Defend Cleveland: Talking AFC North-Leading Cleveland Browns with WRUW-FM

To the great surprise of football fans across the globe, the Cleveland Browns find themselves atop the standings in the AFC North. The team is on pace to return to the playoffs for the first time in a decade and change, and the Browns may even win their first division title since 1989.

That’s 25 years for those of you counting at home.

To get a greater perspective on the Browns, their season, their current success and their chances for the future, we sat down with Mike James and Joe Mastrantoni, commentators for Defend Cleveland, a weekly podcast and sports talk show broadcast by WRUW-FM 91.1 in Cleveland.

Mike and Joe walked us through a touchdown’s worth of points about this year’s Browns team.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotations in this article were obtained firsthand via interview.

1. The Team’s Success

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EB: First off, what do Browns fans as a whole seem to think of the team’s sudden success this season?

JM: People are still skeptical. It felt like no one was prepared to get too excited because we don’t know how to handle success with the Browns!

MJ: The reality is that this city is a football town so much more than anything else. The Browns are on top at the moment, but they’re 6-3, which isn’t 7-2 or 8-1. Still, this is the first time that the team has been winning like this since going 11-5 in 1994, which means you have to be 30 years old to have an active memory of the last time the Browns were this good. You have to actually remember the old era Browns, before the team was taken away to Baltimore. That’s back when Bill Belichick was the coach!

2. Brian Hoyer

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EB: Brian Hoyer came into the season as the de facto starter, and he is getting a lot of good press. However, his stats aren’t that great despite the team’s success, and he didn’t post very good numbers in college either. Is he really the team’s quarterback of the future?

MJ: I don’t think so. That said, he is the quarterback of right now, and he’s not bad. People talk about his lack of mobility and athleticism, the fact that he’s not tall and doesn’t have a strong arm. But he was able to connect in 40 mph winds against Cincinnati.

With Hoyer, the real thing to be wary of is his accuracy. He throws a catchable pass, but his accuracy is poor.

For me, when you look at Brian Hoyer, he looks like Ryan Fitzpatrick. He’s small and not that mobile, but he’s smart as a play-caller; he can run audibles and read-options. I don’t think he’s a career star quarterback, the kind of guy who will bring sustained success team for four or five seasons. But he’s doing well.

The Browns' offensive line is great this year, and the running game is good. It’s really a perfect scenario for Hoyer to succeed, and he’s taking the opportunity and running with it. And kudos to him for that. He’s winning games, and that’s not guaranteed.

JM: Hoyer looks good when the Browns are able to run the ball. He could have had more picks than he’s had, but he’s kept his interception numbers down. As the competition ramps up for the rest of the games in the season, that’s what you want to see. You want him to stay clean.

MJ: Part of his success has been good protection: He is able to hold the ball longer and find what the defense has been giving him. Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are the only everyday QBs who have fewer picks so far on the year, and that’s good company.

3. Johnny Manziel

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EB: What’s the deal with Johnny Football? Manziel has been making headlines since his days at Texas A&M, and at the beginning of the year, it seemed like he might be a distraction. Now, with this most recent Twitter cell phone prank, it actually seems like he’s maturing. Is this like Aaron Rodgers sitting his first three years? When is Manziel going to play?

MJ: My opinion is that this is a strictly football decision based in two areas.

The first is that Manziel is being given time to learn the pro system. What’s not stressed enough is that he came from a system that ran just variants of four to five plays, none of which were of a style much utilized in the NFL. So this guy is being given time to learn a new system and learn how to play from the pocket.

The second is that as the Browns entered this season with a new system, a new scheme and a new coaching staff, sitting Manziel was going to help them win games.

Rookie quarterbacks tend to fail if you throw them into the starting role right away. Andrew Luck and Cam Newton are definite outliers. Starting Brian Hoyer over Johnny Manziel seemed the clear choice, from the beginning, to help the Browns win games. Simple as that.

JM: Additionally, I think that the quarterback the fans think he is is very different from the quarterback the front office thinks he is. The media seemed to think that Manziel was going to start right from the get-go, but I don’t that was ever the front office’s game plan.

