Tapping the brakes

We’re still three months away from launching the most eagerly awaited season since the National Football League graciously allowed Cleveland back into the party 20 years ago.

The Browns’ season opener at home against Tennessee can’t arrive soon enough for the fans, and the excitement that has been ratcheted up by the recently concluded OTAs and current minicamps has done nothing to quell that enthusiasm.

While the Indians struggle and Cavaliers vainly attempt to recapture that championship feeling, the Browns enjoy a high not felt along the lake shore for more than 30 years.

General Manager John Dorsey has in a stunningly brief period of time assembled a war chest of talent that has captured the attention – and to a certain extent the imagination – of the media and vaulted his team into a gigantic spotlight.

A majority of pundits around the NFL see the makings of a future Super Bowl team, a notion that seemed preposterous as recently as six months ago. But that lofty goal has its flaws.

After an offseason that has seen Dorsey dramatically improve the defensive line, secondary, running game, passing game and overall roster depth, the excitement has provided even more energy for the club’s fan base.

And yet, questions about how that will all play out in 2019 nevertheless exists for the Browns. That certainly is not so say they will fall short of expectations. Way too early to suggest that.

Because they have never been in this situation (after wandering in the NFL desert for the last 20 seasons), it’s easy to see why fans have glommed onto the notion nothing will stop this edition of the club.

Butt there are those – and they are in the distinct minority – who suggest the brakes be pumped at least a little on what appears to be runaway optimism for this team. That falls under the category of unrealistic expectations.

It has been said in hackneyed fashion over the years that paper does not win football games. It’s true. I have seen good teams with solid rosters fall short of expectations. I have also seen teams with less talented rosters overachieve.

Because the NFL season is so short and each game in vitally important, emotion often becomes a large factor in the fine line that separates winning from losing. Give me a team of less talented overachievers and I’ll beat your more talented underachievers more often than not.

It’s nice to dream of erasing 20 years of awful football in just one season and restoring the pride in which Cleveland professional football fans once held their team. But let’s not get carried away yet.

Too many things – good and bad – can happen along the way. You never know what bumps lurk in the 17-week, 16-game road to the postseason. And that is what stands to temper whatever enthusiasm builds.

In the next couple of days, I’ll examine many of those questions, provide answers for some and then save the rest until later in the summer when the whole thing comes together as coach Freddie Kitchens and Dorsey assemble the finished product.