CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
I try to read all the comments that arrive on this daily article as they post on the Watercooler. The feedback is important to me, and I love that some folks have made it a daily ritual to say "Good morning" or post pictures (often of attractive women drinking coffee). The comment thread on this daily article is like a community coffee shop where everyone just happens to be a Browns fan.
So, we get into conversations about the team or other things, and it gives me a sense of what's going on in the minds of my fellow Browns fans.
I have to say that the enthusiasm for this team is as muted as I've ever seen it. I wrote one day last week that most fans seem to want the season to be over, our quarterback room excised of expensive failures, and next year's draft to arrive as soon as possible. There wasn't disagreement on this point.
I think we all hope for a surprise to emerge from the quarterback depth chart, but after 27 years of waiting, cynicism has set in. Given the importance of the quarterback position in today's NFL, it feels like this team can accelerate down the runway thanks to young talent but never truly take off.
I wonder how much of that is objective reality, how much of it is a hangover from years of failure, and how much has to do with the national and local consensus about the team.
Anyone opening a web browser and looking at Browns coverage will see the same thing. People are telling us, every day, that there's no point in having hope for this season.
It's behind a paywall, but Chris Easterling at the Beacon Journal went game by game through all seventeen, scores and all, opening with my favorite disclaimer of the young season: if you have a problem with what follows, blame the crystal ball, not the writer. He had this team at 5-12 back in May when the schedule dropped, before a single OTA. Four months of camp, minicamp and preseason later, with all that context in hand, he ran it again and landed on 5-12. Same number.
Five wins. Same as last year. That's the optimistic one.
Crystal Ball
Crystal Ball (Photo: Unsplash.com)
Then there are the power rankings, which require a lot of scrolling to get down to the spot where the Browns are.
PFT's Week 1 rankings dropped us a spot from their preseason list to 31st, with only Arizona underneath. The one-line summary attached to our name: "Deshaun Watson's two-game audition likely won't be good enough to get him to Week 3." Two games. That's the window they're giving him before the whole thing reopens. I don't love that they're probably right.
Chad Graff and Josh Kendall at The Athletic put us 30th, down three spots from where they had us when camp started, with their model spitting out a projected win total of 5.3. Only Arizona and Miami project lower. Their write-up says the Browns "took an already dysfunctional quarterback situation and somehow made it worse," and closes by predicting it'll be a tough watch again. They do give credit for the KC Concepcion, Denzel Boston and Spencer Fano additions, which was nice of them, right before the part about the quarterback.
For the record, both outlets have us behind the Jets. The Jets have picked off an interception on defense in a calendar year, and The Athletic wrote an actual sentence about it with capital letters and a question mark. Still ahead of us.
I don't think 5-12 is wrong. I think it's probably close. I just think the interesting question this fall isn't the record, and I've watched enough bad Browns teams to know the difference between a bad team that's building something and a bad team that's just bad. We'll know which one this is by Halloween.
I want to have faith. I want my fellow Browns fans happy, rather than despairing again. I always do. It's a medical condition at this point.
ANTARCTICA IS A LIE, SAYS THE STEELER: DK Metcalf told The Athletic's Jonathan Jones that he believes there is another civilization inside the Earth and that Antarctica is "another world," his evidence being that you can't just book a trip there. You can, actually. Ships leave South America between November and March. Metcalf also gave a shout-out to Aaron Rodgers for previously holding the team title for saying odd things to the media, which he has now claimed for himself. Pittsburgh opens against Atlanta. We get them October 1st, on a Thursday, on a short week, in a game the Beacon Journal says we win. Sphere says so.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
I have created feeds and Twitter lists that extend beyond the Browns feeds, which tend to focus on (1) Hot takes, (2) Things i already know, and (3) Potshots at the media. A lot of those are about technology, and if you want to know where the future is, look no further into what areas are receiving venture capital: AI, robotics, and space.
A company in Kent, Washington called Stoke Space just raised a billion dollars on the argument that throwing rockets away is a dumb way to run a business. Their whole pitch is a two-stage vehicle where both stages come back, including the upper stage, which nobody has managed yet. The design detail I liked most: instead of the ceramic tiles everybody else uses, the upper-stage heat shield is metal, actively cooled by the liquid hydrogen already on board as fuel. The rocket keeps itself from burning up using the stuff it was going to burn anyway. They've raised $2.3 billion total, they're expanding their test site in Washington by 475 acres, and they're targeting early 2027 for the first orbital launch with a paying customer's payload actually on board, which is a level of confidence I can only describe as aspirational.
Early 2027, by my math, is right about when this football team is supposed to be good. I'm rooting for both, and I'd give the rocket the better odds.
WRAPPING UP
When not being pounded senseless by negativity, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.
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