Browns season 2021

I hope Steelers win as a Bengals fan I don’t wanna play Baker for the playoffs. The bengals are the only team he plays good agai

browns... what a watch on saturday. they lost that game in every sense of the word. i'm not invested in this team but my two cents is they can't move forward with baker. he needs to change fundamentally who he is in order for this team to be a real competitor. he tries to hard to win the game with every throw and that doesn't work in the NFL. It's like watching a shorter, less arm talented Matt Stafford, but stafford's arm talent helped him get away with the bad throws that burn baker. 

Bengals, of the teams in the division, have been pretty COVID free. Would be a shame if their WR room caught it a couple of days before a game. Saw their backup QB just got it.

posted by BR1986FB

Bengals, of the teams in the division, have been pretty COVID free. Would be a shame if their WR room caught it a couple of days before a game. Saw their backup QB just got it.

First meeting aside, that's about the only way Cleveland wins the rematch the way the two are playing currently.

posted by queencitybuckeye

First meeting aside, that's about the only way Cleveland wins the rematch the way the two are playing currently.

Bengals are Jekyll & Hyde....world beaters one week, WTF the next.

Wouldn’t be surprised if bengals won the last two games or lost them. However it shakes out, I just hope Baltimore misses out of the playoffs. 

posted by BR1986FB

Bengals are Jekyll & Hyde....world beaters one week, WTF the next.

Sounds like the entire division.

posted by BR1986FB

Bengals are Jekyll & Hyde....world beaters one week, WTF the next.

I think dependent on pressure on Burrow

posted by queencitybuckeye

Sounds like the entire division.

Pittsburgh has scored 0 TD in first half of last 5 games and have played about 3 good halves in the last 6 games.

Monday is (probably) Roethlisberger’s final home game? It’d make sense he beats the Browns and puts their playoff chances to rest. 

posted by friendfromlowry

Monday is (probably) Roethlisberger’s final home game? It’d make sense he beats the Browns and puts their playoff chances to rest. 

Last year was supposed to be his swan song too, yet he keeps kicking the can down the road. Not buying he's retiring until he does. Ego's WAY too big and I'm sure he still probably thinks he's good.

posted by BR1986FB

Last year was supposed to be his swan song too, yet he keeps kicking the can down the road. Not buying he's retiring until he does. Ego's WAY too big and I'm sure he still probably thinks he's good.

Most every professional athlete would have that stance I’d guess ….and probably the ones 2-3 years removed from playing as well

posted by Ironman92

Most every professional athlete would have that stance I’d guess ….and probably the ones 2-3 years removed from playing as well

Right. They are all competitors. The mind/knack for the game is still there while the physical skills are gone (or going).

posted by BR1986FB

Last year was supposed to be his swan song too, yet he keeps kicking the can down the road. Not buying he's retiring until he does. Ego's WAY too big and I'm sure he still probably thinks he's good.

Fair enough but there’s no way he comes back and there’s no way Pittsburgh wants him back. 

posted by friendfromlowry

Fair enough but there’s no way he comes back and there’s no way Pittsburgh wants him back. 

Which is going to pose an interesting dilemma for a few teams. Pittsburgh, NYG's, Denver, and I'm sure a few others, will be looking for QB's next year. The draft doesn't look great and I'm skeptical that the three main guys (Rodgers, Wilson & Watson) will be moving on. There will be a lot of competition for those that do become available.

If you check out the OBR, 95% of the posters over there are done with Mayfield. After Saturday, you saw posts like "leave town and don't come back" and I consider that site to be some of the, if not THE, most knowledgeable posters in the NFL. Will the Browns be on that list? If the picking ends up being Jimmy G, Mitch Trubisky or Marcus Mariota, I'd say "pass" as I don't see an upgrade. 

Maybe Mayfield's issue can be fixed but I'm skeptical on that too. When most teams get the ball back and have a chance for a game winning drive their fans are saying "can they do it?" where Browns fans are saying "how is Mayfield or Stefanski going to fuck this up?"

