2010 NFL Predictions: Cleveland Browns

June 29, 2010

The Cleveland Browns have been an organization in disarray for many years. Even though they ended the season in 2009 with 4 consecutive wins, they are far from being competitive in the National Football League. Their quarterback situation has weakened as Brady Quinn was shipped off to Denver, and Derek Anderson is now with the Arizona Cardinals. Now they are left with an aging Jake Delhomme to run the show on offense.

Delhomme hasn’t had a good season in over 4 years, and was pushed out of Carolina after a miserable 2009 campaign. He threw a career high 18 interceptions while completing only 8 touchdown passes. His 55.5 completion percentage and 59.4 passer rating were amongst the worst in the league. Obviously the Browns were in a bind, and needed to get a quarterback that can show some leadership to a young and inexperienced offense. However, Delhomme is clearly not the answer. Unless the Cleveland running game suddenly becomes dynamic, it will be hard to imagine this offense doing any better than they did last season when they finished dead last in the NFL.

Jerome Harrison was a pleasant surprise to the Browns offense last year as he rushed for over 800 yards in just 14 games. While his performance was by far the best of his career, it’s still not enough to demand respect from opposing defenses. He will need to have a remarkable year for this Cleveland squad to have any chance of winning 5 or 6 games. The back-ups at running back all have 3 years of experience or less. If Harrison goes down with an injury at some point during the season, the Browns will be forced to start a relatively unknown at the running back position.

As hard as this is to believe, the wide receiver position for the Browns is worse than the running back situation. Mohamed Massaquoi was the teams leading receiver with just 624 yards. Was more disheartening for Cleveland fans is that the second best receiver last year was running back Jerome Harrison. Unfortunately, the Browns have so many gaps to fill on their team that they didn’t have the opportunity to pick up a wide receiver in the draft until the 6th round. Carlton Mitchell was selected with the 177th pick overall, and may eventually end up being a good third or fourth option. This isn’t exactly what the offense had in mind heading into the draft, but filling this position was obviously way down the list to the Cleveland management.

Defensively they ranked next to last in terms of yards allowed in 2009. They allowed 398.3 yards per game, and gave up over 144 yards per game on the ground. Apparently the higher-ups in the organization felt as though the passing defense was worse off as they selected a cornerback (Joe Haden) and a free safety (T.J. Ward) with their first and second round selections. It’s very unlikely that the defense will improve dramatically from last year, but they may be able to force teams into running the ball if their pass defense becomes formidable.

Overall, most NFL picks have the Cleveland Browns finishing last in the AFC North division as they should due to the strength of the rest of the teams. The Browns are in transition, and will need many more pieces to this puzzle before they become a playoff contender.

Written by Glenn Andrew · Filed Under NFL

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