Monday leftovers

Time to stop pretending the Browns are good enough to return to the postseason. That lofty goal is now a pipe dream.

Makes no difference when Deshaun Watson returns from his 11-game bad-boy suspension. This team is cooked just six games into the 2022 National Football League season.

It is falling apart one game at a time, one quarter at a time, one possession at a time, one play at a time. This is a good team from a talent standpoint playing bad football for a head coach who is coaching poorly.

Bill Belichick completely outcoached Kevin Stefanski Sunday. Strategically, tactically. preparedly. Hence the 38-15 beatdown. Beaten badly by a rookie quarterback making his third pro start. It's time for Stefanski to figure out why -- and how -- he has gone from coach of the year as a rookie in 2020 to this.

The Browns emerged from the league's softest early schedule with a 2-4 record that could easily be 1-5 if not for a miracle 58-yard field in the season opener. My original prediction of 7-10 was arrived at mainly because of my contrarian nature. Right now, it looks too optimistic.

The Cleveland offense for the first five games gave hope that maybe, just maybe, it will be a saving grace. After what happened Sunday against New England, that side of the football appears to have peaked. Many weaknesses were exposed and future opponents will take note.

It is hamstrung by a less-than-ordinary quarterback who is way out of his element. He is a game manager who seems to have lost his game-managing skills. He is not to be trusted to try and win games by throwing forward passes. And yet, that's what his playcaller is doing.

At the risk of sounding repetitious, Jacoby Brissett is not that good and has proven it over and over and over throughout his seven-year career. He is what his résumé says he is; mediocre at best, not the linchpin of an dangerous offense. Game managing is his thing. It seems as though Stefanski sees it differently.

It's time for him to seriously consider letting Brissett see the game from a different perspective for at least one game and let backup Joshua Dobbs have the huddle. Dobbs has never started an NFL game, you say. Neither did Bailey Zappe of the Patriots until recently and look what he did Sunday.

The defense, the unequivocally main reason the Browns are 2-4, has been an abject failure. The next clutch play it makes will be the first. There is not a solid playmaker in the bunch. Someone who takes charge, makes game-deciding plays on a regular basis; who inspires teammates to play follow the leader. These guys are a bunch of followers,

They need someone like Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons, who has become the heartbeat of that unit, almost singlehandedly transforming it into one of the best in the NFL. He leads by example, making his teammates that much better by extension..

Who is the Browns' Micah Parsons? Easy. No one. Not Myles Garrett, not Jadeveon Clowney. And not sophomore linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, who has been a disappointment. When he was drafted, I thought he had the best chance to be a difference maker. He played less than 50% of the snaps Sunday.

Not certain it's due to the defensive philosophy espoused by coordinator Joe Woods, whose job should be -- maybe it is, but we don't know it yet -- hanging by a slender thread. His passive approach could be the reason there are zilch difference makers on this club. Not one take-charge guy.

The seemingly never-ending onslaught of blown coverages continues. Maybe it's time Woods needs to severely dumb down the assignments in the back seven because the intelligence -- or lack of intelligence -- level back there is one of the causal factors. Linebackers lately have come into their fair share of blame.

Special teams, which produced a horror show Sunday against the Patriots, have been (fill in the blank). That's about all the space this unit deserves. 

After the Pats game, head coach Kevin Stefanski, probably embarrassed by the malodorous stink bomb that wafted over the stadium for three hours, all but promised his club would be better next Sunday in Baltimore against the Ravens. That's pretty much a given. It's frightening to think it can be worse.

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It will be interesting to see how long it takes before Stefanski cedes the play-calling duties to Alex Van Pelt, whose job these days seems to be standing idly by as the offense, which he helps coordinate, slowly self destructs. Of course he won't.

How much harm would it do -- again for at least one game -- for Van Pelt to own the playlist and be a different voice in the quarterback's helmet while Stefanski manages the game with both coordinators on his headphones and experiences what it's like to concentrate on being just a head coach. 

What harm could it do? None at all. In fact, it might bring a different slant, a different look on how to move the football more effectively. Get more out of the personnel than Stefanski. Put them in a better place to succeed. Make it less difficult to execute properly.

Probably wasting my time here. But I know one thing for sure: The current playcaller on offense for the Browns is hurting his head coach with some unusual -- trying to be nice here -- playcalling. That head coach has to know the front office is not thrilled with what has unfolded thus far.

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Still trying to figure out why Stefanski dialed up 13 passes to his three tight ends Sunday, including the second play of the game, which became an interception and tilted the early momentum to the Patriots, who never relinquished it.

Since when are tight ends the bellwether of this receiving corps? OK, David Njoku has been a pleasant surprise. Keep feeding him. But Harrison Bryant, who rarely sees more than a couple of passes a game? And Pharaoh Brown, the target of that first pass who just began his second stint with the club? Strange.

And then the playcaller made certain Amari Cooper had a busy afternoon, targeting him a dozen times (a hefty 27% of Brissett's 45 throws) that produced a measly four receptions for a whopping 44 yards and the lone touchdown for Cleveland. Not blaming Cooper. That blame goes to Brissett for eight of his 24 incompletions.

Donovan Peoples-Jones was far more productive with his four grabs (five targets) for 74 yards, including two that were strong candidates for highlight reels. Targeting DPJ more frequently might not be a bad idea.

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Finally . . . Let's hear it for Charley Hughlett, who hasn't had a bad snap all season. Flawless on 48 snaps. So there is, indeed, perfection on the roster. The long snapper, in his seventh season with the Browns, is  unblemished on 20 Corey Bojorquez punts, 15 extra points and 13 Cade York field goals. Wasn't his fault York missed two field-goal attempts and two extra points. Give that man Hughlett a raise. . . . Anthony Schwartz played only 12 snaps and was targeted thrice with -- surprise! -- no receptions. Why is he still on the roster? . . . And why did Kareem Hunt get just four touches (for 12 yards) all afternoon against the Patriots? He is way too valuable to be forgotten so badly. Isn't that right, coach?