CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Browns are currently favored only against the Colts and the Mayans in 2012, according to some analysis...
NFL.com suggests the Browns could "realistically [start] 0-13" in 2012. Good thing these guys aren't at your side handicapping your chances on the first day of a new diet. With that kind of encouragement, you'd be reading a self-help book and eating a bag of Oreos by lunch time. 
Look, the Browns are entirely capable of detonating their season when it rolls around in September. They have a knack for it, in fact. The offense will have to rally in support of a defense facing a quarterback roll call that could include Michael Vick, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Tony Romo and Joe Flacco.
However, it's early in the year and a waste of time to project how the home team will do against that kind of competition.
While it seems safe to say based on 2011 the Browns could well match them punt-for-point unless big improvements are made offensively between now and then, it's silly to wire the Browns for explosives and trip the timer in April. They may not find a way to save themselves but the manner in which some "analysts" are reacting you'd think the season is guaranteed to go down like a MacGruber Saturday Night Live skit.
The analysis, if you can call it that, of the Browns' schedule on the NFL's web site concludes they "can't catch a break."
Let's see. For the 13th time in 14 seasons, the Browns open the season at home. This one is against a 8-8 team that Pat Shurmur and Brad Childress ought to know better than most. Not that there's much proof of it locally, but opening at home is considered an advantage throughout the NFL for a reason that's pretty obvious. It beats the alternative.
Other than being the gift that keeps not giving -- they're 1-12 -- opening at home is still a break considering the game could be in Philadelphia where Eagles fans do a pretty good impersonation of the Visigoths and are coming off a season that left them particularly incensed.
The Browns have home games with Buffalo, Kansas City and Washington. Combined record in 2011: 18-30. Since you have to play somebody, this is the definition of the fairly evenly matched somebody you'd want to get at home.
They'll face two rookie quarterbacks (presumably) in Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III. Why wouldn't a Browns' defense that held the Steelers to 27 points in two games be up to confusing rookie quarterbacks (not named Dalton)? It's no more helpful to imagine whether Peyton Manning will be his old self in late December when the Browns visit Denver than it is to imagine him in a neck brace by Halloween.
A year ago, you were looking at the schedule and figuring a game at Indy for a loss and a crack at Alex Smith and the 49ers as a possible win. The opposite happened.
The Browns play the AFC West and the NFC East this time around. Of the eight teams in those two divisions, only the Giants had a winning record in 2011 (9-7).
The Browns have proven they can turn any schedule into an unnatural disaster. Until it happens in 2012 let's agree to hold off on the doomsday scenarios.
At least until 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept 9, when we get a glimpse as to whether the NFL Mayans are on to something.
http://www.cleveland.com/budshaw/index.ssf/2012/04/reports_of_the_cleveland_brown.html
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