Cleveland Browns: Seven Biggest Concerns Heading into the 2011 Season
The buzz about the Browns going into 2011 has been mostly positive. With a new coach, an excellent draft, and a host of young players expected to make great strides this season, hopes are high for the Cleveland faithful.
No one is printing playoff tickets yet, but most Browns fans think the team is finally headed in the right direction and that improvement will be evident this season.
Still, despite all the big strides the Browns have made over the past year and all the optimism about where the team is going, there are still quite a few lingering concerns about whether this team is really headed toward becoming a winner in the near future.
Following are seven of the biggest concerns for the Browns going into the 2011 season. As always, your opinions are greatly valued, so please feel free to express your views on these or other concerns for the Browns as they enter a season which could be a turning point for the franchise.
1. Can Pat Shurmur Succeed as Both the Head Coach and the Offensive Coordinator?
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Shortly after Pat Shurmur landed the head coaching job for the Browns, it was announced that he would also act as the team's offensive coordinator. Some Browns fans believed that this would work out fine, but many of us had serious concerns.
First off, while there are examples of coaches who have successfully filled both roles, it isn't exactly something that is guaranteed to work.
Further, most coaches who choose to go this route have a good bit of experience at the head coach position. Shurmur is entering his first season as a head coach, making it a pretty bold move to also announce he'll be calling his own plays.
Cleveland has every right to be skeptical, perhaps even more so than many other teams would be in this situation. We've seen this before of course, way back when Marty Schottenheimer decided he was going to be his own offensive coordinator and it, um, didn't exactly work out perfectly.
There is, of course, the theory that this means Shurmur is really just a puppet; Holmgren will be the real coach, and Shurmur is really just a glorified offensive coordinator with a fancy title.
There's probably some truth to that, which is indeed somewhat comforting. Still, there's no proof that this strategy will work out even if that is the case.
2. Can the Browns Fill the Remaining Holes on the Team Through Free Agency?
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Despite having an excellent draft this offseason, the Browns still have a number of holes to fill in order to field a truly successful team in 2011. There are a number of vacancies on the team currently that, if they cannot be filled through free agency, could completely sink the team.
As we've discussed many times, the Browns need help at OL, DL, WR, RB, LB, and possibly in the secondary. They might be able to fill some of those spots in-house with players who seem poised for a breakout year, but they can't possibly fill them all that way.
The Browns are probably looking at a minimum of six to eight free agents needed to round out the team. The biggest problem there is, of course, that we don't even know if there will be free agency this year at all, or if there is, we don't know how it will be structured, what the costs of players will be, and how long we'll have to make decisions.
Even if we assume that free agency does go through and the circumstances are relatively favorable for our situation, there's no telling whether the Browns will be able to sign enough players (let alone the right ones) to plug every hole on the roster.
3. Can Peyton Hillis Repeat His Stellar 2010 Performance?
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In 2010, Peyton Hillis gave a performance for the ages at RB for the Browns. He is perhaps the single player most responsible for any success Cleveland had last season.
Unfortunately, it's tough to tell whether they will be able to rely on him as heavily as they did last year.
Ideally of course, they won't have to, but with no other running backs currently on the roster who are guaranteed to be able to spell him, there's a big concern here.
First, Hillis just can't take the kind of beating he took last year over and over and stay on the field. The Browns were lucky he was able to survive all the bashing he endured for one season.
Even if he could manage to do that again in 2011, it would likely shorten his career in the long run, which would be bad for the Browns future.
Second, part of the reason Hillis was so successful last season was the superior blocking of Lawrence Vickers. At this point it seems likely that Vickers won't be re-signed, which may be a huge blow to Hillis and the Browns.
Certainly draft pick Owen Marecic has potential, but expecting a rookie FB to replace Vickers with no drop off in performance is so far-fetched, it sounds downright ridiculous.
And finally, for you superstitious types, there is the dreadful possibility of The Madden Curse. If said curse actually exists, cover star Hillis is in a world of trouble.
And even if it doesn't, if Hillis fails to repeat his 2010 numbers, we'll all be forced to wonder if yet another manifestation of the Cleveland Curse has taken shape via the Madden cover.
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4. Can the Team's WRs Get the Job Done This Season?
