BACH
Superbowl, Homeboy!
It's ironic that, while watching the MLB All-Star Game, we pounded out the latest summary of the NFL's few-star teams.
The sad part is that we'd rather watch football's worst play to a scoreless preseason tie than take in a game involving baseball's best.
And as the All-Star Game plays out in Pittsburgh, it's fitting that one of the most bitter rivals of the Steel City's football team has "earned" the position of the No. 22 franchise in our preseason peek at the NFL's bottom-to-top.
The Cleveland Browns.
Of course, Browns fans should be happy with the team's preseason position. The franchise, after all, has become an afterthought of late in any serious discussion regarding the strong teams in the AFC. But for a wild-card berth in 2002, Cleveland's football franchise has been a bust in its return to the NFL after a three-year hiatus after the "old" Browns moved to Baltimore.
But we like what we see. First and foremost, owner Randy Lerner finally gave John Collins the boot only days after Collins had moved to take down first-year G.M. Phil Savage, who had a lot more to do with the building of the Ravens team that won Super Bowl XXXV than most casual fans realize. Savage is on the way, we believe, to putting together another strong unit in Cleveland.
We also like coach Romeo Crennel, a long-time assistant who finally got his shot at a team of his own in 2005. And he proceeded to take the remnants of a roster ruined by guys like Butch Davis and Dwight Clark and squeeze out six wins.
Not all of the victories came against poor competition; the Browns doubled up the Bears, 20-10, early in the year and are the last team to beat the Dolphins, who won six straight after getting shut out in Cleveland, losing by 22.
The Browns also played tough on the road at Indy, losing by a mere seven points, and at Cincy, falling only by three.
Then again, the Browns were one of the two teams that lost to the Texans in 2005.
Still, there are more positives than in the past as the 2006 season approaches, as evidenced by the team's ability to attract free agents -- and willingness to spend the money to get them.
The process started with a surprise decision by center LeCharles Bentley, who bailed on a wink-nod deal with the Eagles before inking with the Browns in the opening hours of free agency. That same day came tackle Kevin Shaffer and receiver Joe Jurevicius. Though neither will be making the short trek to Canton for enshrinement, they represent the kind of upgrade that the team desperately needs in order to be competitive in a tough division in a powerful conference.
The next day, the Browns added punter Dave Zastudil. The next, veteran run-stuffing (and toilet-clogging) defensive tackle Ted Washington signed on the dotted line. Three days later, linebacker Willie McGinest brought his three Super Bowl rings to town.
In the draft, the Browns continued to beef up the defense with defensive end Kamerion Wimbley and linebacker D'Qwell Jackson.
The bigger question marks, as we see it, are on offense. And there are plenty.
Can quarterback Charlie Frye get it done? If he can't, who will? (Answer: Not Ken Dorsey.) Can Mo Carthon keep his job? Can Reuben Droughns stay, you know, out of jail? Can William Green continue to avoid having any cutlery inserted into his body? Can Kellen Winslow manage to play in more than a couple of games without getting Babaroed?
Still, the Browns are building a defense that will, like Savage's old team, help to conceal the warts on the offense's butt . The games might not further the notion of high-octane offense generating high-level ratings, but as to the only statistic that matters -- points scored versus points allowed determined on a per-game basis -- the denizens of the Dawg Pound soon will be very happy with the results.
Now for the fantasy rankings:
Quarterback: Frye is a tough one to figure at this point in his career, and we're not sure we buy the suggestion we recently saw somewhere that, because he wasn't a first-rounder, he's more likely to be like Tom Brady or Joe Montana than Tim Couch or Akili Smith. First-rounder or free-agent, the pressure will be on Frye this year, and our guess is that the coaching staff will try to put together a solid running game in order to force eight men into the box, making it easier for Frye to complete passes and, more importantly, gain confidence. He'd be a good option as a late-round second-stringer for a fantasy team, but we wouldn't want him as the starter for a fantasy team.
Running back: Droughns is still the guy, but our guess is that every other tailback on the roster will get a chance to eat into his carries. He has put up solid rushing yards the past two seasons, but accounted for only two touchdowns in 2005. He gets a C.
And it's not as if anyone else was getting the touches near the goal line. The team had only two other rushing scores on the year -- one from Frye and one from Jason Wright (whoever in the hell that is).
Wide receiver: The team's No. 1 wideout from 2005 is gone, and the rest of the players didn't do much last season. Braylon Edwards ordinarily would be a candidate for a breakout year, but he's coming back from a relatively late-season ACL tear. So we've got a feeling that the ball will be spread around, and none of the wideouts merits serious consideration -- unless it becomes clear early in camp that Edwards is 100 percent.
Tight end: Fantasy owners should resist the temptation to believe that Kellen Winslow will be anything other than a tease. But fantasy owners also should spend plenty of time leading up to the draft talking about Winslow, because there inevitably will be someone in each league who'll think he or she is getting a steal. Maybe he or she is. But there will be better tried-and-true options available. Take Winslow only if he's still on the board late in the draft; he's been out of action too long to be dominant this year, and he's not in an offense that will be designed to get him the ball six or more times per game.
Defense: The defense was ranked 25th statistically in 2005, but it's on the rise. We give them a C, and we'd pick them if all of the big-name units are off of the board.
Kicker: Phil Dawson missed only two field goals last year, which is good. But he missed two extra points. Not good. Even more problematic is that this offense won't generate a ton of points. Look elsewhere.
