The Cleveland Browns In 2018 — A Promising Young Team

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns fell one game short of a winning season on Sunday. The 26-24 loss to the Baltimore Ravens stung, but it felt more like an ellipsis than a period for this team. That's because there's hope in Northeast Ohio again. There's hope the Browns are...shh...good again.

For two years, ineptness and records were the only talking points about the Browns. Going 1-15 and then 0-16 will do that. Cleveland was a historically bumbling franchise and deserved severe public ridicule. Then the Browns hired general manager John Dorsey and drafted a flag-planting, swagger-bringing Oklahoma quarterback named Baker Mayfield.

The opening weeks of the 2018 season were bizarre. The Browns looked like a better team, they felt like a better team, but they weren't stringing together victories. They were coming dangerously close to wins...but weren't quite security the victories.

That changed when head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley were fired after Week 8 (a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers).

The mid-season personnel change rejuvenated the Browns and unleashed Mayfield. Interim head coach Gregg Williams did a masterful job protecting his young quarterback and refocusing his defense.

The team went 5-3 over the second half of the season. All three of the Browns' losses came to playoff teams (the Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans, and Ravens). The Ravens game was decided by two measly points.

While many fans will look at the first eight weeks of the season and wonder what could have been: what if Mayfield had started the season? what it Jackson had not been brought back as coach? what if a few of those close games had broken for the Browns?

"What if" games are fine, but they miss the point. Mayfield broke the rookie touchdown record and he didn't even play the whole season. He was a first-year starter that very nearly guided his team into the playoffs. There's no "what if" there, Mayfield is the most promising rookie quarterback in his class. Period.

The defense is young and super-talented...Denzel Ward has all the makings of a shutdown corner, Myles Garrett is a singularly disruptive pass rusher that will be the engine driving the Browns defense for years.

And the AFC North is there for the taking. The Steelers (and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger) are aging and decaying in front of our eyes. The Bengals are living up to the Bungles moniker. The only real competition is the Ravens...and their passing attack is anemic. Cleveland could seize the AFC North title next year...and hold on to it for years.

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Let's talk about records again. In one year, this year, the Browns won more games than the last three seasons combined. That's why this team feels different...it is different.

As we all head into 2019, Cleveland's collective resolution should be to abandon the defeatist complex that has defined fandom here for more than half a century. Our sports teams have started to rewrite the narrative of Northeast Ohio and fans should partake in that alteration.

The future is bright...and in 2019 we can all wake up feeling dangerous.

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images