BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The little things matter, a lot.
The 2022 Cleveland Browns learned that lesson the hard way, and paid for it with a 7-10 finish, out of the playoffs for the second straight year after being expected to play deep into January.
Instead, players spent the morning of January 9 cleaning out their lockers, going through team exit interviews and offseason checklists, hugging and signing jerseys for teammates, saying goodbye.
A season that started full of promise has ended in bitter disappointment, again.
“If we can do the little things, starting with this team, I think the big things can happen,” quarterback Deshaun Watson said.
It would be easy to blame Watson’s 11-game suspension for Cleveland’s shortcomings, but it wouldn’t be accurate.
Simply put, the Browns didn’t do the little things, and they added up to pretty big things earning them another early vacation.
Next season, the expectations will be higher – for Watson and the Browns.
“This is a fair game. This is a sport of business, and you have to come out and perform,” Watson said. “For me to be able to go to these expectations for 2023, yeah, the expectations should be high because we have the talent, we have the potential and we have the people and the pieces to be able to meet those expectations. We have to make sure that we are doing everything that we can do consistently each and every week to try to meet those expectations.”
The most glaring problems this season were on the defensive side of the ball with coverage breakdowns, miscommunication, confusion and frustration on the field to go with a lack of discipline and accountability behind the scenes.
First thing Monday morning, the Browns fired defensive coordinator Joe Woods.
“Anytime you don't have success, somebody gotta take the fall for it,” safety John Johnson III said.
Johnson feels the problems are easily fixable for Woods’ replacement.
“Just take advantage of the players that we have. Don't try to do things that we're not that good at,” Johnson said. “Let the rushers rush, let the cover guys cover. Just whatever works best for us.”
It’s a sentiment several players have been feeling and expressing throughout the campaign. The hope is that they’ll be able to build off what they did well down the stretch rather than scrapping the whole scheme and starting from scratch.
“This is the sucky part of the business,” linebacker Sione Takitaki, who ended the season on injured reserve, said. “Guys are always moving in and coaches too, and it just sucks.”
Cornerback Greg Newsome II, a 2021 first-round draft pick, took the news of Woods’ firing pretty hard.
“Obviously wasn't a good feeling for me,” Newsome said. “He was one of the guys that hand-picked me as well, so I have a lot of love for him, a lot of respect for him, so it's definitely sad to see him go for sure.”
In recent weeks, a few players lamented they didn’t have a closer relationship with Woods.
Instead, it was cold and felt like an employer-employee dynamic instead of the family atmosphere they hoped to build.
Throughout the season players pushed head coach Kevin Stefanski to hold them more accountable, but while Stefanski agreed with the feedback he received, he would pick his spots.
Stefanski also spent most of his time focused on the offense and making it work, leaving the defense to Woods to figure out.
The results speak for themselves.
“I believe small things become big things if you don't handle 'em when they're small things,” linebacker Anthony Walker said. “The details matter, and that's the game of football, that's the game of life. You know, gotta be detail-oriented and handle the problems when they come.”
The small things led to four defensive players having to be disciplined under Woods, including Pro Bowler and team captain Myles Garrett, this season.
“Way too many, way too many,” Johnson said. “You wanna focus on winning, focus on football. It's hard to do that when you got small stuff. It is a job, it's a profession. You gotta come ready every single day. It's just way too many to be focused on – we got other stuff to focus on, so this is something you just gotta work on, put it in the past and grow from it and I think maybe that new job position might open up a little spark for us to get it together.”
Jadeveon Clowney went nuclear over his role and the treatment of Garrett in an interview with Cleveland.com last week that led to him being left home for the season finale. Clowney’s blowup shouldn’t have been a surprise, yet it was.
“I just feel like if we were all doing what we're supposed to do and if we all had the same goal in mind, we all had a sense of urgency, certain stuff like that doesn't happen,” Johnson said. “And what's the saying, where there's smoke, there's fire. So obviously there was something underlying that wasn't addressed and it boiled over.”
Watson is a close friend of Clowney. The defensive end returned in 2022 for the opportunity to reunite with Watson but it’s clear Clowney’s days I Cleveland are over.
“JD is going to be good. He is a great teammate, a great friend and everything,” Watson said. “If he is back here, then we would love to have him. If he is not, wherever he lands, he is going to be great for that organization and that team. I am looking forward to JD having the opportunity to show what he has.”
Multiple players indicated Monday they did not believe the Browns had a leadership problem, yet their problems could have been solved with stronger leadership.
“I don't really necessarily believe that's a leadership issue,” Newsome said. “I feel like our leaders are doing an amazing job. You can walk around the locker room and see us—7-10, whatever our record is—we’re still having fun with each other, still being together. So I don't necessarily think leadership kind of shows wins and losses.”
The 2020 playoff season that saw them finish 11-5 and advance to the divisional round was supposed to be a turning point for the Browns franchise.
Instead, they’ve regressed each of the last two seasons, failing to sustain any level of success and the question is, will they be able to recover next season?
“Yeah, it was frustrating,” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “It's never easy in the NFL, but I thought that was going to take us to that level of we're a playoff team every year, we're going to try and compete for the AFC North every year and see where we're at, and it didn't happen the last two years.
“But I do have faith that we have the right core players, the right coach to make that job and to take us to that level.”
Bitonio is the longest tenured member of the team as a 2014 second-round draft pick and seven of his eight years have ended with no chance to compete for the ultimate prize.
“I'm getting older, and you don't know how many years you have left playing,” Bitonio said. “I'm not in year two or three where it's like, hey, I've got a lot of time left. So it's one of those things where I wanna win. Everybody wants to win, but you put in the work, you play this game, obviously we paid a lot of money. It's a dream to play this game, to just even have the opportunity to play it. But at the end of the day, we all wanna win a Super Bowl, and you feel like a little bit of your career's empty if you don't have that opportunity. So you run out of time eventually.”
Running back Nick Chubb set a career-high for rushing yardage, joining Jim Brown as the only two backs in team history to reach the 1,500 yard plateau in a season, found it difficult to revel in his ow success.
“It's bittersweet,” Chubb said. “Individually, it’s something I'm proud of for sure. Had a lot of help from the O-line and guys blocking for me, but at the end of the day I'm about winning and [we] didn't have a lot [of it] this season.
“So it's tough to be proud of for sure from this season. It's things we need to work on, but overall, it's bittersweet right now.”
The shame of it is that despite the talent on both sides of the ball, it just wasn’t enough.
All because of the little things.
