Rebutting the Rebuttal: Broken Crayons Edition

The blindingly gorgeous prospects of an early July allow us all to parade around the bandwidths of public opinion, emerging as gridiron prophets and caretakers of the endless optimism that surrounds a sun-drenched Berea.

For in July, it really doesn’t matter that the 2009 Browns are entering yet another first year of a new coaching regime, or that the current collection of talent on the roster appears to be riddled with questions and concerns worthy of volumes of elegant prose.

Because as it stands now, the Browns’ odds to compete for a Super Bowl championship are as good as any other team in the league.

Why not?

If you allow yourself to embrace the Zen-like philosophy of “we shall see,” then every move made in Berea over the past six months is leading to a perfect destination…or not.

Perhaps we should all embrace this feeling for as long as it continues to penetrate our hardened, Northeast Ohio sports fan shells.

But then again, what fun is that?

So, in the spirit of both debate and its sister, contrarianism, as well as in a gesture of goodwill toward accurate, grammatical bliss, let us offer a counter argument to the sunshine streaming through the Internet in recent days.

Or, perhaps in a more correct phrasing, allow me to retort.

Rebuttal to Reboot

I just want to start out and say I have read and always enjoyed the Cleveland Reboot blog. It’s a very intelligent and clever blog about the greatest franchise in football, The Cleveland Browns. I just believe that his recent post about our offense struggling this season to “find” an identity and whichever quarterback that starts not playing well needs a rebuttal.

First things first, thanks for the plug. I also enjoy the stylings of one Cleveland Reboot. And as for the objective of a rebuttal, I admit that I argue with myself constantly. Unflinchingly and stubbornly maintaining the same outlook is self-destructive.

Debate is healthy.

Our offense will not struggle in 2009. They may not be top five or top 10, but we will score points. Let’s start with identity. The team has one…it is balanced. If you watched the Jets, and I have to tell you I watched many of their games because I am a Brett Farve fan, Leon Washington was used in the short passing game more than he was as a running back.

The Browns are installing a new offense, with a largely untested quarterback, an older featured running back, very few playmakers and a revamped offense line. However hopeful I am for the offense to acheive success in 2009, as a realist, I have to think that this unit will struggle in 2009.

Having said this, I admit that the offense will gradually improve throughout the year, but this is a huge work in progress for the team moving forward.

As for an identity of being “balanced,” again, let’s wait and see. However, in viewing the current roster shortcomings, I’m not sure how this team will acheive this kind of benchmark. The only parallel we have now, other than player analysis, is to look at the 2008 Jets.

The flaw in using that logic is that the Browns are not the 2008 Jets.

Isolating the running back position, it is obvious that Jamal Lewis is not Thomas Jones and Jerome Harrison is not Leon Washington.

In reality, these comparisons are not so easy.

Cleveland Reboot goes on to say the browns have “an aging featured running back in Jamal Lewis.” Lewis is younger than Thomas Jones and he can break tackles much more often. So if Jones can flourish in Mangini’s offense, then so can Jamal. The Browns even have their very own Leon Washington…Jerome Harrison. We all complained about the lack of use we saw out of Harrison; well in 2009 prepare to see him used EXACTLY like Washington. Expect to see his best this season.

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