Cleveland Browns 2008 Recap
December 31st, 2008 at 1:56 am by Displaced Cleveland Fan
After a surprising 2007 season in which the Browns finished 10-6 and narrowly missed the playoffs, many were expecting the team to build off of that. Some were predicting that Cleveland would be a serious threat in the playoffs. Even Browns fans had reason to be (cautiously) optimistic.
But a combination of poor coaching, poor front office management, poor on-field performance, and injuries resulted in an abysmal 2008 season.
Romeo Crennel, as head coach, naturally deserves a good deal of blame. In his first (and maybe only) head coaching job, he just seemed like he was in over his head. Poor clock management, squandering opportunities to challenge certain plays, not giving productive or developing players enough playing time, and not seeming to have the team focused and under control. These are the reasons Romeo failed as head coach. Yes, the players all liked him. He seems like a decent guy. But that doesn’t matter when you’re the head coach of an underachieving football team. As expected, Romeo was fired the day after the season ended.
Phil Savage, general manager, was also let go following this year. After this type of season, this is certainly understandable, though I thought there was a possibility that owner Randy Lerner would keep him around. Savage’s big mistake was mishandling the situation with Kellen Winslow in the middle of the year. He also had the boneheaded email reply to an angry fan. Savage did put together a good, or potentially good, group of players. But with everything that transpired this year, his firing was necessary.
Then there was the poor play on both sides of the ball. After an explosive year for the offense in ‘07, the offense was nothing like that in ‘08. A few key players that had significant drops in their numbers:
- Derek Anderson - His 2007 numbers: 3787 yards passing, 29 TD, 19 INT, 82.5 passer rating over 16 games. In 2008: 1615 passing yards, 9 TD, 8 INT, 66.5 rating in 10 games.
- Braylon Edwards - In 2007 he had 1289 receiving yards and 16 TD. In 2008 he caught for 873 yards and only 3 TD (not to mention all the dropped passes).
- Jamal Lewis went down almost 400 total yards and had 7 less touchdowns.
- Kellen Winslow - down almost 700 receiving yards. Sure, he missed 6 games. But he still lost about 17 yards per game played.
And who could forget the stretch of 6 games at the end of the year without an offensive touchdown. Yes, there were injuries. But still. That is unreal.
Overall, it seemed like the defense was better than expected. But they were still the #26 defense in the league.
But finally, one of the big reasons why this season was so terrible was because of the injuries. The Browns went into the final game of the year with Bruce Gradkowski as their starting QB. That’s because Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, and Ken Dorsey were all on injured reserve. Kellen Winslow missed 6 games. Other players as well. Donte Stallworth missed 5 games (though he didn’t really have much of an impact in the games he did play). Joe Jurevicius missed the whole season. Every team is going to have injuries. But the injuries at quarterback and wide receiver really hurt the Browns this year. I know Anderson was awful and Quinn was so-so, but Ken Dorsey threw no touchdowns and 7 interceptions and had a 26.4 QB rating. Then he got hurt and Gradkowski plays a couple games and finished with 0 TD, 3 INT, and a QB rating of 2.8.
So now the Browns start the process of rebuilding and getting ready for what will hopefully be a better year in 2009. First priority is finding a new head coach and new GM. Then, trying to fix the holes in the roster (linebacker, defensive backs, wide receiver).
Hopefully, ‘09 is friendlier to the Browns than ‘08 was.
Tags: Brady Quinn, Braylon Edwards, Bruce Gradkowski, Derek Anderson, Donte Stallworth, Jamal Lewis, Joe Jurevicius, Kellen Winslow, Ken Dorsey, Phil Savage, Romeo Crennel
