Berea, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – It’s hard to accuse the Browns of spending too much time reading their press clippings or reveling in the hype.
Since March there have been plenty of them from G.Q. Magazine to ESPN to the cover of Sports Illustrated crowning them as the NFL’s next best team.
The Browns, with arguably the most talented collection of stars in three decades, are expected to exercise whatever demons remain from 20 years of ineptitude, turbulence and futility this season and end the NFL’s longest playoff drought.
But talk is cheap.
“I’m tired of hearing the talk. I’m ready to play football, period,” safety Damarious Randall said. “The fact that it’s finally here, I’m definitely stoked, happy about it and I hope the fans are ready to go because we’re just as excited as they are.”
How ready are the Browns to open the season Sunday against the Titans?
“I’d play them in the parking lot,” Baker Mayfield said when asked about getting to kick the season off at home. “I don’t really care.”
It’s felt like this offseason has moved at a snail’s pace, but finally the games that count start Sunday.
“The city is excited and that kinda extends to us as well,” Pro Bowl defensive end Myles Garrett said. “It’s not unheard. We hear all the noise, whether it’s good or bad.”
This year’s Browns are confident, not cocky.
“I am excited to play together and see what we have,” running back Nick Chubb, who set the franchise rookie rushing record with 996 yards last season said. “We had a long, hard, tough camp and banged up on each other a little bit. I am excited to go out there and play some guys in a real game and see how we put things together.”
The additions of Pro Bowlers Odell Beckham Jr., Olivier Vernon and Sheldon Richardson in March sparked five months of hype and heightened expectations with Mayfield, who set a rookie franchise record for passing yardage and an NFL rookie record for touchdown passes, entering his second season.
“Obviously, it has been an unreal offseason [of] being able to get excited,” Mayfield said.
For all the excitement, the reality is that the Browns haven’t done anything yet, and they know it.
“Nobody has done anything yet so I would say everybody is starting from the same square one,” Mayfield said. “I would say it is pretty hard to live up to any hype if you are listening to the outside. None of that really matters so I think we have a bunch of guys who have bought in to what is going on in this building and the standards we are setting. To us, that is all that matters.”
In 12 months, the bar for the Browns has gone from just finally win a game to how many can they pile up in 2019?
The Browns are projected by some to win the AFC North for the first time since the division was formed in 2002. Others say they're a wild card team, and there are the doubters who don't think they'll be any better than 8-8 or 9-7 meaning they'll be where they usually are every January – home.
But predictions aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
“At the end of the day, you’re going to have to [put] up or shut up,” Garrett said.
From day one, head coach Freddie Kitchens has kept his team focused in the moment. One day, one meeting, one practice, one game at a time.
It sounds cliché, and boring, but for Kitchens, it’s instrumental to success.
“I know if we do not do our work and get what we need to out of Wednesday’s practice, Sunday is not going to matter,” Kitchens said. “It is the same with [Thursday] and same with Friday. We are going to focus on today, same as me, same as our other coaches, same as our equipment guys and our trainers. Everybody is focused on today and doing their best job for the Browns and these fans today.”
The Rams, Seahawks and Patriots await this fall, but first come the Titans.
“We got guys that have been fighting together throughout camp,” Randall said. “We got guys that since OTAs have put together a plan and we actually believe in that plan and trust that plan. We finally get to go out and show the world what we’ve been doing the last two, three months.”
No pressure or anything, but the Browns haven’t won a Week 1 game since 2004. No head coach has won his debut since Bud Carson in 1989. That’s 12 coaches ago but Kitchens isn;t going to deviate from his own mantra and put any more emphasis on Sunday.
“We put the same emphasis on every game. We truly have been preaching since the spring that it is one day at a time,” Kitchens said. “We can’t do anything about Week 2. We have to do something about Week 1 so we do not mention any other games. This is the one we are focused on. We need to be because they are a good football team.”
So are the Browns.
They’re just tired of hearing about it.
