Cleveland Browns

Browns fans want to #FailForCardale -- before the season even begins

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 1:56 p.m. ET

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Connor Kiesel

The Cleveland Browns have an illustrious history of quarterback misery but this may be a new low.

With nary a game having even been played yet in the 2015-16 season, Browns fans are already anticipating the worst and pining for one of the potentially best.

Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Cardale Jones has become a folk legend in the Buckeye State. He's now won all four of his starts after securing the quarterback job for the team's season opener, a victory over Virginia Tech. His other three wins are just last season's Big Ten Championship, Sugar Bowl and first ever College Football Playoff title game.

So the guy's doing big things in a college football-crazed state.

But without even one down of real football played yet, this is happening -- behold, #FailForCardale.

Colin Cowherd discussed the hashtag and philosophy on "The Herd" on FS1 on Wednesday. While he sees Jones as a future starting quarterback, he's not sure about tanking for him.

"I'm not into tanking unless there's a LeBron James or Andrew Luck," Cowherd said.

Bleacher Report even created a handy PhotoShop of Jones in an old Browns uniform (don't forget they have a new logo and threads!) to further encourage fans' visions.

If you've forgotten the scale of misery by which the Browns have suffered at the quarterback position, Brett Smiley of @TheBuzzer produced a matrix to spell it out all so clearly (or make you run for the closest box of tissues).

Since the Browns returned to the league in 1999, they have not had a quarterback reach the QB rating threshold of 85. To put that into perspective, often-maligned Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton had an 88.8 quarterback rating in 2013.

Cleveland has taken six quarterbacks in the first three rounds of the draft since '99. Two of those -- Johnny Manziel and Brandon Weeden -- were selected in the first round within the past four years. Weeden's already off the roster and questions remain around Manziel, currently the team's backup.

Is the #FailForCardale movement presumptive? Jones has started only four games after all. When "Suck for Luck" took off, Andrew Luck was already a very proven commodity at Stanford.

For now, it's Josh McCown leading the charge into a Browns season for which fans have modest expectations (to put it lightly). Jones, on the other hand, has a much different focus -- defending a title, staying unblemished and elevating his NFL stock along the way.

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