I love the massive amout of foot being shoved into mouth by the national media. I can't count how many ingorant prognosticators picked the Browns to finish at the bottom of the league, but to be honest, I didn't blame them, completely. I blame it not on actual analysis, moreso on taking the Browns for granted, and I find this to be completely unacceptable.
You look around at all the "educated" football prognosticators such as PFT and Football Outsiders as well as a few members of ESPN's Scouts, Inc. department (bunch of fucktards) and they all believed the Browns would show a modicrum of growth, not being playoff contenders, but showing improvement. See, that's a realistic view of the team, something gleaned from actually looking at the roster and deciphering the characteristics of the offense.
Now I don't blame the oversight for the success so far this year. We started the year off with Charlie Frye, and it is safe to say he was a cancerous tumor. There is no other way to put it. I will forever connect Charlie Frye with a deadly body that has to be removed before the patient can recover. Notice how well Seattle is doing... Nobody knew what we had in Joe Thomas. Or Derek Anderson. Or Braylon Edwards for that matter. The season was a question mark.
But at the same time, even the most mentally handicapped of the football media should have been able to see that this was not the worst team in the league. By name, I count Peter King of SI, Matt Mosley of ESPN's Hashmarks, Dr. Z of SI, Jeremy Green of ESPN, Pete Prisco of CBS, among others in the blogosphere who basically ignored the Browns.
Is their success really that much of a surprise though? It sure as hell shouldn't be. Lets see...we have no. 3, 3, and 6 overall picks at key offensive positions. We brought in one of the best guards in the NFL and a former 2,000 yard rusher coming off a 1,000 yard season. The only question mark, be it a huge one, was the quarterback position, and we figured that one out nicely (by dumb luck, but we got it taken care of). There is no reason to think that with the collection of talent we had at the beginning of the year that we would be among the bottom quarter of the teams in terms of performance.
Meanwhile, some of the same prognosticators who called the Browns and Chiefs some of the worst teams in the league were calling the Rams, 49ers and in some cases the Jets as contenders. Um...looking at those teams, I saw nothing but regression (except for the Rams, who have been destroyed by injury, something nobody can see coming). Alex Smith lost his OC in Norv Turner and wasn't really good with him, in my eyes he is the least talented no. 1 overall pick in history. The top of that draft is one of the worst in history with only Ronnie Brown and Braylon showing signs that they could be the difference makers that warrant that high of a pick. Alex Smith? Franchise QB? Seriously?
The Jets were lucky to be in the playoffs last year. They had one of the easiest schedules in modern history, the only team who presented a challenge was the Pats. The Jets were bad last year, and this year they're easily the worst team in the league (just watch one of their games, and yes, they're worse than the Dolphins). Yet the Browns, Lions, Bucs, Chiefs, and Bills are all exceeding expectations. How could you not see this? A simple glimpse of the roster would tell you this.
Listen, I expect NFL writers to be more knowledgable than I am. Am I saying that I know more than these fuckers? Hardly, but at the same time, I don't slurp the Patriots at every opportunity and ignore every other team except the Colts and Cowboys. Yes, the Patriots are the story of the year, they're a historically great team and could go down as the best ever. But at the same time, there are other predictions you could have easily made if you bothered to check the shit out. Peter King is the worst one...I respect his writing and MMQB is a must read for me first thing Monday mornings.
So are the Browns a surprise? Eh, a little. But should we be surprised that a team with high draft picks at crucial positions would succeed? The Butch Davis era of draft ignorance might have conditioned us to expect the worst, really, Gerard Warren over Richard Seymour when you were saying it was gonna be Seymour the whole fucking time? Nevertheless, actual talent evaluation has injected the roster with guys who can actually play. This shouldn't be a surprise that when the team is healthy, they're good. Fuckin' A.
I realize this was a pretty poorly constructed diatribe, but I could give two shits less. As long as that Hashmarks asshole Mosley gets his head out of his ass and acknowledges a team outside of Texas I'll be able to sleep at night. I can still sleep at night, but, well...eh fuck that last sentence and fuck the Steelers.
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