Maybe we already know everything we're ever going to know about these Cleveland Browns. Maybe we'll never know all we should. But what we do know now that Week 3 is in the books is that the Browns are one of two 0-3 teams in the league, the other is a team that literally is without a head coach.

It's a useful marker, actually. All those people complaining about head coach Pat Shurmur now know that it really isn't any worse than having no head coach. Indeed, had the Saints not blown a lead on Sunday, the Browns would actually be worse than a team without a head coach.

Now that even the most optimistic among us finally understand that the Browns aren't going to the playoffs this week, it's far easier to focus on the Things We Know, Week 3 and that starts first with Shurmur, of course.

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How early is too early to give up on a season?

July?

That’s when the news broke that Jimmy Haslam would be buying the team.  That’s when Mike Holmgren got the rude notice that his time was short.  That’s when Pat Shurmur was put on Win-Now-Or-Die watch.  That’s when Tom Heckert had to start explaining his decisions.

With a team so rife with rookies and 2^nd year players, there was almost no way that this team had a chance of Winning Now.  Growing pains would keep the franchise up nights, but IF it all worked out, MAYBE the team would be ready to compete in 2013.

But after Haslam bought the team, it was clear that that 2013 would be witness to another Reboot.

Not that a Reboot is necessarily bad.  Like I’ve said many times, you don’t change for change’s sake, but nor do you stay pat for the sake of continuity.  If you’re driving down a road that leads straight off a cliff, continuity isn’t your friend.

Regardless if you want it or not, after this start (which was hardly unforeseen), the Reboot is coming.  And it’s coming hard.

Which means at least 2 of the Big 3 (Holmgren and Shurmur) are dead men walking, and the third (Heckert) had better do a helluva sell job on Joe Banner when he walks through the Berea doors in mid-October.

Any team with a dead coach walking and a destiny with a new talent evaluation that will likely trim 1/4 to 1/3 of the existing roster is a team that can accomplish very little in the present.  They're running a system that will likely be gone.  They're memorizing a playbook that almost assuredly will be trash.  They're learning the theories and fundamentals of the pro game from gents that will be far from the state of Ohio this time next year.  It's like trying to master the Atlantis language 3 months before it sinks.

Can individual players progress and make this season worthwhile in that vein?  Of course.  I hope some do.  But as a team, this season means almost nothing at this point. 

It’s just a period of house arrest that must be endured to get to the next step.

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When the Browns travel to Baltimore, to play in front of a national television audience on Thursday, the best tight end ever to wear a Browns uniform will probably be in attendance.  From 1978-1990, Ozzie Newsome caught 662 passes for the Cleveland Browns, including at least one catch in 150 consecutive contests from 1979-1989.  Unfortunately, his place in the ring of honor notwithstanding, the "Wizard of Oz" stopped being a Cleveland Brown when he accompanied Art Modell to Baltimore before the 1996 season.

The Browns have retired five numbers, but Ozzie's #82 is still in regular rotation.  Steve Heiden has worn it, and Ben Watson continues to wear it to this day.  Despite my sentiments with Newsome and Baltimore, it's not a sour grapes move as much as it is the reality of making a number in the 80s unavailable for receivers on today's rosters.  Heiden and Watson are both Tight Ends, like Ozzie, and the latter was the team's leading receiver in 2010 with 68 catches for 763 yards, both career highs for Watson.

Watson's numbers dropped off a bit in Pat Shurmur's offense a year ago.  At 37 receptions for 410 yards, his yards per catch (11.1) were about the same, but Evan Moore, a late addition to the roster in 2010, put up similar numbers (34 receptions, 324 yards).  Unfortunately, there is a lot more to the Tight End position than simply running routes and catching passes.  You have to be able to block, which former Tampa Buccaneer Alex Smith does very well, and it virtually guarantees him a roster spot, despite lacking in the pass-catching (and short-yardage rushing) department.

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Clearly, three weeks does not a season make. And clearly, not every time you smell smoke is there a fire that requires you to run screaming from your house. But when I watch Brandon Weeden play quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, I see and smell smoke. A lot of smoke. And if I was keeping a safe distance from the Weeden glee that spread around town after the Browns took him with the 22^nd pick in last April’s NFL, well, I’m putting my head down and running for the hills now.

Brandon Weeden is a forest fire. He’ll leave only charred earth before he’s replaced (and in all likelihood that’ll happen during next year’s NFL draft).

And this is yet another Cleveland Indians-free Weekend Wrap.

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