Josh Thornton

It was a wild ride during Bakers rookie season. From the moment he took the reigns in that Thursday night matchup with the Jets, Baker has captured our attention. Excitement had returned to Cleveland. The ability to play competitive football was back. Even though Bakers 2018 campaign fell short of a playoff berth, hope for the future was at an all-time high.

​ That hope transformed into large expectations during the first portion of the 2019 offseason. I mean, Dorse landed us Olivier Vernon, Sheldon Richardson, Kareem Hunt and Odell freaking Beckham Jr. It seemed we were going all in. Win now mode. To be fair, at that time we had no idea Fred would turn out to be closer to a pee-wee coach than an NFL coach. We seen Super Bowl predictions tabbing the Browns. MVP predictions getting slapped on Baker

​Que Murphy’s Law. Cleveland credo. The season that was 2019 left us fans beat up, let down and, for some of us, questioning if Baker could live up to savior status we plastered on him his rookie year. It was tough. Baker slumped and the poor coaching had many scratching their heads. We were all relieved when the season ended… or so we thought.

​The 2020 offseason has brought us a new front office, coaching staff and football philosophies… again. Oh yeah, we can’t forget about the global pandemic. You know, that small wrench in the spokes. So, here we are, everything new and behind the eight ball. Teams will just now, for the first time this offseason, be seeing players face to face.

​The Browns have a ton of work to do and Baker sits atop that list. He is expected to improve on last season, and rightfully so. But listen… don’t be surprised if the team isn’t lighting the world on fire right out of the gate, particularly Baker. He is going to be learning on the job. With the preseason likely gone, Baker won’t see live bullets until the season opener September 13th when he faces a Ravens defense that finished 4th best last season. It’s a tall order.

Baker has seen a ton of change in Cleveland through his short career. I’ve always said he will have to be an “over-comer” if he is to be successful here.

I still believe that… but we have to give him a chance.

Hold the pitchforks off until the season concludes friends, it’s only fair.