Until Manziel can learn to be comfortable in the pocket, he’s a project.

MJ: His first option of running came too quick. Like a default setting.

JM: Yes. He needs to adapt to look to pass first and run second to be an NFL quarterback. Until then, I think watching and learning is good for him, and I think the front office thinks it’s good for him too. You don’t want to set up a rookie for failure. A new player is going to feel pressure no matter what. There’s no need to amplify that.

MJ: Remember, he sat out his first year at Texas A&M too. It’s not unprecedented. It’s what he had to do to transition from high school to college. And of course, there’s the question of maturity. Even that social media thing, which we loved, it came off as negative at first. It seems like he needed this time to mature. Not just on the field, but off the field too.

EB: What about the growth in the past five years of the run-first QB style in the NFL?

MJ: The two best young run-style quarterbacks are Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick. And even with them, you can certainly see a growth curve. They’re pulling back from looking to run first.

You hear from Browns camp that Manziel is still seeing only 50 percent of the field when looking to pass. And, he’s so slight, he might get hurt from running too much.

Those weren’t things we as fans were really “hearing” when the hype machine was active, but now, it’s something we can all pay attention to.

JM: Look, he’s a super-talented quarterback. But everyone who sees him in real life thinks he’s too small. And he’s even young for a rookie. So it’s a legitimate concern.

EB: Other touted run-first quarterbacks like Michael Vick and Robert Griffin III do seem to be susceptible to injury.

JM: The run is a weapon for a quarterback, but it can’t be your go-to. You have to be able to do other things.

4. The Passing Game

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EB: When people raise flags about the Browns, they’re really talking about the Browns’ passing game. The quarterback issue is obviously a part of that, but part of it is the fact that all-star wide receiver Josh Gordon is still in the midst of his 10-game suspension for substance-abuse problems.

MJ: I can’t wait to see Gordon back. That’s the big question facing the team: What is the offense going to look like when their best receiver comes back? Will it help, or will it hurt?

One great thing is that he’s been able to practice with the team throughout his suspension because of the type of suspension it was. Hopefully, having been in-house this whole time will help lead to his seamless integration.

EB: Let’s talk about the rest of the receivers. In the offseason, the Browns signed Miles Austin. People thought he might be washed up, and fair enough, 30 is relatively old for an NFL wide receiver. But you look at him and think, wow, he’s third on the team in receiving yards and second in receiving touchdowns, so how washed up could he be? But then again, those team rankings are with only 387 yards receiving and just two touchdowns! So what’s going on with the pass attack? Is the offense strong?

MJ: Miles Austin has lost some of his big playmaking ability, but he can run tight routes and move the chains.

Really, it’s been Taylor Gabriel, Travis Benjamin and Andrew Hawkins doing a lot of work too. No player has crazy great numbers, but there do seem to be so many weapons, and Hoyer is capitalizing on that. This receiving corps, which looked to be one of the worst, is turning out to be one of the best.

And kudos to [general manager] Ray Farmer! Cleveland fans and the media killed him for a while, saying that he didn’t bring in enough weapons in the offseason via free agency and the draft, but in fact, the team looks great. It’s a total system offense. Ray Farmer has to be up for executive of the year.

JM: You asked about Josh Gordon. There aren’t many receivers in the league that teams have to adjust their defense for, but Gordon might be one of those guys in the Calvin Johnson mold that does require adjustments. Because, when he’s at his best, he’s not really coverable one-on-one. That means that his return will offer all the receivers more space and more time, so their numbers will improve.

I think his return will assist the offense in general, as defenses have to shade his way. And Hoyer is the type of quarterback who can take advantage of that.

All that said, I am curious to see how quickly the team will integrate him. Clearly, they are winning just fine without him. Ray Farmer said that he wants to see Gordon come in and put in the work, and I believe him. This is not a team that has succeeded based on one individual talent, and I don’t think it will need to be.

MJ: He could end up just being a decoy. Which is fine. We’ve seen great receivers do that. Calvin Johnson does that now.

