Cleveland is a broken franchise with few avenues to improve over the season’s final 12 games.

During his prime as Cleveland’s sports talk host from 1972 to 1987, Pete Franklin would reach a point during the sports season where he would hold an on-air funeral marking the end of one of the city’s sports team’s playoff hopes.

These are most associated in the minds of fans with the local baseball team, which was essentially eliminated at some point in August.

If Franklin were still alive, he would likely be holding one of those funerals today for the Cleveland Browns, who...

An in-depth look at how the offense has fared on a down-by-down basis this season

The Cleveland Browns' offense has been completely abysmal in almost every aspect throughout the first 5 games of the season, and the advanced metrics help us understand why.

Kevin Stefanski and Ken Dorsey need to take a step back and look at this offense from an efficiency standpoint. Yes, throwing the ball more often increases the chances of explosive plays, but it comes at the expense of overall consistency which is what Stefanski has been known for as of late.

The metrics below paint a...

The Browns have earned their reputation of being a pushover team now.

The Cleveland Browns opened as 8.5-point road underdogs against the Philadelphia Eagles ahead of their Week 6 match-up, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The over/under on the game is currently 43.5.

The Browns (1-4) are coming off of a 34-13 loss to the Washington Commanders, and it wasn’t even close. There are some games in which you can make excuses and say, “This one play changed the whole game.” Not this time. Deshaun Watson was right back to playing deplorable and slow football, and while the defense tried to...

After a slow start, the AFC North is rounding into form with the Ravens on top

Week 5 in the AFC North has wrapped up. The Baltimore Ravens escaped with an overtime thriller against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns are struggling to find any form offensively, and the Pittsburgh Steelers voodoo magic runs out (it appears)

Anyway, let’s do the rankings:

1. Baltimore Ravens

Won a shootout, but the defense has some issues

2. Pittsburgh Steelers

I don’t know how they keep doing this

T-4. Cincinnati Bengals

Joe Burrow said that the team isn’t championship caliber and he’s right...

Browns season is all but over meaning it is NFL draft talk time

For Cleveland Browns fans, hope of an AFC Championship-level team in 2024 has all but vanished. While anything can happen, the Browns making the playoffs this season is a very long shot at this point. For Cleveland fans, the feel of this season seems worse than the winless one in 2017.

So far, our poll is showing a strong indicator that that is true for most Browns fans.

With all that in mind, we will start to turn our attention to the NFL draft while still covering...

Patriots, Bengals hold the top picks in the upcoming NFL draft

Welp, here we are again friends. We are not even to the second week in October and it is NFL draft talk time for the Cleveland Browns. At 1-4, the Browns are highly unlikely to make the playoffs. If they somehow turn the season around and become a competitor we will pivot back to postseason discussions.

For now, Cleveland has gone through what was considered the easiest part of their schedule and has to face a much more difficult task to finish the season.

Hence, the NFL draft talk....

More of the latest Browns news and notes from around the web in today’s dose of the Daily Dawg Chow.

The latest Cleveland Browns coverage from Dawgs By Nature:

• Not Even Close: Browns blown out by Commanders 34-13, as Deshaun Watson reverts to being terrible again (Chris Pokorny) Cleveland gets blown out by a solid team, dropping to 1-4.
• Brownies & Frownies for Browns, Commanders: Washington embarrasses Cleveland 34-13 (Barry Shuck) Browns have issues everywhere
• Browns at Commanders: Grades after the awful loss (Damon Wolfe) Losses like the one the Browns suffered have consequences that will shape...

Browns fans can also use this as an open thread.

Tonight on Sunday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dallas (2-2) got off to a solid start to the season when they beat Cleveland 33-17, but was that indicative of just how bad the Browns are? Since then, they lost and were torn apart early by the Saints and Ravens, before holding off the Giants last week.

The Steelers, meanwhile, suffered their first loss of the year last week to the Colts, and the more losses they suffer, the better for Cleveland fans. Pittsburgh is still...

Browns have issues everywhere

The Cleveland Browns and their fans never imagined that after four games their record would be 1-3-0. And nobody would have surmised that this offense would be as bad as it has been.

Their opponent this week is going in the opposite direction with a 3-1-0 record and leading the NFL Eastern Division while the Browns and Cincinnati Bengals are fighting it out for the cellar of the AFC North Division.

At the final gun, the Commanders dominated the Browns to the tune of 34-13.

So who played well for the Browns? Who didn’t?

BROWNIES...

Losses like the one the Browns suffered have consequences that will shape the future of the team

Something is broken with the Cleveland Browns after suffering an absolute beat down at the hands of the Washington Commanders. Whatever it is, it likely occurred in Berea in the decisions made after the Browns playoff loss that ended last year’s improbable run.

There is no need to give out any type of grades after a performance like that. In fact, the play is so bad that people are beginning to wonder if 2017 was a better year.

Quarterback Deshaun Watson had...

Deshaun Watson to remain the starter for the Browns

The Cleveland Browns are 1-4, tied for the worst record in the NFL and have had one of the worst passing offenses in the entire NFL. The problems are far more complicated than just blaming QB Deshaun Watson as the offensive line has played terribly, the skill players have dropped a lot of passes and the new system doesn’t seem to be working for the players on the team.

All and all, the start of the 2024 Browns season might be the worst fan experience since “The Return” in 1999.

With...

Cleveland gets blown out by a solid team, dropping to 1-4.

People were asking me leading into this week’s game if I was optimistic about Deshaun Watson this week, given his performance against the Raiders last week. I said “no,” because until he started proving something regularly, how could you have faith in him? Even in a decent effort last week, the Browns still didn’t reach 20 points.

This week was a deplorable and embarrassing effort. The defense tried to make a few plays, but they were victimized too by their constant overaggressive play. But all eyes were again on...