Browns will screw up either the 1 or the 4. Whichever is not screwed up will be a pro-bowler - which will leave the fanbase exactly where it has been for the last 40 years.
Both of them got screwed at first. Denzel just stuck around long enough that he could finally blossom into the Warden of the North that he is.
I think Bake will be all one of the big all-time what ifs. If he had been on a functional team and had proper development as an NFL quarterback, he could be in a very different place now. It’s also possible that he can still be a late bloomer, he still has flashes of brilliance.
I’m gonna stand by the fact that Allen or Lamar would’ve been ruined by us. They both went to teams that had far more competent coaching and roster building.
The Bills put Josh Allen into a massively shit situation when they drafted him. It was probably the most talent devoid offense an NFL team has put out.
He had no oline and no skilled players.
On the line were two starting linemen that were out of the league the next year including the center, two of the others lasted another 1-2 yrs as backups and the best player on the line was a rookie Dawkins.
At skilled positions, Kelvin Benjamin was his first option and he was out of the league after the season along with basically every other receiver. They had Zay Jones too but he was a mess and had a manic Spice/PCP incident around his rookie year and they ended up getting rid of him 2.5 years into his tenure. And 30yr old Shady had completely fallen off that year
Baker was given adequate talent around him so I don’t think the Browns did more than the Bills in terms of roster building specifically offensively. Defensively is a different story.
And coaching never interfered too much with Allen’s development. Allen accredits most of his development on private coaching in the offseason with Jordan Palmer and a biomechanics lab
I think Lamar would have probably been wasted anywhere else or at least most places outside of Baltimore. They took a huge gamble in building the offense around a running QB and hoped his passing developed and it did. They went all in and I think few teams would do that.
1 Cleveland Browns Baker Mayfield QB Oklahoma
4 Cleveland Browns Denzel Ward CB Ohio State
Mayfield: 0x Pro Bowl
Ward: 2x Pro Bowl
Both of them got screwed at first. Denzel just stuck around long enough that he could finally blossom into the Warden of the North that he is.
I think Bake will be all one of the big all-time what ifs. If he had been on a functional team and had proper development as an NFL quarterback, he could be in a very different place now. It’s also possible that he can still be a late bloomer, he still has flashes of brilliance.
It’s not fair to say Mayfield was a bad pick, but the Browns definitely screwed him up.
I’m gonna stand by the fact that Allen or Lamar would’ve been ruined by us. They both went to teams that had far more competent coaching and roster building.
The Bills put Josh Allen into a massively shit situation when they drafted him. It was probably the most talent devoid offense an NFL team has put out.
He had no oline and no skilled players.
On the line were two starting linemen that were out of the league the next year including the center, two of the others lasted another 1-2 yrs as backups and the best player on the line was a rookie Dawkins.
At skilled positions, Kelvin Benjamin was his first option and he was out of the league after the season along with basically every other receiver. They had Zay Jones too but he was a mess and had a manic Spice/PCP incident around his rookie year and they ended up getting rid of him 2.5 years into his tenure. And 30yr old Shady had completely fallen off that year
Baker was given adequate talent around him so I don’t think the Browns did more than the Bills in terms of roster building specifically offensively. Defensively is a different story.
And coaching never interfered too much with Allen’s development. Allen accredits most of his development on private coaching in the offseason with Jordan Palmer and a biomechanics lab
I think Lamar would have probably been wasted anywhere else or at least most places outside of Baltimore. They took a huge gamble in building the offense around a running QB and hoped his passing developed and it did. They went all in and I think few teams would do that.
Andy Reid is just about the only other coach I would trust, to not fuck it up.
That 2020 season was wild for them. 11-5 and 3rd in the division