Even during the most revealing of training camps and preseasons, it can be difficult to impossible to determine what caliber of team will come out of the starting gate when the bell rings and it hits the longer-than-ever National Football League regular-season track.
This Cleveland Browns’ preseason—now two-thirds finished—has been such an exercise in obfuscation that all anyone has learned is the capabilities of the second- and third-stringers. (They’re not bad, actually. Not bad at all.) If an observer were to extrapolate, it could mean the starters, who have been lounging by the pool and oiling their muscles rather than using them, could make this the special season that optimists believe it might be. It could be the antithesis of 2017, a most memorable 0-16 Titanic cruise that at least brought quarterback Baker Mayfield to town, as the previous year’s 1-15 failure had led to defensive end Myles Garrett; both were No. 1 NFL draft choices.
The reason it is wise to choose carefully the qualifier for the 2021 season is the fact Coach Kevin Stefanski has not revealed a newly put-together and improved defensive unit, with all the pieces in the places as they are supposed to be, or the more fully developed and perhaps diversified offense that he and coordinator Alex Van Pelt will run.
If Mr. Stefanski were playing it any closer to the vest, he would not have room to breathe much less conceal his cards between under and outer garments. There are multiple reasons to husband the best players and to reveal little to nothing about what his offense and defensive coordinator Joe Woods’ favored defense—sometimes alleged to be a 4-2-5, with an extra safety playing closer to the line (in the box)—will look like.
The approach at best limits injuries that could occur to the most important players and at very least saves wear and tear on the Mayfields and Garretts of the Browns hierarchy. It is an exaggeration for effect to imply that the starters have been on deck chairs poolside by the glistening waters rather than going through their sweaty paces on the practice field. The downside of not taking, as is usually the case, at least a minimal turn on the preseason game field is that even exhibition speed differs from the best of practice. The Browns had last week when they entertained the New York Giants in two practice sessions before beating them 17-13 to extend their preseason record to 2-0.
Give credit where credit is due, though, because defensive back Troy Hill and Giants receiver Sterling Shepard tried their damnedest to engage in a bit of fisticuffs post-practice to enliven the second of the scrimmages. It recalled junior high behavior when one guy would challenge another to meet him behind the gym to settle things. This was no spur of the moment, emotional response. Practice had ended. Some players remained to talk. Hill and Shepard stayed behind to duke it out (there was photographic evidence). Before they could land a blow and perhaps do unnecessary physical damage—the very thing Stefanski has strived to avoid—the gladiators were separated.
Akron Beacon Journal columnist Marla Ridenour keenly assessed that this behavior may not have pleased Mr. Stefanski. While other starters continued to rest, the coach sent Hill out with the rookies and those still working to find a place on the roster. I think she was right. She connected the threads that others did not so much miss as failed to appraise properly. When she was finished she had a nice, big ball of circumstantial evidence, including testimony by none other than quarterback Mayfield.
When asked whether he would like to play a series or two in preseason, Mayfield allowed as how, “If I’m lucky Coach said if I start a fight at practice, I have to play.” For that opportunity, Mayfield said he might be willing to mix it up with his friend Saquon Barkley, the Giants’ stout running back. Mayfield held back and was held out.
The last chance for the quarterback and the other starters to at least get their feet wet will be Sunday night when they travel to Atlanta to play the Falcons. When NFL teams played four-game preseasons, most coaches made the third game a dress rehearsal. Stefanski did not say after the victory over the Giants what he would do and he has no preseason track record as a head coach because coronavirus caused cancellation of last preseason, and with a 17th game added to the regular season, the exhibition season has been reduced to three games for all but two teams in the Pro Football Hall of Fame game that kicks off the schedule and this year featured Dallas and Pittsburgh.
Ben Roethlisberger, long-in-the-tooth quarterback, did not play in the Steelers’ victory over Dallas or at Philadelphia, but in three series against the Detroit Lions, he completed 8 of 10 passes for two touchdowns and a 14-0 lead that held up in a 26-20 victory. Pittsburgh, the team the Browns beat in back-to-back games last season, one in the playoffs, and Roethlisberger looked as if they could be the same ol’ Steelers. Roethlisberger had a perfect passer rating, and, more important, he showed that he and new offensive coordinator Matt Canada are on the same page.
Where is Mayfield and the load of offensive starters who are back? Can Mayfield make a stronger connection with Odell Beckham Jr., coming back from an ACL injury? Where is the new and improved defense? Who knows. The question is: Will Stefanski at least offer a glimpse of them at Atlanta—without, of course, revealing anything important about how the offense might have changed and grown? He should, but he also may have painted himself into something of a corner by withholding the starters in order to protect their health and begin the season in the pink. (Sorry, in the orange just does not work.)
If a player, particularly a key one, suffers an injury during the third-and-final exhibition, what will have been the point of the protection plan? Though the Browns seem to care not a whit what anyone else thinks, they would have set themselves up for second-guessing. And, in the end, how much will two or three series help the players and the team?
They charted this course, and they should see it through. Play out the mystery until the opener at Arrowhead Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, who, by the way, played and somehow survived the Chiefs two exhibition victories.
Others can pray that Stefanski has made the right choices. Me? I think I’ll take a nap.
