy Haslam, who purchased the Browns in 2012, fired Mike Pettine after the 2015 season (his 10 wins in Cleveland tie him for the franchise lead since 2008 with Mangini). He proved he was capable of making extremely Browns decisions by hiring away Marvin Lewis’ — the Bengals coach with the 0-7 postseason record — top assistant, Hue Jackson.

The former Cincinnati offensive coordinator oversaw a unit that scored 13 points or fewer eight times in his debut season. His offense had only three more touchdowns (28) than turnovers (25). He went 1-15 in 2016 and somehow got WORSE the following year.

2017: ALL OF IT

Starting quarterbacks: DeShone Kizer (0-15), Kevin Hogan (0-1)

Only two teams in NFL history have ever gone 0-16. Jackson’s Browns joined the 2008 Lions by virtue of losses to the five-win Jets, four-win Colts, four-win Texans, and five-win Bears. Cleveland’s offense scored just 14.6 points per game.

That group had 15 more turnovers than touchdowns. Ricardo Louis was the team’s most accomplished wide receiver; he finished the year with 27 catches, 357 yards and, fittingly, zero touchdowns.

Browns fans, acutely aware this may be the closest they’d get to an accomplishment in their lifetimes, threw a parade to immortalize their epic dive into failure. Jackson, retained after the season despite his 1-31 record, did not attend.

More raw parade video pic.twitter.com/vPwJnMIYNI

— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) January 6, 2018

During all this, Joe Thomas — future Hall of Famer and 10-time All-Pro — played his 10,000th consecutive snap. He’d suffer a season-ending triceps injury 363 snaps later. Having seen both the alpha (10 wins as a rookie) and omega (the aforementioned zero wins of 2017) of the Browns, he opted for retirement at age 33.

2018: The ascension of Freddie Kitchens

Starting quarterbacks: Tyrod Taylor (1-1-1), Baker Mayfield (6-7)

Jackson’s firing — after 2.5 seasons and a 3-36-1 record — gave way for Kitchens’ rapid ascension. He had never held down a job higher than quarterbacks coach in nearly two decades as an assistant, but his promotion to interim offensive coordinator helped Baker Mayfield realize his potential. A 5-3 finish had the Browns scraping a .500 record for the first time since 2007 (they’d fall just short at 7-8-1).

That was enough to convince Haslam to roll the dice and promote Kitchens to the top spot based on eight solid weeks of temporary coordinator excellence. All this created just enough hope to get Browns fans stuck in a vortex of their own (finally well-placed!) hype. Kitchens would spend the next season overseeing the league’s least disciplined team (see below) while crushing the hopes and dreams of any Cleveland fan foolish enough to have them in the first place.

He’d be fired after 2019’s disappointing campaign. The Browns went through seven coaches in the 2010s, including two that lasted only a single year (Kitchens, Rob Chudzinski) and interim coach Gregg Williams. None finished with more than 10 wins.

2019: Myles Garrett, who does not care for Mason Rudolph

Starting quarterbacks: Mayfield (6-10)

Mayfield came into 2019 with MVP hype and suddenly devolved into late-stage Philip Rivers. Kitchens’ team averaged more than eight penalties per home game before he was fired. Both Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry publicly questioned the team’s decision-making on the sideline.

The Browns went from AFC North frontrunner to a spot in the draft’s top 10. That’s not what you’re going to remember from this season, however. Garrett’s primetime bashing of Rudolph is.

This is all ugly pic.twitter.com/9WQzcjZCCj

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) November 15, 2019

There it is. There’s your decade of Browns football in one clip. An act of ugliness ultimately rendered pointless. The team’s best defensive player, in the midst of a possible (but unlikely) postseason run, hanging up his cleats for the season because he attacked a rival quarterback with his own helmet.

In terms of Cleveland schadenfreude, that might be considered a high note. And, in case that wasn’t enough, here’s your final quarterback count.

Mayfield will return for year three with Beckham, Landry, an eventually reinstated Garrett, and a brand new head coach in 2020.

Go Browns.

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flauntpage · 7 years ago

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The Most Amazing Moments from the Cleveland Browns' First Win Since 2016

It feels surreal even just to type this: the Cleveland Browns won a game of football. Hard to imagine, I know. But here we are, in the year of our lord, 2018, watching the team that is the Hard Knocks-est of the Hard Knocks actually chalk up a win.

