2010 Cleveland Browns Should Be Better Than The 2009 Team

A little more than a year ago, I took a look at the Cleveland Browns and the (then) upcoming 2009 season.

You can read that here .

In that article, I noted the organization looked to be more professional, but I was unhappy with the process that put the front office in place by hiring Head Coach Eric Mangini before a general manager.

It looks like that observation was correct as the process resulted in a 1-11 start and the firing of General Manager George Kokinis after allegations the guy did absolutely nothing.

I noted my expectations were low and that I wanted the team to “just show up and look like you know where the end zone is.”

They failed miserably at that for the first 12 weeks of the season, and then I jumped on the “Fire Mangini” bandwagon.

Then a funny thing happened, the Browns began to win.

After winning the last four games, including a victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in which Ben Roethlisberger was sacked eight times, I jumped off the “Fire Mangini” bandwagon and started hoping new team president Mike Holmgren would keep the head coach in place.

As we go into the 2010 season, expectations still should be managed. The team taking the field in 2010 should be better than the team that took the field last year, but that doesn’t mean we should start saving up for playoff tickets just yet.

With Mangini entering his second year as coach of the Browns, and his coaching staff mostly intact, the continuity will be good for the returning veterans, and it will give the rookies a sense of stability to build off of.

With that in mind, the team does need to show improvement and build off of the last month of the 2009 season, even though the main offensive players have changed.

With how anemic the offense was in 2009, ranked dead last in the league, the Browns need to show a lot of improvement in 2010.

The Browns scored a total of 245 points in 2009, with only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (244) and the Oakland Raiders (197) scoring fewer points.

Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson are gone, as is wide receiver Braylon Edwards.

With Jake Delhomme the apparent starter, one would hope the Browns will score more points this year and not rely on Joshua Cribbs running back kickoffs and punts to put seven points on the board.

Not that I want Cribbs to stop doing that, but it should be a nice bonus instead of a necessity.

On defense, the secondary has been completely made over with the drafting of safeties T.J. Ward and Larry Asante, as well as the trade that brought Cornerback Sheldon Brown to the team.

The Browns also used their first-round draft pick to take cornerback Joe Haden, further proof the fans weren’t the only ones noticing our secondary wasn’t up to covering NFL wide receivers.

While it’s still a little early to give a prediction on how many wins the Browns will get this year, after going 5-11 last year, winning seven games isn’t asking too much.

At least we hope it’s not asking too much.