3 Cleveland Browns who have been MIA through 4 games
By Greg Newland
After 4 games, who are the biggest Cleveland Browns disappointments
It’s hard to believe, but the Cleveland Browns are already one-fourth of the way through their season. Thus far it has been inconsistent and frustrating at times, but the Browns made it through with a 3-1 record. If you break the seasons into quarters, that’s not the worst way to start. What’s important is to not fall below 500 in any quarter.
This team at times has flashed the ability to be a playoff contender, but at other times has been bad on offense and even worse on the defensive side of the ball. For the offense, when the team falls behind quarterback Baker Mayfield struggles to just line up in the shotgun and throw the ball. Mayfield needs the help of the running game to keep the defense on their feet with play-action.
The defense has been riddled with injuries. Mack Wilson (LB), Greedy Williams (CB), Jacob Phillips (LB), Olivier Vernon (DE), Denzel Ward (CB), and Adrian Clayborn (DE) have all missed game time and are major contributors for defensive coordinator Joe Woods. Not to mention the injury to Grant Delpit (S) before the season started. Delpit was the Browns second-round pick who many expected big things from early.
Because of injuries and inconsistencies, the playbooks on both sides of the ball have been vanilla through the first quarter of the season, especially on defense. Each week fans are hopeful the team will finally get healthy, and each week there appear to be further setbacks.
While there are plenty of guys who have performed extremely well through the first four weeks of the season, let’s look at some of the more disappointing performances for the Browns so far.