Browns veterans and rookies report to Berea on July 24th. I’ll let that sink in. I love this time of the year, watching the videos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram of players walking into the facility. It’s like Christmas morning. Usually we reserve that feeling for draft day, this year it’s different. Last week I gave my opinion of the Browns and their first six opponents. Now lets move on to the rest of the schedule after the bye.
Week eight, New England. Every year it seems like the Patriots start slow and all the so called experts say “this is the end of an era.” Right, sure. They still have Brady, Edelman and Sony Michel on offense and Patrick Chung, Devin & Jason McCourty on defense. They added our friend Jamie Collins, who’ll probably be an all pro this year. The Pats did lose DE Trey Flowers and OT Trent Brown. The biggest loss is Gronk. Lets see if Ben Watson (suspended for the first four games) and Ryan Izzo can come close to the production of Gronk. I really like three of their draft picks, CB Joejuan Williams, DE Chase Winovich and RB Damion Harris. All three look like typical Patriot players. The good news, the Browns have the bye week to prepare.
Week nine, Denver. So called GM genius (anointed by ESPN) John Elway plugs in another QB, Joe Flaco. Denver is on it’s third coaching change in four years, ( that sounds familiar). New head coach Vic Fangio ( former Bears DC) and new OC Rich Scangarello ( Kyle Shanehan’s former QB coach) will try and resurrect the donkeys. Don’t get me wrong they still have a good defense with LB’s Von Miller and Bradley Chubb. I really like their draft picks TE Noah Fant and DT Dre ‘Mont Jones. They better hope Flaco stays healthy behind their questionable offensive line. If Draft pick QB Drew Lock is playing at this time in the season, down goes Denver.
Week ten, Bills. This game comes at the right time for the Browns. All you need to know about Buffalo is they signed 14 Offensive free agents and drafted four offensive players. Josh Allen will have a lot of new toys to play with. The two draft picks I like on defense are DT Ed Oliver and OLB Vosean Joseph. It’s all up to Josh Allen, who’s been shaky at best.
Week eleven, pittspuke. The Browns get the steelers on a short week in November on a Thursday night at home. That’s the good news. We all know who they lost, but what concerns me is who they still have. Roethlisberger, James Conner, Juju Smith-Schuster, Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, Bud Dupree and Joe Haden. Then they add draft picks LB Devin Bush, WR Dionte Johnson and the energizer bunny of the SEC RB Benny Snell. Key free agents added are WR Donte Moncriet and CB Steven Nelson. Big Ben will have to carry this group. Would you just freaking retire already.
Week twelve, Miami. If one NFL team could be like an NBA team tanking the season it would be the 2019 Miami Dolphins. New head coach Brian Flores gets to pick between Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen as his QB. Fitzpatrick is every fans favorite quarterback until his third game when he turns into, well, Ryan Fitzpatrick. They still have some nice pieces on defense, LB Kiko Alonso, CB Xavier Howard and S Minkah Fitzpatrick (no relation to Ryan) They also added draft pick DT Christian Wilkins.
Week thirteen, pittspuke again…
Week fourteen, Cincinnati. The Browns face another new head coach in Zac Taylor. The bungles still have Andy Dalton, RB Joe Mixon, RB Giovani Bernard, WR A.J. Green and TE Tyler Eifert on offense. On defense they still have DE Carlos Dunlap, DT Gino Adkins and CB Dre Kirkpatrick. They resigned Darqueze Dennard and Bobby Hart. But Hart is out for the season, as is number one draft pick Jonah Williams. So no starting right tackle or starting left tackle. Hard to see how Andy Dalton stays upright.
Week fifteen, Arizona Cardinals. And one more new head coach for the Browns to face in Kliff Kingsbury. This time it’s a college coach. Kingsbury will bring his air raid offense to the NFL. Hard to know if it will work. He’s got the QB he wanted in Kyler Murray, so we’ll find out soon enough. On offense the Cards still have RB David Johnson and the never aging WR Larry Fitzgerald. On defense there’s LB Terrell Suggs, CB Patrick Peterson (suspended for the first four games) and S Budda Baker. Draft picks I like, CB Byron Murphy, WR Andy Isabella and supplemental draft pick S Jalen Thompson. The story of this game will be Baker Mayfield vs. Kliff Kingsbury.
Week sixteen rats at home and week seventeen bungles on the road.
Well there you have it, my opinion of the 2019 Browns opponents. If you have a different opinion, let me know, believe me it won’t hurt my feelings. I’m a Browns fan, I’ve been to hell and back. A few ending notes. Just saw the 2018 Browns NFL films video. I watch these every year just to see the positive spin they put on it. I think the 0-16 2017 video was just, “hey nobody died.” Every time I see these the only thing I can think of for some reason is “the Gleem.” Here’s the link if you haven’t seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRBRxwldgNU. Also, I mentioned last week how I like to watch YouTube’s “Building The Browns.” The new season starts August 11. A must see for Browns fans not living in The Land. On to training camp, GO BROWNS and DAWGCHECK.