A Reality Check For Cleveland Browns Fans

Lets all just take a deep breath right now. In through the nose and out through the mouth ....

As a Cleveland Browns fan myself I fully get the panic, anxiety, frustration, depression, hopelessness as we watch our favorite football franchise slowly sink back into the abyss of irrelevancy. We're a week removed from the Super Bowl which we just watched the Philadelphia Eagles dominate the Kansas City Chiefs and at the end of it we start comparing these teams to the Browns and try to convince ourselves we're not that far away if we just fix X, Y, and Z positions. More specifically the never-ending need for a franchise quarterback.

The problem is this is where irrational thinking starts happening from a portion of Browns fans that somehow makes to the major Cleveland sports talk shows. Which I understand that this type of thing makes for good content to fill hours worth of media no matter how you consume it. But all this does is just feeds the monster that we call false hope. All you have to do is look at the Aaron Rodgers "rumors" this week about the Browns having interest in pursuing the 41 YEAR OLD QB.

Earlier this week it was Shedeur Sanders and how the Browns "HAVE TO" take a QB with the 2nd overall pick. By the end of the week it has turned into the Browns are going to go get Aaron Rodgers. At this point I'm certain some fans are convinced the team is going to do BOTH.

Would I like Aaron Rodgers on the Cleveland Browns? Sure ... 5 years ago.

The better question is, why would Aaron Rodgers want to play for the Cleveland Browns at this point in his career? If the answer is "money talks" I'd like to know what money do they have to be able to pay him? That also doesn't answer the original question. The team's best player and cornerstone wants out, the offensive line couldn't protect any QB the Browns put out on the field, they lack the impact players you need to have on offense in order to be able to consistently score and win games.

The reality is, whether some fans want to accept it or not, the Browns in some way are going to have to rebuild this team. The 2025 season is going to be about rebuilding. Either a short rebuild where you quick fix positions by bringing in cap friendly veterans on short-term deals and add young players in the draft OR a long "tear it down" rebuild where they go with a young core of players and tank this season to draft Arch Manning in 2026. The tank for Archie is my choice but that's another post for another time closer to the draft. But some fans can't see that far down the road in the fog.

The point it is this insanity hivemind of thinking that Aaron Rodgers, Derek Carr, Kirk Cousins, Matt Stafford are going to come to save the Cleveland Browns is about the same as believing Jimmy Haslem personally traveling to the homes of Tom Brady or Peyton Manning to convince them to come out of retirement and play for the Browns.

More than likely you're looking at quarterbacks like Jimmy Garoppolo, Daniel Jones, Mac Jones, or Andy Dalton to come in and be a bridge to a younger QB that they will more than likely draft at some point this year or next year or both. It's highly unlikely but I can see the Browns going after Sam Darnold or Justin Fields but they don't have the salary cap room to sign them unless they get them for 1-2 year deals.

I know that's not what any Browns fan wants to hear right now but for those of us that are old enough to have seen this movie a thousand times we already know where this is going and how it's going to end.

So do yourselves a favor, calm down, take a breath, start thinking realistically. There's nothing anybody can do other than to sit back and wait to see what happens first. Then we can lose our minds when the Browns really screw it up.