Age and injuries are piling up on the Browns blue-chip players, and the current window has begun to close
The Cleveland Browns will put the finishing touches on their preparation for the visiting New York Giants today with their final walkthrough before tomorrow’s game. In a game of inches, the Browns have already spent a considerable amount of time this week collecting data and game-planning for possible scenarios based on that information.
Yesterday, we wrote about the Browns winning the award for their analytics usage in a survey from staff members in analytics departments across the league. The Browns won first place in three major categories to secure the award for the fourth straight year.
For Browns fans, the term “analytics” quickly became synonymous with a 1-31 record in the first two seasons with the “baseball guy” in charge. It has been a long road, but we are far from the days of fans labeling the front office as nerds making decisions with spreadsheets.
That “baseball guy,” Paul DePodesta, is the chief strategy officer of the Browns and has quietly shed the baseball label by returning the Browns to respectability on the field and the envy of the rest of the league for their data collection and usage.
One could argue that there aren’t many decisions made by general manager Andrew Berry or head coach Kevin Stefanski without the guardrails established by DePodesta during the course of his time in Berea.
Our topic for today’s Dawg Pound Discourse is this: Will Cleveland’s advantage in analytics ever matter enough to win a Super Bowl?
There is still plenty of work ahead if Cleveland ever wants to make their first-ever Super Bowl appearance. You could feel the collective urgency ratchet up after Myles Garrett shared details of his nagging injuries to his feet during his media availability on Friday.
They kept him from practicing earlier in the week, and they could linger until he is able to have a corrective procedure in the future. He revealed that it could be related to a surgery he had on his feet as a young child.
With Garrett approaching 30, Joel Bitonio closing in on retirement, Nick Chubb fighting to get back from a devastating knee injury, and Denzel Ward having another season of concussions and injuries piling up, the window is closing on this elite roster.
In a move the Browns calculated to have paid off by now, they made a huge gamble on trading for quarterback Deshaun Watson, and unless he plays significantly better this year, they will be forced back into that well, looking for an answer at the position.
There is also enough young talent on the roster, with players like linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, safety Grant Delpit, and cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. to sustain a winning team. In addition, the Browns will also have their full complement of first-round draft picks moving forward.
The question is, will it be enough, and how much longer the blue-chip players on this roster can continue to play at a high level?
Now, I want to hear your thoughts. Will the analytics edge ever matter enough? Talk it out with other Browns fans just like you in the comments below.