@the-gipper said:

The jury is still way out on the issue of whether or not Shurmur is any kind of coach. If the verdict had to be issued today, you would have to come up with the conclusion that is is some kind of coach: a very bad coach.

And yes, concern for weak LBs. We may be relying on rookies there too in addition to as many as 5 rookies on offense.

Shurmer pissed me off real good last year at Arizona, a 4-9 record...and he PUNTED on 4th & 2 inches from the AZ 47 yard line with a 10-0 lead. Also, the clock debacle at the Ratbirds.

I hope I'm wrong and the Browns/Shurmer kick ass.

going into year 3 of a five year plan you would hope we'd be @ least a .500 team.

i do see us improving on the offensive side, but hell winning 5 games you could say that. i do think the excitement over our defensive rankings last year will dwindle and our LBs will be a huge reason for it. and pleeeez let one of these young DTs hold down the fort until taylor gets back.

for shurmur's sake i hope we win 5 games (at least) this year. because now it's shurmur's evaluation year. ooh wait! it's weeden's evaluation year too! (or is that next year?) who knows?

@bob806 said:

Browns should be near .500 if Shurmer is any kind of coach. We play the NFC East & AFC West- those teams aren't exactly outstanding (except the NYG).

My main concern is our weak LBs.

The jury is still way out on the issue of whether or not Shurmur is any kind of coach. If the verdict had to be issued today, you would have to come up with the conclusion that is is some kind of coach: a very bad coach.

And yes, concern for weak LBs. We may be relying on rookies there too in addition to as many as 5 rookies on offense.

@miktoxic said:

um, did you see our schedule? that's how we'll lose more games than last year.

Every year they say the Browns have a hard or an easy schedule...and it never works out that way. What looked like an easy schedule last year turned out to be like the 2d toughest schedule in the league.

HoLE, I agree those predictions are insane. No way the Pats are going 16-0 again. Carolina is only going to get better (though I think the Skins beat them this year, call me a homer ), Bucs are probably going to end around .500, and the Skins are at least going 8-8 this year.

I'm probably going to get ripped to shreds for this prediction here, but why not:

Saints: W (early in the season, Saints are still getting used to the interim interim coach, and there's just way too much chaos in week 1) 1-0

Rams: W (stronger offense, better defense, Skins should win) 2-0

Bengals: W (Dalton's going to come back to earth, should be a win) 3-0

Buccaneers: W (Bucs are getting better, but should be a win) 4-0

Falcons: L (Falcons offense too much to handle) 4-1

Vikings: W (no offense, struggling defense) 5-1

Giants: L (in New York, Skins start out the NFCE with a loss) 5-2

Steelers: L (still have a good defense, we seem to struggle against the Steelers) 5-3

Panthers: W (in what will become a yearly rivalry like Manning v Brady, RG3 takes act 1) 6-3

Eagles: W (RG3 wins at home against Vick) 7-3

Cowboys: W (Romo starts his annual end of the year collapse in week 12) 8-3

Giants: W (Skins get a measure of revenge against New York) 9-3

Ravens: L (Skins drop a close one against the Baltimorons) 9-4

Browns: W (bounce back win against Weeden) 10-4

Eagles: L (lose in round 2 against Philthy) 10-5

Cowboys: W (Skins pull the sweep of Dallas at home) 11-5

I know I'm probably being real optimistic here, but that's my entirely homeristic prediction for the Skins.

For the Browns, I can see around 7-9 or 8-8.

1.) Miami Dolphins 7-9

2.) Patriots 16-0 ??

3.) NYJ 9-7

4.) I question the insane optimism of the rest of our division. Pittsburgh ain't getting any better.

5.) Carolina 5-11

6.) Bucs 3-13. Bucs are definitely on the upside like the Brownies.

7.) GB 14-2 . Interesting seeing as their defense fell off a cliff last year

8.) Skins 4-12

Let's just say that at worse this guy is clueless and at best these "rankings" are the result of pure speculation. Once we put the pig skin to the turf we'll see about 16-0 for the Pats...

My main concern is our weak LBs.

@rich4eagle said:

I am kinda optimistic about the future and this has been a rarity for several years. I like the Richardson pick and QB pick. Maybe our front office is finally realizing offense wins football games and championships even if our fans still hang onto the loser "defense wins championships"

And scoring starts with a good QB and a big time RB........two steps taken.......instead doing the usual drafting an overweight fat slow DL guy or a dime a dozen OL guy

You don't seem to realize that 5 out of our 11 picks were lineman... but then again you don't realize a lot of things.

@badnewsbrowns said:

I'm not so much concerned with win totals as much as I am their performance.

Obviously we're not going to the Super Bowl so I just want to see a vast improvement of the Offense.

I mean Carolina went what? 6-10 last year but they gave their fans something to look forward to.

I am kinda optimistic about the future and this has been a rarity for several years. I like the Richardson pick and QB pick. Maybe our front office is finally realizing offense wins football games and championships even if our fans still hang onto the loser "defense wins championships"

And scoring starts with a good QB and a big time RB........two steps taken.......instead doing the usual drafting an overweight fat slow DL guy or a dime a dozen OL guy

Obviously we're not going to the Super Bowl so I just want to see a vast improvement of the Offense.

I mean Carolina went what? 6-10 last year but they gave their fans something to look forward to.

Having said that, putting us down for 1 win is nothing more than a cheap shot. The sort of thing the browns get a lot, and the team needs to use articles like this as an inspiration to make things better in the future.

That's how we were worse last year than the year before. And it was only by one game. In 2010 we seemed to catch some offensive magic in a nice year by Colt and Peyton Hillis not being terrible.

Howd that happen?

Here's what he had to say before last year's season opener against the Bungholes:

The Browns appear to be a team on the way up. The Bengals look to be a team going the other way. Colt McCoy has the edge over rookie Andy Dalton, who starts at quarterback for the Bengals. Browns defensive coordinator Dick Jauron will have a good plan to throw at the rookie. The Bengals have been the better team in this series lately, but not this time. Cleveland 23 - Cincinnati 13.

We all know how that went...