Pat Shurmur was happy to start his first offseason program with the Cleveland Browns this week.
He best take advantage of it. The Browns will need all the help they can get if they hope to successfully slash their way through the 2012 schedule.
The NFL gave the Browns a very difficult opening stretch of games -- a stretch fitting for the league's third-toughest schedule.
The Browns open at home against Philadelphia (and Mike Vick, DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy), then travel to Cincinnati to face the improving Bengals. Cleveland returns home the following week to play Buffalo, then travels to face Baltimore and the Giants.
Though any schedule talk involves projections, that stretch of games could set a nasty tone for Shurmur's second season. The Browns should not be favored to win any of those games.
The sixth week? A home game against the Bengals.
The first "breather" comes in game seven, when the Browns travel to play the Colts, where Andrew Luck should be playing quarterback. The following week it's home to face Philip Rivers and San Diego, followed by a home game against Baltimore.
Follwoing the Nov. 11 bye, the Browns then get to face Tony Romo and Dallas, followed by a home game against Pittsburgh and a trip to Oakland.
In that stretch of six games, the Browns will face Luck (presumably), Rivers, Joe Flacco, Romo, Ben Roethlisberger and Carson Palmer.
Of course the Browns open against Vick, Andy Dalton, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Flacco, Eli Manning and Dalton.
Ouch.
December also has home games against Kansas City and Washington (and Robert Griffin III) and season-ending road games at Denver (Peyton Manning) and Pittsburgh (site of some annual ugliness).
If the Browns need late wins for a playoff spot, it will not be easy.
All games but two -- the visit to Baltimore Sept. 27 and the trip to Oakland Dec. 2 -- are listed as 1 p.m. starts, a time befitting a team that struggles. (The league can move the starting time of some games beginning Nov. 18.)
The Browns open at home for the 13th time in 14 seasons, and play the Super Bowl champion for the fourth time in five.
The Browns have won 18 games the past four seasons. If they are going to be a good team, they will have to beat good teams.
The league gives them the chance to do just that early and often in 2012. It's way too soon to call this Browns schedule gruesome, but it sure has ugly elements to it.
