CLEVELAND, Ohio (TheOBR.com) Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
The Cleveland Browns media guide showed up in my inbox yesterday, and I immediately started checking it out. It’s available online and is really nicely put together. I wasn’t able to scan all 400+ pages, but it started off by highlighting the team’s non-trivial investment in the community and charitable efforts.
Then it gets into the team’s organization, starting at the top with owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, and quickly providing pages on Managing Partners JW Johnson and Whitney Haslam-Johnson before getting to Andrew Berry. So, it’s a family affair, like much of the NFL. I once compared NFL ownership to an American version of royalty, where power is passed down from generation to generation. You can’t vote ‘em out, you can’t determine the line of succession, but you’re allowed to complain and criticize them until the cows come home.
I don’t know JW and Whitney, so all I know about their qualifications is what’s in the media guide, but, clearly, the Haslams have faith in them and believe they can trust them.
The question is – do you have faith in the Haslams? While the team has assembled some young talent in recent years, the results have been the same. We’re going on a quarter-century (or more) since we had anything resembling a franchise quarterback, with Baker Mayfield providing the only real glimmer of hope in that time.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m an Andrew Berry supporter, as I think he’s bright, well organized, and has learned from his mistakes on the job. The last two drafts show an improvement in that area. With Berry calling the football shots, I’m willing to give the team a chance to turn things around. But the more the Haslam family gets involved in football decisions, the less confidence I will have.
Possessing even less confidence than me is NFL Insider Jordan Schultz, who talked to our friends at Channel 19 and expressed his feelings about the team situation, saying that the team has “a lot of dysfunction” and is “mired in mediocrity”. Where Schultz’s information about dysfunction comes from, I don’t know, and he didn’t provide any details. We’re left to wonder if that’s what he’s been told by other NFL clubs, people who have left the organization, or from tales from inside Berea.
Or perhaps it’s just an assumption he’s making based on the team’s turnover and paltry successes. There’s no name attached to the comments, which is its own kind of tell — either somebody inside the building doesn’t want their name on it, or somebody outside the building is guessing and hedging. Either way, it’s the exact opposite vibe of a Browns front seven getting ranked top-six two weeks ago, and both things are apparently true about this team at the same time.
Here’s the thing about having no quarterback and a top six defense: The existence of the latter makes it real tough to fix the former. There’s a good chance that the Browns will win 6-7 games this season. Not enough to make them interesting from a playoff perspective, but enough to keep them out of the top rungs of the draft, where the quality quarterbacks will reside next April. This is the very definition of being “mired in mediocrity”.
To pull the Browns out of this situation, they’ll either need to be less successful than expected, or Andrew Berry will need to pull off some sort of minor miracle by obtaining a top quarterback without a top-three draft pick. This will ultimately determine Berry’s fate with the franchise. If he can fix the quarterback issue, the pieces are in place for a fun, competitive team as the franchise heads towards the opening of the new domed stadium. If he can’t, he’s gone.
So, the Browns are in a mediocrity limbo, the worst possible place to be as an NFL franchise, and we’re counting on the team’s general manager to save them. The 2027 season will tell the tale for a lot of Browns fans who have endured nearly 40 years since this team was last nationally competitive. If we can’t come out of it with a quarterback, folks like Jordan Schultz will be right, and we’ll be stuck in this purgatory until someone else fixes the issue.
I have faith. 2027 is the year the Browns will take another big swing at quarterback following the 2022 Watson disaster. This time it will work. I feel it. I’m putting all my faith into it.
If it doesn’t, I’m not sure how much optimism I’ll have left.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond…
A 5-year-old was diagnosed with a rare disease, and her little sister — young enough that most kids that age don’t understand what a bone marrow donor even is — asked to be the one to do it. Called herself “brave” for it, too. She’s right. I hope she’s able to remind her sister of her bravery for decades and decades to come.
WRAPPING UP
When sifting through the ashes for a glimpse of optimism, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.
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