Have you ever been driving on the open road and even though your gas gauge indicates you are low on fuel you drive past one service station with hopes you can make it to another farther up the road?
The Cleveland Browns football team is doing something akin to that this season.
It started last May, when they sent three first round draft picks to the Houston Texans for exiled quarterback Deshaun Watson. In much the same way the Los Angeles Rams traded away their future by bringing in quarterback Matthew Stafford for success now before the start of the 2021 season, and then cashed that decision with a Super Bowl LVI victory, the Browns looked to accomplish the same goal.
The difference between the two deals was that Stafford wasn’t facing any legal problems and an almost certain suspension before he was available to play. Watson was, and when the league imposed an 11 game suspension on the recent Cleveland acquisition the Browns checked their gauges and hoped they could get through the first half of the season still in position to vie for a playoff berth when Watson was eligible to play.
So far, the results are mixed.
The Browns have one of the best rushing attacks in the game, and a defense stocked with quality athletes acquired through high draft choices based on abysmal records the team compiled for most of this century. In one two year period, 2016 and 2017, Cleveland won one game in 32 regular season decisions.