What Should the Browns Do?
image courtesy of www.sportsnet.ca
Well, after what was a very promising win against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Browns came out and played their worst game of the season. I don’t even have much analysis to offer for this game. I honestly knew that this game was over half way through the second quarter, because we were completely out schemed. Both sides of the ball looked like they had no idea what to do from the jump and unfortunately the halftime adjustments didn’t help much either. What probably hurts the most for us Browns fans, is the implications for this game. It felt like a playoff game, given that the Patriots and the Browns had the same record and are both likely going to be fighting for a playoff spot. A win guarantees a tie breaker and could potentially lock up a playoff spot over the other down the road. This was a game that was supposed to be a good game, and one I fully expected us to win or at least have a high chance of winning, but the Browns wet the bed.
With that said, we’re sitting at 5-5 with two games left before our bye week. The next one is against Detroit which we better win, and the next is against the Ravens who just lost to the Dolphins. If we can pick up those two games, we’re sitting at 7-5 with a chance to rest up and get healthy down the stretch. After that we 3 more very winnable games against the Bengals, the Steelers, and the Raiders, and 2 harder games against the Ravens a second time and Packers. We are very alive for a 10-7 season and I believe we can get into the playoffs with that. Ultimately, I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and look at the bigger picture. While it is definitely understandable to be upset (trust me I am too), the season isn’t over yet and there’s a lot of parody in the AFC this year.
One other lingering thing I’ve been noticing is what we should do about Baker Mayfield after this year. What makes this so hard to address is the fact that he’s so banged up, which makes it’s hard to evaluate his play. Personally, I’m okay with paying him, as long as long as it’s not over $30-$31 million a year. He absolutely does not deserve the premium as much as I like him as a guy and the attitude he brings to this team. It seems like whenever we get into a shootout with another team, we always come up short no matter what, and I feel like if you’re going to give your quarterback $40 million a year they have to win at least a couple of those. I also think that it would be irresponsible to not at least look at the option of picking up Russel Wilson or Aaron Rodgers this off season. We appear to be in win now mode, and these quarterbacks would be better right now in our championship window. This might be a hot take, but I think that even though we have been awful for years, we shouldn’t be okay with mediocrity. We have a brilliant front office and a fantastic coaching staff/team. While I think we can definitely win with Baker, if we have a serious opportunity at a top tier quarterback I would not be opposed to picking one of them up and go all in, especially if we don’t make the playoffs this year.