Send in the Clowns

  This isn't a comprehensive Cleveland Browns preview due to time constraints, but I wanted to jot down a few notes for the record.

While I wish that this season would be the final word on the futures of Kevin Stefanski and especially Andrew Berry, I don't think that will turn out to be the case.

Jimmy Haslam loves these two guys (especially Berry), and I think that the stage is set for the excuse of "we had a forty-year-old quarterback with a third and fifth rounder as the backups, what did you expect"?

Which means it will then be fair to "allow them the chance to draft their own quarterback.

There is a path to some wins, although I think the people predicting eight or nine are on some good pain medication.

The Browns will have to hope they can receive running game help from Jerome Ford and rookie Dylan Sampson, and hope that the NFL doesn't hammer Quinshon Judkins with a suspension that would be more than a few games.

One of a lackluster group of wide receivers needs to break out, and if not them, rookie tight end Harold Fannin needs to step up to give Cleveland some hope of a passing game.

The defensive line looks very good, and I like what I've seen from rookie linebacker Carson Schwesinger at linebacker.

Denzel Ward and Greg Newsome need to stay healthy at corner because Martin Emerson is out for the season, and the depth is thin.

IF Cleveland can get the running game going, the defensive line provides the rush that the team hopes for, and rookie kicker Andre Szmyt can be decent, I could see the Browns winning six games.

I don't see all of that happening, and if the Browns don't win their opener against the Bengals at home, a brutal early-season schedule might leave them at 0-6.

That result will see the beginning of the force-feeding of Dillon Gabriel for sure and eventually, perhaps Shedeur Sanders.

The schedule gets easier midway through the campaign, with winnable games against Miami and Tennessee at home and New England, Chicago, Las Vegas, and the Jets on the road, but the Browns would need to sweep all six games and win a few that they shouldn't to get to eight wins.

I think they win some of those and finish with a record of 5-12 and a top ten pick.