Orange and Brown Blogs

Players and fans being dis-served - Mon, Nov 2 2009 at 4:03 pm

Year One of the Eric  Mangini/George Kokinis regime has not gone well for those invested in the fortunes of the Cleveland Browns, most especially the players and the fans. Neither party has received what it hoped for and both are suffering because of it.

Through trust in one’s own eyes, as well as in the comments attributed to countless credible league-affiliated sources, the product being marched-out to represent NE Ohio has been out-coached, out-schemed, out-prepared and otherwise unfavorably equipped to meet the challenges of NFL competition. 

 The club is 1-7, matching the all-time worst start in club history, set in the year of its expansion rebirth, 1999. Fans are disgusted. Those assigned to cover the team are outraged. Even the notoriously reclusive owner is making his presence felt, reportedly on hand to stare-down his employees as they filed to and from the playing field.

Confidence in the organization is at an all-time low, which is truly saying something for what has devolved into one of the sport’s least-relevant franchises, one of its perennial doormats, one of its more tarnished reputations.

Whereas the storied Browns had once been among the starfleet, they’ve correctly become one of the punchlines. Though much of the mess preceded the newly-installed regime, too little has effectively been done—even in an admittedly brief time frame—about correcting things. Cases have been (and will continue to be) made that regression has predominated, a contention reflected mightily in various club-related statistics.

The team’s inability to score is just one of the more conspicuous. There have been but five offensive touchdowns in eight games. This development  after having gone without one over the final six weeks of 2008, a season for which neither Mangini nor Kokinis bear responsibility. 

The starting QB—the one “who gives us the best chance of winning,” according to his head coach—is threatening the status of the worst-ever Brown in completion percentage and QB efficiency. Through the season’s first half, no RB has scored on the ground and no WR through the air. It is almost as if the braintrust, in lieu of pursuing growth and victory, has opted to blaze new trails in documented incompetence.

So stark raving bad are things that a club coming off a 45-10 drubbing was Sunday favored to defeat the Browns by 13.5 points. Yet they covered and won instead by nearly twice that estimation, 30-6.

The expectation is change is in the air, with the now-begun bye week seemingly ideally conspiring. The Director of Pro Football Operations who should’ve been hired at least three regimes ago is rumored to be coming aboard at last.

In the meantime, the players and fans remain dis-served. Both want wins, with the latter also desirous of quality entertainment. The former group, who’ve been sweating and straining since pre-draft OTAs, rightfully expected to be improved by the involvement of the new hires. While there has been some progress—for example, penalties are down and the defense shows hunger, hustle, energy and an improved pass rush—there remains a dismal stagnation related to the offense, where no one at all appears to be having a good year. 

As distressing as all of this is, what may be most alarming is how little is being done about it. Consider how fluent most Cleveland fans are in reciting those areas of team deficiency. And it is a considerable list, indeed.

There is a need for clarity at QB. An extended competition was held throughout the off-season and training camp to bring out the best in both competitors. Not only have both players gotten evidently worse, but the inadequacies at the position endure, as one might expect, given the dearth of scoring.

The OL was to be re-constructed from center to RT. Two veteran free agents were imported to start, with three lesser lights later signed for depth and development. Weakness persists.

TE was to be re-done, with last year’s starter dispatched in favor of draft picks. Three free agents were signed. The position is as weak as any in the game.

LB has annually been an area of serious concern, especially for its inability to stuff the run and generate impactful plays— minimal expectations from a unit key to a 3-4 scheme. Nine draftees had been added during the four-year reign of the prior administration,  followed by the arrival of  two more this  April, joined by three vets who’d played previously for the coach. The team still ranks last overall in defense among the 32 NFL clubs.

The secondary is another need area, with starters needed at both CB and FS, despite the infusion of four outsiders and one draftee. “Progress” has been such that a WR has begun playing on the other side of the ball.  Oppositional QBs continue to shred Cleveland with ease and regularity. Legit developmental depth is foresaken in favor special-team types.

A discriminating reader might see contradiction in this recital, pointing to the attempts made at rectification: “How can one maintain nothing is being done when so many moves have occurred?” But, as with the hirings of Mangini and Kokinis themselves in place of Romeo Crennel and Phil Savage, the results have been inconsequential. If the differences have not amounted to tire-spinning, they’ve moved the club into reverse.

This not only argues that Owner Randy Lerner was mistaken to entrust and empower Mangini and Kokinis, but that the two thereafter mistakenly selected personnel in response to perceived deficiencies. The downward spiral perpetuates.

So it is probably pointless to mention how absurd is the bottom of this club’s roster. It presently carries two DBs whose contributions typically restrict themselves to special-teams play: Gerard Lawson and Anthony Madison, both of whom were again inactivated Sunday. What is the point of carrying two inactive special-team aces when quality depth is needed in the secondary and league rules permit the raiding of other clubs’ practice squads? Are fans to believe no one in the sport is currently employing DEV personnel that could possibly play CB (or FS) better than either Lawson or Madison? Such an argument is inconceivable.

The point is that change alone is  not what is needed. What the Browns’ situation requires is relentless pursuit of authentic enhancements—not only in administration, but also among coaches who can teach and optimize available talent and in its athletic personnel.

There seems to be an inexplicable complacency with things as they are. Each week the passing game is inadequate, but nothing significant changes. Conversely, the team can’t match-up when opponents pass, either defending the ball when it is in the air or by tackling with abrupt certainty once completions are made. Only one NFL club has permitted more yardage after the catch than have Cleveland’s Browns.

Why are the same older and inadequate players being featured when their roster spots might more wisely be allocated to youngsters with upside? After all, this is not a club on the edge of contention. Makes about as much sense as playing for a FG with the ball on the Bengals’ 14 up by three with plenty of remaining time.

It’s how losing  happens.

It is in these ways the holdover veteran players and the loyal and rabid fan base are being dis-served. It is long passed time the owner, however benign and benevolent he’s tried to be, defers to an established and experienced career football mind as the head of his organization. Authorize that man to oversee all matters pertaining to the football side of the operation. Maybe then such atrocities as have been alluded to here will cease and consistent winning will ensue. 

This much is certain: What has been tried has not and will not work.