Losing is already the worst. Losing and losing a star player in the process? Well, it incites panic among most NFL fan bases it happens to. Unfortunately for the Cleveland Browns, Monday night's loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road was made much worse by the fact that Nick Chubb suffered a gruesome knee injury that turned out to be as bad as it looked when we all saw it.
Although most overreacting happens in the minutes and hours shortly after a game is freshly won or lost, there are still Browns fans in a state of panic over what they saw against the Steelers on Monday night.
As much as we were all looking forward to the beginning of a Cleveland Browns dynasty after a Week 1 blowout of the Cincinnati Bengals, everyone is now equally worried over what is to come after a loss in Pittsburgh and the injury on top of insult.
Let's look at our top 3 overreactions for the Cleveland Browns heading into Week 3.
3 Cleveland Browns overreactions heading into Week 3
1. "Nick Chubb is done, so the Browns are done"
If Nick Chubb is done, so are the Cleveland Browns.
That's got to be the case, right? That's certainly what a lot of people believe about this team and you can't blame them. The Browns offense flows through Nick Chubb, one of the best running backs in the entire league if not the best. Although people would like you to believe that running backs are a dime a dozen, not everyone is Nick Chubb, and not everyone is capable of doing what he can do.
The Browns are likely going to need to dip into the free agency pool at running back (if they haven't already after this post is published), but for the time being, expect Jerome Ford to be heavily featured going forward.
#Browns Kevin Stefanski said that Jerome Ford will be the featured back even as the team looks to add a running back. He wouldn't say if they're interested in bringing Kareem Hunt back
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) September 19, 2023
Even if Kareem Hunt or someone else comes in, Ford's knowledge of the offense and work with the Browns all offseason gives him a huge leg up over anyone else. And he's in game shape as well, while Hunt would need time to get there.
But for many Browns fans, it doesn't matter how they replace Chubb. If his season is over, so is Cleveland's.
2. "The passing game is a dead end solution"
Another overreaction for the Cleveland Browns heading into Week 3? The passing game is a dead-end solution for this offense. If they are expecting Deshaun Watson to pick up the slack after losing Nick Chubb, the team is sorely mistaken.
Honestly, it's hard to sit here and argue with this kind of "overreaction" given what we've seen from the Browns' aerial attack in just a couple of games. Deshaun Watson's completion rate is under 56 percent, which is not something you expect from him based on what he did in Houston.
He's always been a pretty accurate passer and not reckless with the ball, but through two games this season -- and all of his starts last season -- he's got a combined completion rate of 57.3 percent as a member of the Browns.
That's not good.
Watson completed nearly 68 percent of his throws when he was with the Houston Texans, but the last time he played at a high level for them was all the way back in 2020 at this point. For many Cleveland Browns fans, there's enough of a sample size to believe at this point that the passing game won't be able to carry the offense going forward. To them, it's a dead-end solution after losing the offense's biggest star.
But it's an area of this team that's going to have to improve and evolve quickly. They can still run the ball efficiently, but losing Nick Chubb is going to force Deshaun Watson to have to win more games for the Browns instead of just managing them.
3. "The Browns should prepare for a fire sale at the NFL trade deadline"
Look, it's never a bad idea to think about this "just in case" kind of scenario, but I don't think it's time for Browns fans to start looking at NFL Draft prospects just yet. Cleveland has plenty of desirable assets on the roster that other teams would like to have, but is this team going to pack it in with a potential top-3 defense in the NFL?
I don't think so. Unless the Browns lose every game between now and the NFL trade deadline, I think we can safely assume this team won't be a seller.
There are jobs on the line in Cleveland (but when is that not the case?). There are way too many good veterans for this team to truly tank. It would require a collapse of epic proportions in the next handful of weeks to get this team into a true "tank" position.
The Browns have to continue to trust the process and trust that their defense will be able to carry them to some wins. I know there's not really an "only" that you can put before allowing 26 points, but to "only" allow 26 points when your team fumbles three times and throws a pick?
The offense has to find a way to do better. Pass protection has to be better. The Cleveland offense right now is not built to really be able to overcome that kind of ineptitude when it comes to turning the ball over. Giving up six sacks in one game to six different players is bordering on unthinkable. The Browns will face really good pass rushes all throughout the season, but one bad game hopefully isn't going to be an indicator of any sort of permanent performance.
Although it's easy to look on the negative side of things with the way things have historically gone for this franchise, there's no need to overreact just yet. The Browns face the Titans in Week 3 with a chance to get back on track and get fans back on the optimistic side of things.