Cleveland Browns: 3 myths exposed about the 2016 team
By Thomas Moore
As the weeks went by and the losses continued to mount, the team the 2016 Browns were most compared to were the 1975 squad that started 0-9 on its way to a 3-13 finish under first-year head coach Forrest Gregg.
But as we are learning here, not all teams are created equal.
The 1975 Browns were in the dying days of the team’s dynasty years and were in the opening stages of rebuilding the roster. They were led by quarterback Mike Phipps, who threw 19 interceptions against just four touchdowns while making 11 starts.
The defense was led by an aging Walter Johnson – playing in his penultimate season – and Jerry Sherk, but featured a secondary populated with the immortal Tony Peters, Van Green and Neal Craig. (Thom Darden missed the year with a broken leg.)
The one thing the 1975 team had, even if they didn’t realize it at the time, was a franchise quarterback in Brian Sipe.
The 2000 team earns consideration as well as they finished at 3-13 after losing 12 of their final 13 games. As much as people like to complain about the current offensive line there isn’t a single player from the 2000 line that would step on the field for the current Browns, and outside of Courtney Brown and Jamir Miller, you wouldn’t see any defensive players either.
The poor offense and defense combined that season to set a franchise record by being outscored by 258 points.
But the team that should rightfully take its place as the worst in franchise history is Bud Carson’s 1990 team that finished 3-13. That squad was shutout three times by the scores of 34-0, 42-0 and 35-0, and lost 13 of its final 15 games.
More importantly, the roster was filled with numerous players who, while still popular, were nearing the end of the line in Cleveland.
And that is the bigger point when it comes to the current edition of the Browns.
The Browns were bad this year as they finished at or near the bottom in just about every offensive and defensive category imaginable. But they also did that with a roster loaded with first- and second-year players, many of whom saw considerable playing time.
This isn’t to argue that the Browns were good this year, 1-15 is still 1-15 after all, but rather to highlight that not all bad teams are created equally. Being bad with an overwhelmed head coach and a roster full of aging players that quit on the team is far worse than the situation the Browns find themselves in currently.
The Browns have a coach that the players believe in, the team never quit during the season even though they had plenty of opportunities to do so, and they are set up with draft picks and cap space to continue adding talent to the roster.
Which brings us to our final point.