The question remains: Can Josh Gordon come back in full form? Either way, he will be something for defense to think about when he takes the field.

5. Defense

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EB: How important is the defensive secondary to the team’s success? Joe Haden and Buster Skrine came up huge on Thursday Night Football against the Bengals.

MJ: The Browns’ pass coverage is rated in the top three of the NFL. Our coverage only gets defeated when plays break down and there’s no pressure on the opposing QB. The team hasn’t been as good at stopping the run as the pass, and getting consistent pressure on the QB has at times been a weakness of the defense. But one thing Joe and I talk about ad nauseam is that a solid third to half of the team that takes the field here is all new, and what has been their absolute strength has been the coverage. And the defense just seems to be getting better each week!

Look how many takeaways the Browns defense has! Only Green Bay, Arizona, and New England have better takeaway/giveaway ratios.

We have a great defense, and Hoyer isn’t turning the ball over. I don’t even think we’ve seen the best of the defense yet.

JM: The Browns defense keeps getting the team the ball with short field position, and the offense is reaping the benefits from the short field the defense keeps giving them.

What makes me feel really good about the Browns’ chances going forward is that it seems that coaching has put them in the position to win, and it’s not necessarily just the talent. I’d love to have lots of talent on my team, but it seems like coaching is easier to hold onto. I worry about losing [offensive coordinator Kyle] Shanahan, but Farmer has shown he’s a good evaluator of talent.

MJ: We’re seeing contributions from undrafted players, and that helps too. Getting contributions from undrafted rookies the way that the Browns have this year, that’s the mark of what good teams do.

6. The City

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EB: What is the Browns’ resurgence doing for Cleveland, especially in light of the Cavs’ struggles?

MJ: In Cleveland, it always seems like we minimize our talent, not maximize it, and this year, that’s reversed.

It’s refreshing, especially since we haven’t seen any success like this in 20 years. Right now we are living in a world where Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and a returned LeBron James are here, and we are talking not about the Cavs, but the Browns!

At the beginning of the year, we all thought that as soon as NBA season started, it would be all Cavs. We just hoped that the Browns would be .500 until the Cavs tipped off. But the whole city is talking about football. And not the draft, but the postseason!

The Browns are great, and all the LeBron stuff is like icing on the cake that we’re just waiting to get to.

JM: It’s interesting that it’s all happening right now. Johnny Manziel and LeBron, two of the most hyped and most marketed players of the last few years in their sports, and they’re both in Cleveland at the same time. Suddenly, there’s all this sports press and attention on the city and on the teams.

You know, even when we were just a half game out, everyone kind of expected for the wheels to come off after the Cincinnati game, for the Browns to end up being not that great. We had a nationally televised game, away, against a No. 1 team that hadn’t lost at home in what felt like forever. And we won it. That really did something for the team, and it has from the most part pushed the Cavs into the background. People here in Cleveland are in Browns mode.

7. The Future

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EB: What does the rest of the season look like for the Browns, in your mind?

MJ: Houston is up next. They’re good at getting after the QB, but they’re bad against the run.

JM: The division is really tight, though. That’s the thing. Everyone is doing well.

MJ: Looking at the upcoming schedule, once the Browns get past Houston at home, four of the last six games are on the road, and winning on the road in the NFL is hard. I really think it’s going to come down to the last game of the season, the end-of-December matchup on the road in Baltimore. I think that game is going to be it for the Browns: Win and they go to the postseason; lose and they come up short.

EB: What’s your prediction for end-of-season record?

MJ: We haven’t won more than five games since 2007, but as long as the Browns don’t have any key injuries, I don’t see why they can’t go 4-3 for the rest of the year, end with 10 wins and go into the postseason.

JM: I would also call it 10-6. All these games are very winnable.

In the NFL, you have a few really great teams, and a few really bad teams, and everyone else is kind of in the middle trying to get lucky. I think the Browns are in that middle, but I they definitely have a chance.

MJ: You know, before the season, I actually projected the Browns to finish 7-9, but now I think that they can win the AFC North.