posted by thavoice
I am not real sold on the sustainability of the Ratbirds offense.
Steelers and Bengals will be better. Pitt MIGHT be able to contend. If Clev has a competent staff and shore up a few things in FA and the draft then there is no reason why they cannot battle the Ratbirds. Ya have two top WR, a great RB, a QB who showed promise in his rookie year but I think believed his own hype who can drastically improve if he takes care of his own business.
Their chances on the playoffs for next year I think is 58/42. It may just come down to something as stupid is if their opponents are on a hot or cold streak when they face the browns.
You're assuming all of the guys on offense will be back. Littlefinger loves him some draft picks so I could see any one of OBJ, Jarvis, Chubb or Hunt moved in trades.
I think Mayfield will be fine if they trend him more toward game manager than gunslinger. I get the impression that Stefanski will use him (like Cousins) under center more, utilizing play action, in more 12 personnel packages. If you look at the analytics (cough, cough) the Browns had the most success last year running out of 2 TE sets.
To me, the thing about Baltimore's offense (Captain Obvious) is Jackson's threat to run. Not only does this open up the passing game (respect the run) but what a lot of people don't take into account is that the DB's get gassed chasing him around, which gives the receivers an edge. What I found peculiar was the the Chargers pretty much put the book out on how to defend him in the 2018 playoffs sometimes using 7-8 DB's on defense that were fast enough to shadow him. I didn't see any teams try to do that this year.