It happens every NFL off-season: fans dissect their team's most recent season, get bored, and collectively begin picking the league's fastest rising franchise.
For any number of reasons those worst-to-first stories often don't materialise. 2018's off-season darlings - San Francisco - went just three weeks last year before an ACL tear to quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo effectively ended their season.
But the journey to relevance for this off-season's fan-favourite team - the Cleveland Browns - is a bit less straight-forward. The Browns changed from a perennial laughing stock to a Top 10 power rankings team in 12 months. It has seen an influx of elite talent across its roster. And a culture change has replaced argumentative coaches with a talented, optimistic staff.
Suddenly, there's league-wide expectation for Cleveland.
The changes didn't happen overnight. On offense, quarterback Baker Mayfield and running back Nick Chubb lit up the NFL as rookies in 2018. Tight end David Njoku is coming off a huge Year 2 campaign.
Yet the off-season addition of wide receiver Odell Beckham is what bolsters the attacking game. His acquisition means Cleveland's QB/RB/WR/TE is the hottest group - by franchise -on NFL Fantasy Football boards. In comparison, New Orleans' explosive offense is the next complete group taken off the board. Then comes Atlanta and Kansas City.
Such big name talent will naturally find ways to score points, but the new coaching group takes the offense's potential to another level. New head coach Freddie Kitchens will keep - but reimagine - former offensive coordinator Todd Haley's playbook, after seeing success with it during his 8-week play-calling spell in 2018. Kitchens' calls transformed Mayfield into the Offensive Rookie of the Year with 19 touchdowns, eight interceptions, five sacks and a 106.2 rating in the final eight weeks of last season, per Pro Football Reference.
With no new terminology to learn, Mayfield and the offense should be able to pick up its hot form in 2019.
Alongside Kitchens will be former Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Todd Monkens, whose offense - with head coach Dirk Koetter - lead the league in passing yards last year. Reports of unrest between the former Buccs play-caller and his new employers have been thrown out the window, with Monkens giving his full approval to Kitchens' ideology.
Behind those two - and perhaps Cleveland's best kept secret - is running backs coach Stump Mitchell. Mitchell joins the team from Arizona, where David Johnson credited his rise to prominence on the 60-year-old. It bodes well for the new Nick Chubb/ Kareem Hunt tandem.
The defense has seen more significant change this off-season after giving up third most yards in 2018, per ESPN. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams - and his tough love approach - was replaced with former Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks -- who brings a more positive coaching style.
Wilks struggled mightily in Arizona last season -- and ranked last in ground defense despite claiming run stuffing as a defensive mantra. He failed to bring the Cardinals from a 3-4 base defense to a 4-3 look en route to conceding seventh most points in the league.
But before 2018, Wilks lead a Top 10 defense in five of six years in Carolina. Cleveland seems much more suited for Wilks' scheme too, especially with Sheldon Richardson being added in free agency and the March trade for pro bowler Olivier Vernon.
One worry for Cleveland fans might be Wilks stubbornness at the linebacker spots during his Cardinals tenure. To many fans dismay, Wilks frequently chose not to start former first round picks Deone Bucannon and Haason Reddick. But the belief for the 2019 Browns is the linebacker spot might not play a significant role because of the defensive line and a talented secondary (that added cornerback Greedy Williams in a Day 2 draft steal).
It's completely reasonable to see think unit, stacked with players like Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward, can break into the top half of the league. So improving on 2018's 7-8-1 record seems inevitable when paired with the expectations on offense, which is certain to be Top 10.
Having failed to reach the playoffs since 2002 - the longest drought in in NFL - it appears the Browns are primed to make their return. The roster is loaded with talent (made possible by the money and draft picks attained on the way to a 1-31 record between 2016-2017).
Mayfield's cheap contract and general manager John Dorsey's ability to churn the roster should keep the talent levels high in Cleveland for at least a couple of years. Paired with the AFC North looking more open than in recent years - Pittsburgh losing star players, the Ravens roster not being as talented as the Browns post-Free Agency, and the Bengals not looking in the race - it means 2019 has to be the time the Browns rise to contention.
If Cleveland can't utilise this group of players and coaches while its division is down, its 16-year playoff drought could well double. It seems like now or never for the team.
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