Cleveland Browns: 3 myths exposed about the 2016 team

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Jan 1, 2017; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam (left) talks with executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown and head coach Hue Jackson before the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /

Almost from the moment that owner Jimmy Haslam announced a new front office structure that would use “analytics” to rebuild the franchise the critics came out in full force.

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“They don’t have proven football men,” the skeptics cried. “They are going to use spreadsheets to pick players,” they bleated. “Real men build football teams, not computers,” they shouted.

And as the losses mounted it only gave the critics more to whine about.

We get it: people fear what they don’t understand. Or, more accurately, what they choose to not understand. But here’s the truth:

What the Browns are doing is not new to the NFL and it is certainly not revolutionary.

It may not have carried the label of analytics, but Paul Brown certainly used analytics in building the dynasty Browns of the 1940s and 1950s. Tom Landry did the same thing with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s and 1970s as the team used detailed computer analysis to draft players and build its roster. Fans who are old enough will certainly remember people criticizing the Cowboys as being “the IBM of the league” for their ways.

We could be wrong, but Brown and Landry seemed to do all right with incorporating analytics into their franchises.

While Brown and Landry may be ancient history to today’s generation of fans, a five-minute Google search reveals that analytics are prevalent in today’s NFL:

Falcons making modern analytics a priority in 2016
Why the Steelers hired a Carnegie Mellon professor for advanced analytics (And he’s a graduate of Harvard!)
The Packers (and the rest of the NFL) are already using Moneyball tactics
What the Seattle Seahawks can teach us about analytics success
Broncos among the first team to embrace in-game analytics
Tacking Tech: What’s new in sports analytics – the NFL and beyond (Key phrase from that article: You may not find a bigger believer in data and analytics than New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.)

So let’s review: the Atlanta Falcons, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos and New England Patriots – all Super Bowl winners with the exception of the Falcons, who are in the playoffs this year – all use analytics to build their franchises and to better understand in-game strategies.

Remember, though, “analytics are for losers.”

This isn’t to say that the latest approach from the Browns will guarantee that the team will succeed. Making a plan is always the easiest part, executing the plan is always more difficult, especially if people are not given the time.

But to simply dismiss what the Browns are doing without attempting at least a minimal amount of research is, at best, lazy; at worst it is just basic ignorance of what is happening around the league.

Next: Browns hope to resign Pryor, Collins

The Browns still have considerable work to do in this latest rebuilding effort and the entire process could still blow up in their faces. (Or Haslam could blow it up for them.)

But there is more to this current Browns team than just its record, no matter what anyone tries to tell you.

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