Despite Loss, Browns Have Reason to Be Optimistic About Future

It sounds so cliche. Far too often Cleveland Browns fans have heard that there is hope masked behind an ugly loss. They have heard that real strides are being made toward relevant football despite the outcome of regular-season games. You might not want to hear it, but even with the loss to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday, good things are on the horizon.

A win against the Ravens would have been a springboard into the spotlight. If the local and national media had been given two weeks to ponder a 2-1 Browns club which beat both the New Orleans Saints and the Ravens, who combined to win 19 games last season, they would have had a field day.

LeBron James returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Browns actually making noise in the AFC North would have made for good television. It is a storyline the country would probably love to hear. It will have to wait.

It could be this season or maybe next, but the Browns are finally headed in the right direction. For so many years they have gotten the fanbase’s hopes up only to dash them at the last possible second.

But like a house built without a foundation, those dreams were made to crumble.

In 2002 the Browns did not have a 1,000-yard rusher or receiver, and quarterback Tim Couch passed for just 2,842 yards, yet they won nine games. The main factor in their success that season was a No. 10-ranked aging defense that consisted of Earl Holmes, Robert Griffith, Brant Boyer, Earl Little, Orpheus Roye and other old bodies.

Despite the franchise's lone postseason appearance since its rebirth, the team crashed back down to Earth the next year. The age caught up with the defense, and the hits finally caught up with quarterback Tim Couch.

In 2007 the Browns won 10 games on the strength of the NFL’s eighth-best offense. Four players from that side of the football went to the Pro Bowl, but despite winning three of their last four games they missed the playoffs. Who can forget quarterback Derek Anderson’s miserable four-interception performance in Week 16 at Cincinnati that would have clinched a playoff birth?

Amy Sancetta/Associated Press

Then in 2008 Anderson remembered that he was Derek Anderson, a blockheaded quarterback who took too many risks downfield and couldn’t throw an accurate short route. Jamal Lewis remembered he was about to turn 30 years old and ready for the glue factory and Braylon Edwards remembered his essence was far too big for Cleveland.

Neither team was built on youth that could sustain success. In 2001 the Browns had leaders who were on the wrong side of their careers. In 2007 they had no leaders in the locker room and a coach in Romeo Crennel who famously said “kids are kids” when referring to his out-of-control team.

There were other brief glimpses of home under Eric Mangini, Pat Shurmur and even Rob Chudzinski, but none of their teams was built to win. They were not designed to compete week in and week out without help from fluky plays or inclement weather.

The 2014 Browns are built for success both in the present and the future.

It is easy to look at the Browns' 1-2 record and the fact they lost their two games on last-second field goals and say this is the same old Browns. It is easy to look at a defense which is being gashed for 153 yards per game on the ground and say nothing has changed.

The fact of the matter is things have changed and will continue to do so.

Head coach Mike Pettine brought over his system from Buffalo, where he was defensive coordinator last season. In 2013 the Bills were ranked 10th overall in defense but 28th against the run. They also had far less talent in their front seven than the Browns do.

Desmond Bryant and John Hughes have both missed significant time, and once they have a few weeks of practice under their belt it should help stop the run.

The Browns offense in currently ranked 10th in the NFL in points per game and 12th in the NFL in yards per game. It is doing all this without its best offensive player, Josh Gordon, a group of receivers who no one knew before this year and a middle-of-the-road starter in Brian Hoyer. Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan is making gourmet meals with discount-club groceries so far this season.

The jury is still out on the coaching staff, but from everything we have seen so far it looks like the Browns finally picked a winner. Even after the Week 3 loss to Baltimore where the staff had a terrible game, Mike Pettine admitted it and took the blame for the loss.

And he should. The Browns had 12 penalties for 94 yards—two of which were penalties for having 12 men on the field, and they had to call a timeout to prevent a third—strayed away from a rushing attack that was dominating the game through three quarters and could not make adjustments to limit the Ravens offense in the second half.

“I thought for the bulk of it the players played well enough to have a victory,” Pettine told the media after the game. “I put this one on me. We didn’t coach well enough to win today. I’m not going to get into too much of the specifics until I get a chance to go through it. The list is long.”

The confidence and accountability that Pettine wears on his sleeve is rubbing off on the locker room too. The Browns should not have been able to make the comeback they did against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they sure as heck shouldn’t have beaten the New Orleans Saints, but they did.

After the loss to Baltimore, the locker room was not filled with guys hanging their heads. It was not filled with guys numb to the loss because they know there will be plenty more either. There was genuine disappointment because they know they should have won.

That doesn’t happen too often in Cleveland.

After the bye week the Browns have five games in a row against teams that will either be at the top of next year’s draft or will struggle to surpass eight wins.

Pittsburgh at home is their stiffest challenge, and the Steelers certainly do not look like a legitimate playoff contender. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans are not only winnable games, but should almost all be underdogs to the Browns.

The immediate future is not the only reason this season is different though. Of the Browns main contributors only Miles Austin and Karlos Dansby are 30 years or older. Of the 17 rotation players on defense, the average age is less than 26 years old.

On offense, the average age of the 17 rotation players is also just under 26 years old. This is a roster full of talented kids who are already contributing at a high level.

David Richard/Associated Press

“It’s exciting to me because I think we are going to get better as the season goes on,” tackle Joe Thomas said after the game. “As I look at all the mistakes that we made throughout the course of the game we could easily had 40 points if we wouldn’t have shot ourselves in the foot on multiple occasions.”

While that quote may sound like the same lip service you hear year after year from Browns players, I assure you it is not. There was genuine excitement in Thomas’ face and an upbeat attitude that many had thought was sucked out of his soul long ago because of all the losing.

There is also help on the way. Gordon is set to return from his 10-game suspension at the end of November. His second game back will be against the Buffalo Bills, who traded their 2015 first-round pick to Cleveland for the right to draft Sammy Watkins.

The Bills, who have started 2-1 but are built much more like a six-win team, could give the Browns yet another top-10 pick to add to Justin Gilbert, Barkevious Mingo, Joe Haden and Joe Thomas. The Browns currently have seven of their own first-round picks still on the roster and contributing. Keeping those guys around was a real struggle for this franchise the last 15 years.

If the Browns can continue to improve and build on the solid foundation they established this season, then they could be on the cusp of playoff contention this year. Then you can add in two more first-round picks and one of the biggest salary-cap budgets in the NFL next offseason.

Most importantly, however, the team looks like it will have the same coaching staff in place for two consecutive seasons. It looks like the young talent on this roster will get the chance to grow within the same system for multiple years.

That is how you build a successful roster, that is how you sustain success in the NFL and that is where the Browns are headed. So while they feel like the same old Browns after Sunday’s loss, they are not.

The old Browns did not stand toe-to-toe with the big boys in the AFC North. The old Browns did not manhandle elite football teams like the Saints. The old Browns were surrounded by uncertainty and happenstance. The old Browns never had a plan when the offseason rolled around.

If this truly the new Cleveland Browns, then so far I like what I see.

All quotes and observations were gathered firsthand unless otherwise noted.