Cleveland Browns ESPN Blogger Predicts 1-15 Season, Someone Check on Him

Hope springs eternal in ESPN’s team blogger predictions every year–unless you cover the Cleveland Browns. This year is no different.

One of my favorite things to do is to see how wildly optimistic the collective predictions of the team bloggers is each year, a tradition going back to 2013, when the first iteration picked teams to collectively go 283-229. The collective results were that teams would go 290-222 in 2014, and 281-231 in 2015.

This year, the team predictions again check in with NFL teams expected to manufacture 283 wins versus only 229 losses. Of course, this result would be even more out of whack if not for the sobering efforts of one man: Cleveland Browns team blogger Pat McManamon. Last year, McManamon predicted the Browns to go 4-12, which, at the time, was tied for the lowest win projection by any team blogger since ESPN began the exercise. Cleveland managed to underperform those lofty expectations, though they did score more points than expected.

Well, this year, it’s time to double down. McManamon isn’t going to go overboard again and get caught getting burned by the Under, unless the Browns go winless. He projects a 1-15 record.

How broken is McManamon? Here you go:

"Where will the wins come? Find them. There is no opponent on the schedule that says “Browns win.” In fact, no other NFL nation reporter is picking their team to lose to the Browns. That puts 0-16 on the table. Yes, the draft is ahead, and the team has time to improve. But today, that’s the view of the Browns. The only win is projected based on law of averages. They have to win one game, right?"

Of course, “other NFL nation reporters picked their teams to win” isn’t exactly a newsflash since they all pick way more wins than losses. The next most pessimistic person is the one assigned to cover Chip Kelly’s first team in San Francisco, where 4-12 is the prediction. After that, only San Diego and Tennessee (6-10) are predicted to win fewer than 7 games.