Monday, February 21, 2011

2011 Offseason: Cleveland Browns

Unlike Pat Kirwan of NFL.com, I actually like the Browns going into next season. I don’t know that they’ll be in the postseason, and I definitely don’t think they can beat out both Baltimore and Pittsburgh (or even one of them) for the division crown. But I like what they have right now, as far as players are concerned that is.

Cleveland is currently without a head coach. Marty Mornhinweg’s name has been thrown around as a possible candidate, and he would be a good man for the job. I actually think Mornhinweg could be ready to move on from Philly at this point, if he has ambitions of moving up the coaching ladder. He could also be perfectly content where he is.

Colt McCoy needs to stay, in my opinion. He just finished his rookie season and it was pretty good from what I could tell. He still has some maturing to do, and he made some pretty bad decisions at times, but he learned from them and I think he could really develop into the type of player a teams needs to have for a postseason appearance.

What the Browns need is some better defense, especially in the secondary, and some better offensive weapons to surround McCoy with. One or two new offensive linemen could also help in terms of avoiding McCoy being constantly flushed out of the pocket and forced to make so many of his throws on the run.

I like what they have in the backfield with a couple young guys to back up Peyton Hillis. But Cleveland could definitely use a little more quality depth at other positions. If Mike Holmgren can continue what he has been doing, the Browns could be looking at a wild-card birth within the next 2-3 seasons, a pretty good outlook for any 5-11 team.

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