The sad part is that we'd rather watch football's worst play to a scoreless preseason tie than take in a game involving baseball's best.
And as the All-Star Game plays out in Pittsburgh, it's fitting that one of the most bitter rivals of the Steel City's football team has "earned" the position of the No. 22 franchise in our preseason peek at the NFL's bottom-to-top.
The Cleveland Browns.
Of course, Browns fans should be happy with the team's preseason position. The franchise, after all, has become an afterthought of late in any serious discussion regarding the strong teams in the AFC. But for a wild-card berth in 2002, Cleveland's football franchise has been a bust in its return to the NFL after a three-year hiatus after the "old" Browns moved to Baltimore.
But we like what we see. First and foremost, owner Randy Lerner finally gave John Collins the boot only days after Collins had moved to take down first-year G.M. Phil Savage, who had a lot more to do with the building of the Ravens team that won Super Bowl XXXV than most casual fans realize. Savage is on the way, we believe, to putting together another strong unit in Cleveland.
We also like coach Romeo Crennel, a long-time assistant who finally got his shot at a team of his own in 2005. And he proceeded to take the remnants of a roster ruined by guys like Butch Davis and Dwight Clark and squeeze out six wins.
Not all of the victories came against poor competition; the Browns doubled up the Bears, 20-10, early in the year and are the last team to beat the Dolphins, who won six straight after getting shut out in Cleveland, losing by 22.
The Browns also played tough on the road at Indy, losing by a mere seven points, and at Cincy, falling only by three.
Then again, the Browns were one of the two teams that lost to the Texans in 2005.
Still, there are more positives than in the past as the 2006 season approaches, as evidenced by the team's ability to attract free agents -- and willingness to spend the money to get them.
The process started with a surprise decision by center LeCharles Bentley, who bailed on a wink-nod deal with the Eagles before inking with the Browns in the opening hours of free agency. That same day came tackle Kevin Shaffer and receiver Joe Jurevicius. Though neither will be making the short trek to Canton for enshrinement, they represent the kind of upgrade that the team desperately needs in order to be competitive in a tough division in a powerful conference.
The next day, the Browns added punter Dave Zastudil. The next, veteran run-stuffing (and toilet-clogging) defensive tackle Ted Washington signed on the dotted line. Three days later, linebacker Willie McGinest brought his three Super Bowl rings to town.
In the draft, the Browns continued to beef up the defense with defensive end Kamerion Wimbley and linebacker D'Qwell Jackson.
The bigger question marks, as we see it, are on offense. And there are plenty.
Can quarterback Charlie Frye get it done? If he can't, who will? (Answer: Not Ken Dorsey.) Can Mo Carthon keep his job? Can Reuben Droughns stay, you know, out of jail? Can William Green continue to avoid having any cutlery inserted into his body? Can Kellen Winslow manage to play in more than a couple of games without getting Babaroed?
Still, the Browns are building a defense that will, like Savage's old team, help to conceal the warts on the offense's butt . The games might not further the notion of high-octane offense generating high-level ratings, but as to the only statistic that matters -- points scored versus points allowed determined on a per-game basis -- the denizens of the Dawg Pound soon will be very happy with the results.
Now for the fantasy rankings:
Quarterback: Frye is a tough one to figure at this point in his career, and we're not sure we buy the suggestion we recently saw somewhere that, because he wasn't a first-rounder, he's more likely to be like Tom Brady or Joe Montana than Tim Couch or Akili Smith. First-rounder or free-agent, the pressure will be on Frye this year, and our guess is that the coaching staff will try to put together a solid running game in order to force eight men into the box, making it easier for Frye to complete passes and, more importantly, gain confidence. He'd be a good option as a late-round second-stringer for a fantasy team, but we wouldn't want him as the starter for a fantasy team.
Running back: Droughns is still the guy, but our guess is that every other tailback on the roster will get a chance to eat into his carries. He has put up solid rushing yards the past two seasons, but accounted for only two touchdowns in 2005. He gets a C.
And it's not as if anyone else was getting the touches near the goal line. The team had only two other rushing scores on the year -- one from Frye and one from Jason Wright (whoever in the hell that is).
Wide receiver: The team's No. 1 wideout from 2005 is gone, and the rest of the players didn't do much last season. Braylon Edwards ordinarily would be a candidate for a breakout year, but he's coming back from a relatively late-season ACL tear. So we've got a feeling that the ball will be spread around, and none of the wideouts merits serious consideration -- unless it becomes clear early in camp that Edwards is 100 percent.
Tight end: Fantasy owners should resist the temptation to believe that Kellen Winslow will be anything other than a tease. But fantasy owners also should spend plenty of time leading up to the draft talking about Winslow, because there inevitably will be someone in each league who'll think he or she is getting a steal. Maybe he or she is. But there will be better tried-and-true options available. Take Winslow only if he's still on the board late in the draft; he's been out of action too long to be dominant this year, and he's not in an offense that will be designed to get him the ball six or more times per game.
Defense: The defense was ranked 25th statistically in 2005, but it's on the rise. We give them a C, and we'd pick them if all of the big-name units are off of the board.
Kicker: Phil Dawson missed only two field goals last year, which is good. But he missed two extra points. Not good. Even more problematic is that this offense won't generate a ton of points. Look elsewhere.
