Outside of Northeast Ohio, there is a much different vision of the 2008 Cleveland Browns.  Maybe perception of the fans here is wrong, but weekly opponents keep using adjectives that make the Browns seem better than their record indicates.

This week the same feeling is being out there by Geoff Mosher of the Courier Post.  The Browns are dangerous, he writes.  A few quotes from the Eagles players:

Victor Abiamiri, DE: "I see a team that's definitely got playmakers,"

Dan Klecko, FB: "A lot of people don't realize how good Cleveland is, I guess,"

If that wasn't enough, head coach Andy Reid got in on the act.  Joe Dolan writes that the Browns are very picky.

Andy Reid, HC: "They sit back. First of all, their players do a nice job, and I think the coaches put them in a good position to do that by a zone coverage. They do a nice job of being patient, reading, and then driving the football.  They have good players to do that. Their linebackers are very active. All four of the guys on the back end there, the secondary, have real good hands and ball skill."

Being in Cleveland and having lived through headaches like this season on a daily basis, it's easy to get jaded about the Browns.  When they let you down nearly every year, it's easy to not see what they do have.  When it doesn't always translate into wins, fans have a tendency to shun good pieces of a bad season.  That includes myself.

The good news is, faced with another potential regime change, that the Browns are a better team now then they were after the 2000 and 2004 seasons.  The team's core is much stronger, they just need a clearer vision and direction.

So what are your thoughts?  Are the Browns a sleeping tiger or just plain bad?

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 10:52 am and is filed under Cleveland Browns, Cornerbacks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.