2020 NFL Power Rankings: Cowboys defense has hopes high

Cleveland Browns drop from 15 to 16 in new NFL Power Rankings.

There’s a lot of stuff that’s the same about the Cleveland Browns 2020 offseason when compared to many of their other offseasons. They have a new general manager. They have a new head coach. They’re going through a whole lot of changes. That’s pretty much been a constant ever since they came back in the NFL in 1999.

Cleveland has struggled to find a head coach to believe in and none of them stick around long at all. Hue Jackson has been one of their longest-tenured coaches and he lasted exactly two and a half seasons. As for their last coach, Freddie Kitchens, he made it through just one season.

Of course, there is one thing that’s different this year — they have a quarterback that they believe in. Baker Mayfield enters his second season in a row as the on question starter, which is something none of us are used to seeing out of Cleveland. We all know about the infamous quarterback jersey the head 28 or so names on the back of it, in reference to all the many different starting quarterbacks they have since returning to Cleveland.

Mayfield seems to put it into that, or has he? There are definitely concerns about Mayfield heading into the season as he struggled in 2019. New head coach Kevin Stefanski was hand-picked to take Baker to the next level after his frustrating 2019 campaign. Mayfield won’t be alone though, they also have a powerful running game headed by Nick Chubb and Kareem hunt.

The real question is whether or not their defense can hold up. There’s a lot of questions on their side of the bar especially at linebacker, which became even more of an issue in Mack Wilson went down with a hyperextended knee. If the defense can’t get it together, this could be a long season in Cleveland, even if the offense is up to par.