The victory came on the coattails of the Browns earning their first non-loss since 2016 two weeks ago—after a tie gave the team its best start since 2004. But the tie became an afterthought Thursday night, as the Browns took on the New York Jets and by some kind of miracle secured a 21-17 win.

In the first half, the Jets capitalized on some sloppy plays by the Browns offense, but also felt the wrath of a surprisingly talented Browns defense. Then Browns quarterback Tyrod Taylor was injured in the waning moments of the second quarter and on came rookie Baker Mayfield. Mayfield found a rhythm with his offense, namely with wide receiver Jarvis Landry—including a sneaky two-point conversion with Landry finding Mayfield in a role reversal—and erased a 14-3 halftime deficit to help the Browns pull off the comeback win in his NFL debut.

But a standard summary can't just encapsulate the beauty that was this game. No, there are too many gems from this one to put a tidy bow on it. Take, for example, Isaiah Crowell taking a premature ass-wipe celebration for Browns fans (browns—get it?) after scoring his second touchdown of the night.

The celebration would later come back to... bite him on the ass.

The winner of the day, however, proved to be the Browns' Carlos Hyde. Not only did the running back celebrate his 28th birthday, but he spent his game day bouncing back and forth between the hospital and the gridiron, as his wife went through labor, induced the night before. Despite showing up late to pregame, Hyde snagged two rushing touchdowns, including the game-winner. And then welcomed a child to the world shortly after:

Now that's a helluva 24 hours.

And, understandably, mayhem ensued off the field, too. It was a drought that long deserved a drenching, and so Browns fans were treated to their beloved victory fridges—fridges packed with Bud Light that had wifi-based locks set to open after the team's first (prospective and now very real) win:

The sweet taste of victory even had the Fuzz getting in on the occasion:

Bars erupted in pandemonium:

Including some, uh, perhaps premature celebrations about being "champions:"

A possum even showed up to the game:

And the heralding of a new Cleveland legend in the streets:

One Browns fan doctor was treated to cake because of the win:

The spectacle also produced vintage JR Smith, and was enough to have him promise to bum-rush the streets and take off his shirt (though not hard to make that happen):

Small wonder that Cleveland schools weren't canceled for the day.

The Most Amazing Moments from the Cleveland Browns' First Win Since 2016 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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tjonsports · 7 years ago

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Bring in Tyrod Tay, lord!

Auteur: Marc Tjon, gepubliceerd op 13 januari 2018 om 18:20

Het seizoen van de Denver Broncos is uitgegaan als een nachtkaars van intens slechte kwaliteit. Hoofdverantwoordelijk voor dit echec is Executive VP Of Football Operations, John Elway. Maar hoe nu verder?

De Broncos defense behoort nog steeds tot de top van de National Football League, zeker na het aanpakken van de run defense. De offensieve kant van het verhaal is van een totaal andere orde. Met name ten aanzien van de quarterback positie, hét probleem van dit seizoen.

Paxton Lynch (2016 / 1st round / pick: 26, University Of Memphis) probeert al twee jaar (!) Trevor Siemian (2015 / round 7 / pick: 250, Northwestern Universtity) uit de basis te spelen, want tot dusver niet gelukt is. Dan moet je heel eerlijk concluderen dat zijn selectie een totale mislukking is gebleken.

Siemian op zijn beurt heeft zijn kansen meer dan genoeg gekregen, maar niet gepakt. Het afgelopen seizoen heeft hij zijn team meer beschadigd dan echt verder geholpen. Hoogste tijd om in te grijpen, lijkt me. Maar wat zijn de opties?

BAKER MAYFIELD

Hier en daar wordt al gezegd dat Baker Mayfield van de Oklahoma Sooners een goede match zou zijn, maar ik denk niet dat Elway het opnieuw gaat proberen met een rookie spelverdeler. Het is hem niet gelukt een first en seventh rounder door te ontwikkelen en waarom nu ineens weer wel? Laten we stellen dat Elway ezel genoeg is om zijn onvermogen te erkennen.

(Nou wil het toeval dat hij zijn opwachting zal maken tijdens de Senior Bowl en daar gecoached gaat worden door de staf van de Denver Broncos)

Het kan heel goed zijn dat Mayfield in de smaak valt bij head coach Vance Joseph en Denver alsnog besluit hem te draften, maar dan puur als de oplossing voor de lange termijn, niet als de 'win now' starter op korte termijn. That ship has sailed.

