The injuries comment will be applicable to pretty much every team in the NFL season Tony - in fact its pretty applicable to every team playing professional sport full stop.
The NFL is as tough as it ever was. You have the dominating teams of the current generation (New England, Indianapolis) that are the teams to beat, the myriad of teams with vast potential who could get to or win the Superbowl (too many to name) whilst you have the weak teams who are currently in a rut and will be the whipping boys again (Miami, San Francisco).
70's it was the Steelers and Cowboys who dominated...80's was mainly the 49ers, though there were a couple of very good Bears and Redskins teams in there....90's was the Cowboys but then the balance of power shifted from the NFC to the AFC, with the Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens and then the New England Patriots dominating the game, ably assisted by Superbowl winning teams from Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.
There is no doubting the AFC remains the stronger of the two conferences, and it is a definite disadvantage to be in this conference.
Looking at Clevelands schedule Tony, they will of course play 6 games against their divisional rivals - Pittsburgh, Cincinatti and Baltimore. They will need at least 3 wins there - and that wont be easy as all 4 teams in this division are competative.
They open against Dallas - nasty start - before facing PIT, CIN and BAL in successive weeks. From that start, if they win 2 out of the 4 I think they will have done very well. They then have a bye week, before facing up to the defending World Champs, then Washington and then Jacksonville. From there on in it gets a little easier for the Browns, though they do have to face up to the Colts and Eagles in the last few weeks, but it is a horrible first 8 weeks for them, and a pretty rough schedule overall.
They have potential to do well, but in all honesty, if im being very optimistic, i can see them winning 10 games most - realistic id say 7 or 8 - but if it were 5 or 6 it wouldnt be the hugest shock in the world. They definitely will need the good luck im about to say.
Good luck Cleveland!
|