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One of the biggest gripes Browns fans had with their team in 2010 was the total lack of productivity at the WR position. Our receivers dropped passes, ran sloppy routes, couldn't handle the ball in traffic, and absolutely tanked on yardage after catch.
We've trotted out the ugly stat that TE Ben Watson nearly had more yardage than both the team's supposed No. 1 receiver (Mohamed Massaquoi) and their supposed No. 2 receiver (Brian Robiskie) combined. And there are many more ugly stats for the 2010 receiving corps where that came from.
This year, we're hoping for a huge change when it comes to how our WRs perform. We drafted potential hot shot receiver Greg Little, and Massaquoi, Robiskie, Josh Cribbs, and Carlton Mitchell have all been working hard at Camp Colt this offseason to improve their skills.
There's more good news in that the revamped West Coast offense the Browns plan to run this year should be a better fit for our receivers. Still, as it stands, no one among the Browns WRs is a proven success.
There's a lot of potential there, but until we see them in game action under the new system, we won't know if the position is no longer the monumental problem it was in 2010.
5. Can the Right Side of the Offensive Line Hold Up?
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The Browns had one of the most absurdly unbalanced offensive lines last season that ever was: the left side was outstanding; the right side was an epic disaster.
QB Colt McCoy was well protected on the left side, but it didn't take opponents long to figure out that all they had to do was go to the right if they wanted to get to the quarterback.
A combination of injuries and poor play left the right side limping and ineffective, and McCoy was constantly at risk for injury, or at least for sacks and lost yardage.
The bottom line is that with the offense so heavily dependent on McCoy, he absolutely needs to be well-protected from one end of the line to the other. While the situation looks better now on the right side than it did at the end of last season, it still isn't up to par.
That takes us back to the free agency issue, where it will be absolutely critical that the Browns bring in some help for the right side of the line.
Further, even though the starters on the left side are excellent, there's no depth behind them. If someone gets injured, then we'll have problems over there as well.
If the Browns can't solidify the line before the season starts, it could doom the entire offense.
6. How Quickly Can the Defense Adjust to the New 4-3 Scheme?
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After struggling in the 3-4 defense last season, the Browns made the move to hire defensive coordinator Dick Jauron and switch things up to a 4-3 scheme.
Most believe that the new formation will work better for the players and for the team's strengths, but it's a lot to adjust to, particularly with so many young players on the squad and so many holes that still have to be filled.
The Browns still need help at DT (and maybe DE as well) and certainly at LB. And the longer we have to wait for free agency to open up to acquire such players, the less time we'll have to sign them and to get them acclimated along with our existing players to a new coach and a new system.
Hopefully, the switch to the 4-3 will prove successful and the team will be the better for it. But even if it ultimately does pay off, we don't know how long it will take the defense to adjust to playing in the new scheme.
The 4-3 may ultimately wind up being the right choice down the road, but the team may take the first three or four games to settle into it. That's a quarter of the season that could be lost to making the transition.
While if it works in the long run, it's certainly worth it to make the switch, it could still be very costly to the Browns' 2010 record if it compromises the defense's ability to get the job done early in the season during the adjustment period.
7. What Role Will Josh Cribbs Play in 2011?
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Josh Cribbs is a man of many talents, but the Browns have yet to figure out how best to use him.
The change in the kickoff rules will seriously hamper Cribbs' impact on special teams, making it critical that the Browns find other ways to use him. He signed a pretty big contract at the end of the 2009 season, so the pressure is on for him to perform at the level he's being paid for.
Cribbs certainly has the capability to do so, but whether that ever comes to fruition depends on whether the Browns can figure out the best role for him.
Certainly, he'll still have a role on special teams despite the new rule's negative impact for kick returners. Other suggestions for how best to use him include using him as a wide receiver (probably in the slot) or using him as a running back (primarily for third-down situations).
Realistically, the best use of Cribbs is probably a combination of all three of those things, but past precedent indicates that teams have to be careful with how they handle multi-position players, as it often ends in disaster (think Kordell Stewart).
Cribbs is one of the hardest working, most dedicated players on the team. If the Browns can't get good production out of him, it won't be his fault.
But no matter whose fault it is, if the Browns can't get good use out of Cribbs, it's a huge waste of money and talent.
It may take a few games to determine what the balance needs to be for him, but it is absolutely essential that the Browns figure it out.
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