Browns are just one team who will be behind in 2020
If there is a 2020 NFL season, the Cleveland Browns will be just one of several teams who will be behind the rest of the league.
Monday April 6th was supposed to be the start of offseason workouts for the Cleveland Browns. Like other teams who have made a coaching change, Cleveland would have started earlier than teams who did not hire a new head coach. With the workouts being delayed and the uncertain future of the upcoming NFL season, the Cleveland Browns are just one of many teams who will be behind in 2020.
A new coach, new players, and a new offensive system
Cleveland was going to have a steep hill to climb to begin with. A new coach in Kevin Stefanski was going to have to implement his system with new players. Two key payers (Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry) were not going to be able to participate fully as they are recovering from surgery. This would be a problem in developing timing and overall knowledge of the scheme. It is a pretty safe bet that the chemistry between Baker Mayfield and his top two receivers will be pretty shaky once the season starts.
There has been a lot of roster turnover (as usual) in Cleveland this offseason. In addition to adding several key players (Austin Hooper, Jack Conklin), they have lost some as well. Joe Schobert, Christian Kirksey, Damarious Randall, and T.J. Carrie have all departed. The quality of these players has always been up for debate, but something that cannot be debated is consistency.
Consistency matters and when a roster has this much turnover year after year, it is hard to develop anything resembling it.
Without having the familiarity that other teams have it is going to cause problems on the field. Teams who already have their coach in place and have little roster turnover will have a massive advantage over teams like Cleveland. This has been a theme in Cleveland for two decades. New regimes come in and let some guys go and bring in others and fail to build consistency time after time. This new regime led by Andrew Berry has been no different. Developing chemistry with this group was going to be quite the challenge. Now with the way everything is going it will only be more difficult.
The lack of consistency issue goes beyond 2020. With several players signed to one-year deals, they will be cycled out next year. This will only be creating more unnecessary roster turnover. If these players were depth pieces it would be on thing. The problem is that guys like Karl Joseph and Kevin Johnson appear to have a rather sizable role cut out for them. Once they inevitably leave the process will start over again.
At home workouts are not a adequate substitute for team building
The players can work out at home on their own, but it is not the same. Nothing can replicate what they are missing. The Cleveland Browns are not the only team missing this time to implement their scheme, but they do have other obstacles to overcome that others might not. Having two of the better receivers in the league not being able to learn the offense on the field is one thing. OBJ and Landry missing time after a delayed start during an abbreviated training camp is something completely different entirely.
Implementing new systems on both sides the ball was going to be quite the endeavor. Cleveland has to manage implementing a new system with new players, key players rehabbing and navigating a lot of roster turnover. Each thing by itself could have been manageable. Most teams have to deal with one or two of the issues listed here. Everything added together just seems like an insurmountable obstacle for the Cleveland Browns to overcome.
