The Cleveland Browns have piled misery atop suffering through two weeks. Week 3 brings a shot at redemption against the Jets on Thursday night.
The New York Jets come to town for a Thursday night showdown and the Cleveland Browns look to finally secure a win after letting two could-be wins slip away in back to back weeks to open the 2018 season.
There’s no question that the Browns will be hoping to turn their fortunes from almost-wins into actual wins in primetime on Thursday night. To do that, however, they’ll need a few players to step up.
Here are the five players I’ll be watching for the Browns in Week 3.
K, Greg Joseph
Brought aboard in the aftermath of Zane Gonzalez’s horrid afternoon last Sunday with four missed kicks against the Saints. Joseph has been brought in to provide more consistency in the kicking game.
One huge red flag for the undrafted free agent out of Florida Atlantic is his college field goal accuracy. Completing on only 69.5 percent of his kicks will not make for a sustainable career in the NFL, nor will it make a happy fanbase. He did however, offer a perfect mark in preseason play with the Miami Dolphins, connecting on field goals of 33, 48 and 54 yards.
Fans have certainly had enough and many have called for Zane Gonzalez to be cut, myself included, although the reports of his groin injury has changed my outlook. Perhaps his biggest fault was taking the field while injured.
You certainly cannot expect anything good to come from kicking with an injured groin. In addition, the reports that head coach, Hue Jackson was unaware of the injury are extremely troublesome.
With that said, the Browns have moved on. All eyes will surely be fixated upon Greg Joseph to see how he performs in his first NFL action. He may be unproven, but given the fact that the Browns passed on several established veterans, they obviously feel confident in their decision and his ability.