Cavs guard Collin Sexton is asserting his new power on the Cleveland sports scene. (Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com)
EXPLAINING 3RD & SHORT
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Remember us?
After a six-week break, we're back for another tour of Cleveland sports with 3rd & Short. This is where we pull together the threads of the Browns, Cavs, Indians and Buckeyes and weave a new look at your favorite teams. We try to do it each weekend, but football overload during a wild fall sent 3rd & Short into an unplanned hiatus.
Kind of like Carson Wentz and his aching back.
The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback is expected to miss the rest of the season with a stress fracture. Last season, Wentz caused a stress reaction in the psyche of Browns fans while leading the Eagles on a Super Bowl path during the regular season.
How could the Browns have traded away the chance to draft this guy?
With Baker Mayfield locked in, the Browns have finally entered a franchise quarterback era, where you no longer have to worry if you have the right man for the job. That's a relief. But it still isn't always easy.
When Cleveland didn't have a quarterback, it was too simple for those with obsessive tendencies to look at every quarterback the Browns had a chance at drafting and bemoan the missed opportunities. Now, with Mayfield here, that should end.
You also can realize that Wentz, picked by the Eagles in the 2016 NFL Draft with the No. 2 overall selection traded to them by the Browns, isn't perfect.
You'll never take away last year's Super Bowl win by the Eagles, and that's all anyone in Cleveland wants. If Mayfield gets the Lombardi Trophy to the shores of Lake Erie, he'll be a legend.
Wentz was that. This season, he's mortal.
After an 11-2 record as a starter last year, Wentz is 5-6 as a starter this year. When Nick Foles relieved an injured Wentz last year and led the Eagles through the playoffs, it let you know there was something happening there beyond individual quarterback play. The Eagles had a plan that let at least two quarterbacks succeed -- and it may have worked for several more.
This season, the Eagles lost offensive coordinator Frank Reich and quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo. They're missed.
Last year, the Eagles were No. 8 in offensive DVOA, a measure by FootballOutsiders.comof overall efficiency. This year, the Eagles are 19th in offensive DVOA.
Now there are questions in Philadelphia about whether Wentz, who also had a stress fracture in his back in college and who tore knee ligaments last year that ended his season, is injury-prone. He plays hard and a little recklessly. He's talented, but will he last?
"To ask the question now, after three years and the injury situation that's going on, I think you guys can sit here and say that it's probably a red flag," Eagles coach Doug Pederson told reporters this week.
Here's hoping a return to full health for Wentz. But Browns fans don't have to wish he was here.
Let the Eagles, missing key parts of their offensive brain trust this season, show you how even with a real quarterback in town, Mayfield still needs to be set up for success. Thanks to the immense failures under Hue Jackson and Todd Haley, and obvious improvements by Mayfield under Freddie Kitchens, Browns fans should know that.
The Eagles have their Super Bowl trophy. That's all the Browns want.
Right now, the Browns have a healthy quarterback in a system designed to maximize his success. That's what the Eagles are trying to get back to.
Michael Ainsworth, Associated Press
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