Are the Browns ready for respectability in 2018?

The assumption is that Kendricks was still negotiating with other teams for potentially more money when these reports of a finalized one-year deal came out. He had recently visited with the Vikings and Raiders. It was looking like another classic story of how this is the Browns: ineptitude personified. After all, they had a trade worked out for quarterback A.J. McCarron last fall, only for it to fall apart at the last minute.

Stereotypes of the Browns are going to be the main reason why the team won’t get any respect, and shouldn’t expect it, until they show it on the field. And the franchise very well may have squandered what was its most useful chance for long-term success coming into the offseason: a robust store of draft picks.

Cleveland had two of the first four overall picks. While there were a lot of starter-quality quarterbacks available this year, there wasn’t really one thought of as a can’t miss. Cleveland could have very well traded down, but there’s little hope of continued fan support without some road map for the future. People can only take the process of assembling picks for so long. So Cleveland went with Baker Mayfield, who may very well end up being good but sows doubt before he shows it.

The selection of cornerback Denzel Ward was seen as a major reach at fourth overall, especially with Bradley Chubb still available. Again, no one really knows, but drafting has hardly been a strength for the Browns. One of the few they’ve hit on over the years, tackle Joe Thomas, just announced his retirement after an 11-year career. That’s not the same front office throughout, but it’s a reminder why the Browns don’t yet deserve the benefit of the doubt in drafting.

Yet that’s the thing: Cleveland could have mostly whiffed on the 2018 draft class, and the team could still be all right this coming season. Don’t get me wrong — they’re not going to vie for a championship, but they very well could be a middle-of-the-pack team.

The analog is easy to spot: last year’s Bills, another squad that ended a woebegone franchise’s playoff drought. The Bills probably wouldn’t have needed a miracle from the Bengals to beat the Ravens the final week of the season to get in had they stuck with quarterback Tyrod Taylor throughout the year.

Taylor, of course, is now the starter in Cleveland and looks to have a surprisingly potent supporting cast, as the Browns went out and got Jarvis Landry and Carlos Hyde to join Josh Gordon at the skill positions. Cleveland’s defense was middle of the pack in DVOA last season. The defense probably wasn’t helped out by a starting quarterback who threw 22 interceptions and 11 touchdowns. A few positive tweaks and a little better ball control on offense, and the Browns are positively OK on that side of the ball.

Cleveland has set the bar so low that 6-10 is a huge success. The talent gap in the NFL is such that it doesn’t really take that much improvement to jump from the league’s worst to the middle of the pack. There were certainly games last season the Browns were capable of winning. By virtue of sheer luck, eventually some of those will go your way. Now that the roster is considerably improved, there’s little reason not to think if those bounces do go their way, the Browns may very well play a meaningful game after Halloween — and maybe even in December.