The Cleveland Browns season is less than a week away and fans are excited as ever.

   Fan favorite Joe Flacco is back in town to team back up with two time coach of the year Kevin Stefanski. Flacco came to the Browns off a poor season in Indianapolis, only able to play in eight games and a statline of twelve TDs and seven Ints. 

   Rookie Quinshon Judkins was in some legal trouble over the summer after a report of domestic violence.  Judkins may not see the field until midseason, as he is unlikely to sign a contract until the NFL ends the investigation into his problem.

 The Browns will play the rival Cincinnati Bengals in week one which sets up the defense with one of the toughest tests all season. The Bengals have star quarterback Joe Burrow and top  receiver Ja’Marr Chase. Chase won the triple crown for receivers last year when he went for 1,708 yards and 17 touchdowns. 

The Bengals have a defense that is notoriously bad. They paid star defensive end Trey Hendrickson, however the Bengals ranked in the bottom 10 in most defensive categories and allowed the 25th most yards. The Bengals key players on defense include DE Trey Hendrickson, S Geno Stone and LB Germaine Pratt. 

The Browns QB room remains filled with starter Joe Flacco ready to play his 18th season, with both rookies behind him in Hawaiian Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. Gabriel played in college football for six seasons at UCF, Oklahoma and finally Oregon. Last season Gabriel led the Ducks to an undefeated regular season before the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated them in the CFP Quarterfinals. Shedeur Sanders had a controversial college career after he started at Jackson State before he transferred to Colorado with his dad and Travis Hunter. Shedeur had a famous draft slide where he fell to the 5th round after projected to be in the top 2 rounds. 

Cleveland is able to return 64 percent of the team, which is below league average. The team that is back is off of a 3 win season and looks to turn it around this year. 

If Cleveland can pull off the win against Cincinnati, Joe Flacco will be seen as the guy for the rest of the year and if the defense can slow down this deep Bengals offense, then this fanbase has hope for a possible deep playoff run.