Dan zijn de onderstaande namen mijns inziens de meest logische alternatieven:

TYROD TAYLOR

Statistisch gezien heeft Tyrod Taylor zijn slechtse seizoen in drie jaar achter de rug bij de Buffalo Bills. Maar dat lag volgens mij meer aan hoe - de inmiddels ontslagen - offensive coordinator Rick Dennison Buffalo's offense runde, dan aan Taylor zelf.

Volgens mij de nummer 1 optie, omdat hij in hoog aanzien staat van de Elway's bloedgabber en rechterhand, oud-Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak. Vooral als je bedenkt dat Elway kortgeleden zijn functieomschrijving behoorlijk naar boven heeft bijgesteld.

Kubiak is straks verantwoordelijk voor talentontwikkeling en - evaluatie van Denver's roster, inclusief de voorbereiding op de aankomende NFL Draft. Daarnaast krijgt hij een flinke vinger in de pap met betrekking tot wie wel of niet komt in free agency.

Yes, you da man Tyrod!

KIRK COUSINS

Kirk Cousins heeft een sterk jaar achter de rug bij de Washington Redskins en heeft tot op heden géén aanbod gehad tot het verlengen van zijn contract. Dat feit op zich is al veelzeggend.

Head coach Jay Gruden gelooft gewoon niet dat Cousins 'the guy' is, iemand die het team voor een langere tijd kan dragen en het gezicht van de franchise kan worden. Althans, niet voor het contract dat hij straks gaat eisen aan de onderhandelingstafel.

TEDDY BRIDGEWATER

Dit is een 'high risk, high reward' keuze. Teddy Bridgewater is weliswaar fysiek helemaal hersteld, maar volgens veel Minnesota Vikings-watchers is hij nog steeds niet helemaal in game shape. Zijn mechanics zijn volgens velen nog niet op het niveau van voor zijn blessure.

Maar geloof me als ik je zeg dat Bridgewater op het moment van doorbreken stond, toen het noodlot keihard toesloeg. De gehele staf - inclusief head coach Mike Zimmer - én zijn teammates waren hier echt honderd procent van overtuigd. Bovendien zit er een goede kop op deze jongen.

Conclusie

Als ik geld had, zou die toch inzetten op Tyrod Taylor. Niet alleen omdat hij de persoonlijke favoriet is van Kubiak, maar vooral omdat hij het beste past bij Denver's scheme en zijn persoonlijkheid beter aansluit bij de zelfbewuste, outgoing stijl van de Orange Crush en No Fly Zone.

De eerlijkheid gebiedt me te zeggen dat de vorige free agent quarterback signing van Elway best een goede bleek te zijn: Peyton Manning

Dus hij kan het wel, hè? Now do it again, John!

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flauntpage · 7 years ago

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The Most Amazing Moments from the Cleveland Browns' First Win Since 2016

The celebration would later come back to... bite him on the ass.

Now that's a helluva 24 hours.

The sweet taste of victory even had the Fuzz getting in on the occasion:

Bars erupted in pandemonium:

Including some, uh, perhaps premature celebrations about being "champions:"

A possum even showed up to the game:

And the heralding of a new Cleveland legend in the streets:

One Browns fan doctor was treated to cake because of the win:

The spectacle also produced vintage JR Smith, and was enough to have him promise to bum-rush the streets and take off his shirt (though not hard to make that happen):

Small wonder that Cleveland schools weren't canceled for the day.

The Most Amazing Moments from the Cleveland Browns' First Win Since 2016 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

0 notes

flauntpage · 7 years ago

Text

The Most Amazing Moments from the Cleveland Browns' First Win Since 2016

The celebration would later come back to... bite him on the ass.

Now that's a helluva 24 hours.

The sweet taste of victory even had the Fuzz getting in on the occasion:

Bars erupted in pandemonium:

Including some, uh, perhaps premature celebrations about being "champions:"

A possum even showed up to the game:

And the heralding of a new Cleveland legend in the streets:

One Browns fan doctor was treated to cake because of the win:

The spectacle also produced vintage JR Smith, and was enough to have him promise to bum-rush the streets and take off his shirt (though not hard to make that happen):

Small wonder that Cleveland schools weren't canceled for the day.

The Most Amazing Moments from the Cleveland Browns' First Win Since 2016 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

0 notes