Worst Case Scenario

[Tim Couch Pulls Out]

i get ya. i'm hoping a 9 win season will get the browns in the playoffs, at least as a wild card. it would suck to have a 8 win season only to fall short of the playoffs. i think this browns team needs to taste the fruits of their labor and if they don't soon the older vets are going to be just that and i could see a collapse of will even though farmer is building a team for the future.

 

hopefully the browns can put the hood ornaments on this team next year. but we do have to watch out (and i'm not going to jinx them) for an unexpected hole that opens up and is a dire need for drafting a player before the qb or wr.

 

hackenberg and cook could be bums in people's eyes by the draft or succumb to injury, plus add 2-3 more guys that people will fall in love with and it will be another 'race to find the franchise qb' draft again next year.

 

Same here. Hell, it would really suck to have a 10-win season and fall short of the playoffs, a la 2007. I wouldn't put it past this division to have four 10 win teams.

 

Cook and Hackenberg are my #1 and #2, respectively, regardless of any previously unheralded phenom who comes out of the woodwork this season. The only ones who could jump them would be:

 

• Cardale Jones with a full, solid season of productive play.
• Jonathan Goff with an absolutely crazy, Heisman-level season. (It would show the career progression, not a flash-in-the-pan success)

 

There will be guys who climb based off of stellar seasons and ultimately fail in the NFL. Guys like Malik Zaire, Dak Prescott and Trevone Boykin are athletically gifted and play in strong conferences. A crazy season is not out of the picture, and they would fly up boards.

 

Similarly, smaller school guys like Fredi Knighton, Drew Hare, Tommy Knighton and Josh Dobbs could go off and be thrown in contention.

 

But I wouldn't rank those guys ahead of Cook or Hackenberg, simply because of their limited resume.