5 reasons the Cleveland Browns won’t be awful in 2016

The Cleveland Browns are expected to be the NFL’s worst team in 2016. But here are five reasons why that may not be the case.

As the Cleveland Browns enter the 2016 campaign, many early reports predict a tough season for the Orange and Brown. As 2017 mock drafts (yes 2017 mock drafts) begin to roll in, many experts are predicting the Browns to be picking at the top or near the top of next year’s draft.

Gloom and doom seems inevitable, according to the national media, but optimism seems to be springing throughout the city of Cleveland as change is in the air in Berea.

The infusion of a new regime seems to have ignited a franchise that was slipping back to irrelevance after a dismal 2015 season that saw the team clean house in the front office, on the sidelines, and in the locker room.

The team parted ways with general manager Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine, along with various veteran players who were deemed over-the-hill or not in the team’s future plans. Owner Jimmy Haslam saw the discord throughout his franchise and didn’t hesitate in blowing it up instead of staying the course with an inept staff.

In came Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta to help stabilize the front office. Next, a bona fide head coach who is well-respected in the ranks and has done it before in Hue Jackson. Jackson, a proclaimed quarterback whisperer, didn’t hesitate in upgrading the position by adding free agent Robert Griffin III and drafting Cody Kessler out of Southern California in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft.

Meanwhile, Brown and DePodesta began to assemble the roster and infuse it with young, hungry players who love the game.

So while all the national pundits see the Browns as the worst team in the NFL this upcoming year, here are five good reasons to be optimistic that won’t happen.

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