The Cleveland Browns favourites for the AFC North – never thought I would be saying that, but following a break out season by their standards last year, winning seven games – (six more than they won in the preceding two seasons) they might just be thanks to the final piece OBJ. So how has it suddenly gone so right?
Well, much of their renewed optimism is thanks to the brave decision in 2016 by then Head Coach Hue Jackson to blow up the roster and amass draft picks in a classic Money Ball move. This ultimately cost him his job but allowed them to take 3 picks in round one in 2017 adding Myles Garrett, David Njoku & the now traded Jabril Peppers and in 2018 Baker Mayfield, Denzel Ward & Nick Chubb arrived leading to their turn around. The other advantage of stocking the roster with Draft Picks was freeing up salary cap and last season they added one of the leagues best slot receivers in Jarvis Landry and now thanks to this cap space they have managed to fleece the Giants out of one of the leagues best Wider Receivers in Odel Beckham Jr (OBJ). They are now stacked on offence. Add to this the fact that they have a solid OL and their defence has been strengthened by the addition of Sheldon Richardson & Olivier Vernon and they do look to have the best-balanced squad in the division.
Other things working in their favour includes the Steelers losing a chunk of their offence in Free agency – ok Le’Veon Bell sat last year out but they missed the postseason without him and now without Antonio Brown and Jesse James on offence & without LJ Fort on Defense they don’t have the look of a team who are set to improve markedly. They may also need to consider Big Bens replacement soon but on the plus side they do have 10 draft picks to play with.
The other divisional rivals Baltimore & Cincinnati are also in a little bit of flux with the Ravens hoping that Lamar Jackson is the QB they think he is and they are reeling a little from a number of key free agency losses. The Bengals have been busy resigning their impending free agents, but again don’t look to be improving and ended up with the wooden spoon last year. Unless they do something incredible in the draft 4th place looks a distinct possibility again this coming season.
So we have a team on the up, who have a young star at QB, a stacked roster and have just signed a likely future Hall of Fame WR to add some buzz, facing a fairly easy schedule and in a division where all their opponents have lost key players. Looks like the stars have aligned for the Browns.
Right now we are not fully buying into the hype – they have given up a lot of draft capital for OBJ and we really liked Jabril Peppers who is now a Giant. They wouldn’t have found a WR of Beckham’s calibre in the draft even with the No 1 pick had they had it, but still, a 1st & 3rd gone plus losing a quality Safety will sting a little. However hey still have 8 picks this year nothing until pick 49 in round 2 but they have three 5th rounders which can be used for projects and backups. Given this it is certainly going to be an interesting year in the AFC North and maybe the balance of power is changing. What do you think?
