BALTIMORE - The Cleveland Browns won seven games in 2014, and most fans would have taken that before the season started.
The Browns didn't win a game after Thanksgiving and finished on a five-game losing streak. They went 2-4 in the division and failed to escape fourth place for a fourth-straight year. Perhaps most troubling, a season of ups and downs -- and more ups than those in the recent past -- finished with the Browns having no real clarity, let alone an answer, at the quarterback spot.
"It's pretty obvious it's still a question mark," Browns coach Mike Pettine said after Sunday's loss in Baltimore.
The Browns played that game with undrafted rookie Connor Shaw at quarterback. Brian Hoyer, who started 13 games before being benched for ineffectiveness, was out injured and is now eligible for free agenct. Out too was rookie Johnny Manziel, who produced little in two starts and ended up in the coach's doghouse. Manziel has a lot of growing up to do and might need a miracle growth spurt, too, to have a chance to succeed as an NFL quarterback.
Still, there were some positives.
The seven wins were the most since 2007. Before Alex Mack's injury, the Browns were building a real strength with a cohesive offensive line and a power run game. The defense started slow but came on strong and produced more really good games than clunkers. Joe Haden looks worth every penny of the big contract he got last spring. Karlos Dansby and Donte Whitner look like strong signgings, too. The Browns squeezed every ounce possible out of their receiving corps.
Now, for some negatives.
That receiving corps has a long way to go before it's even middle of the road by today's NFL standards. Josh Gordon has to prove he even wants to be on the team -- or should be. The run game went dry, the offense went stale and the Browns had to use three different centers after Mack's injury. Injuries in general hurt the team, which needs to be deeper and better and should be with a year of actual continuity.
Perhaps the biggest positive: Jimmy Haslam, the team's owner, said he's not firing Pettine or general manager Ray Farmer.
If you know the Browns, you know that was not a given.
For more positives, the Browns beat two playoff teams and blew out the eventual AFC North champion Steelers in October. They were in first place in November after dominating the Bengals on the road.
Next Saturday, there are no walkthroughs or meetings for which Manziel and fellow first-round flop Justin Gilbert can be late. There's time for those guys to turn it around, by the way. It's just going to have to be a heck of a turnaround.
Another positive: The Browns went 15 straight games to close the year without punter Spencer Lanning getting kicked in the face.
The list of negatives continues, too: Three of the Browns wins were against the NFC South, the Sun Belt of this NFL season.
They closed the year with two quarterbacks on the active roster who weren't on the active roster for the 15th game and two long snappers on the active roster. The quarterback question lingers over not just the two first-round picks they own come April 30 but every offseason move and possibility.
The offensive numbers were just horrendous. The Browns 299 points on the season were 66 behind their nearest division rival. The Browns ranked 20th in passing offense and 17th in rushing offense, and those numbers aren't bad. A closer look reveals the Browns finished with a 54.6 completion percentage and a 29.5 third-down success rate, both worst in the league. It's amazing they won seven games.
And about the team's lack of maturity and commitment and another mess of a December: Tough decisions lie ahead. Talent wins in the NFL, but Farmer and Pettine don't have time for third chances. The overall roster isn't good enough for a few knuckleheads to stunt what has to be a team effort in trying to turn seven wins into more, in trying to turn the offense into something that can compete in today's NFL.
NFL players party. All the time. They show up on time the next morning, and the show goes on. Some players get more chances than others do, but the show waits for no one.
Peyton Manning got cut once. Every player in the league keeps that in the back of his mind.
Or, every player in the league is supposed to, anyway.
The Browns won seven games, and that's nice.
The Browns are still a fourth-place team and still a bottom-half franchise. For that to change, there has to be a total buy in. There has to be improvement at nearly every position, starting with the most important ones.