Sorry to divert from your comments but it kind of lead me down the "teams with QB vacancies" rabbit hole.

posted by BR1986FB

Which is going to pose an interesting dilemma for a few teams. Pittsburgh, NYG's, Denver, and I'm sure a few others, will be looking for QB's next year. The draft doesn't look great and I'm skeptical that the three main guys (Rodgers, Wilson & Watson) will be moving on. There will be a lot of competition for those that do become available.

If you check out the OBR, 95% of the posters over there are done with Mayfield. After Saturday, you saw posts like "leave town and don't come back" and I consider that site to be some of the, if not THE, most knowledgeable posters in the NFL. Will the Browns be on that list? If the picking ends up being Jimmy G, Mitch Trubisky or Marcus Mariota, I'd say "pass" as I don't see an upgrade. 

Maybe Mayfield's issue can be fixed but I'm skeptical on that too. When most teams get the ball back and have a chance for a game winning drive their fans are saying "can they do it?" where Browns fans are saying "how is Mayfield or Stefanski going to fuck this up?"

Sorry to divert from your comments but it kind of lead me down the "teams with QB vacancies" rabbit hole.

I'm not saying that baker is bad, but if you pay him what it's going to take to keep him ($35+MM/yr)  it's going to kill the cap flexibility you'll need to make the team good enough around him to win. i don't think you can coach out of him what his flaws are.

if you offer him $20-27MM/yr and he takes it. i think they can build around him. but his flaw is ball security and it ain't getting better.

posted by j_crazy

I'm not saying that baker is bad, but if you pay him what it's going to take to keep him ($35+MM/yr)  it's going to kill the cap flexibility you'll need to make the team good enough around him to win. i don't think you can coach out of him what his flaws are.

if you offer him $20-27MM/yr and he takes it. i think they can build around him. but his flaw is ball security and it ain't getting better.

I'm not paying him $30m+, which is what I'm sure he thinks he's worth. The biggest issue is, can they continue to squander these winnable games with the roster they have assembled? Will upgrading the WR room help with his issue or will he continue to not see the field? If he had the Bengals WR corps, would we be seeing these issues as consistently?

It's either Mayfield making a soul crushing turnover in crunch time or Stefanski not passing when he should or not running when he should to close out games. You'd think going uber conservative (see Raiders/Chargers games) would imply Stefanski doesn't trust putting the game in Mayfield's hands but then you see Stefanski call three passing plays, with three timeouts and a minute left (at the 50) when Mayfield's serving up more turnovers than Pillsbury. I don't get it.

posted by BR1986FB

I'm not paying him $30m+, which is what I'm sure he thinks he's worth. The biggest issue is, can they continue to squander these winnable games with the roster they have assembled? Will upgrading the WR room help with his issue or will he continue to not see the field? If he had the Bengals WR corps, would we be seeing these issues as consistently?

It's either Mayfield making a soul crushing turnover in crunch time or Stefanski not passing when he should or not running when he should to close out games. You'd think going uber conservative (see Raiders/Chargers games) would imply Stefanski doesn't trust putting the game in Mayfield's hands but then you see Stefanski call three passing plays, with three timeouts and a minute left (at the 50) when Mayfield's serving up more turnovers than Pillsbury. I don't get it.

you have to have at least 2 ELITE receivers around him to overcome the fact that Baker thinks he can throw balls into these tight windows he's trying to get into regularly. DPJ dropping well thrown balls when they happen don't help things either and Landry doesn't seem to have a home in the offense they run.

posted by j_crazy

you have to have at least 2 ELITE receivers around him to overcome the fact that Baker thinks he can throw balls into these tight windows he's trying to get into regularly. DPJ dropping well thrown balls when they happen don't help things either and Landry doesn't seem to have a home in the offense they run.

And unfortunately, Stefanski's offense is predicated on TE's. Diggs wanted out in Minnesota and we saw it here with OBJ. It's not really a WR "friendly" offense. Yes, Diggs last year in Minnesota he put up good numbers but I think he could see the writing on the wall (that he'd be getting less targets) and wanted out.

If you can’t upgrade next year you just keep Baker, he isn’t going anywhere. Yes his contract spikes next season, but it’s not a killer.