This will likely be the first sort of positive season review, and one of the only positive ones stemming from a 5-11 team. Even though the Head Coach was fired I saw the Cleveland Browns as an organization take a giant step in the right direction. Think about it they found their QB of the future, made a trade for a great RB, and produced a rookie of the year candidate in CB Joe Haden. All of that is positive and once they add some pieces to a nice young core, this will be a very good football team.
No question the offense was bad, and we expected that for a team who started a rookie in several games. Colt McCoy played like a rookie at times but he did complete 60% of his passes. They scored the second fewest amount of points in the NFL with 271 or 16.9 per game, but they did not have a legitimate big threat wide out. With the sixth pick in the 2011 NFL draft I would expect them to fill that need and see what the offense can do then.
The defense was a tad above average. They gave up 332 points or 20.8 points per game. That was 13th among the 32 NFL teams so we can definitely say that the defense of this team is a strength. Their take away differential was -1, 15th in the NFL. Had they not had a rookie QB who threw 9 INT’s that would have been a positive number. With just 9 forced fumbles they could go after the ball a little more, but they did ring up 29 sacks.
As a Browns fan and proud member of the worldwide club of Browns Backers, I really like the direction of this team. In one year they have created a youthful core of players to build around, and I have not even mentioned Joshua Cribbs who is an excellent return man and special offensive weapon.
Related Links:
- Cleveland Browns news and notes
- The Business of the NFL
- Joshua Lobdell.com