Written by Jason Askew

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Browns fans, I am excited to give out my inaugural Top Dawg Awards. The season is over and we are all watching the playoffs waiting for our own day in the sun, so I wanted to write a few articles that reflect on this past season.

I am starting out the articles by handing out some awards. Just like in every sport, there is only one champion and therefore every other team ends their season with some level of disappointment. Even though that’s the case there are usually plenty of good performances that shouldn’t be forgotten simply because the team didn’t reach its goals.

I will be handing out awards based on my observations and most of the awards are for good play. But I wouldn’t be doing the season justice if I didn’t hand out a few awards that reflected some of the mistakes and deficiencies of the 2011 Cleveland Browns.

Offensive MVP- LT Joe Thomas

The offensive MVP should really be a no brainer. Every team wants the offensive MVP to be their QB but the QB play was far from special this year no matter who was taking snaps. The offense struggled to score points and was brutal to watch early in games, so the MVP has to go to the best offensive player we have.

Joe Thomas was once again picked as first team All-Pro which means he is considered the best overall LT in football. That also clearly makes him the best offensive player we have. Some may say he didn’t have a good year and others will claim he is overrated but no one can deny he is our best and most valuable offensive player right now. The offense was a mess this year but imagine what it would have looked like if we didn’t have an All-Pro blocking the league’s best pass rushers week in and week out?

Defensive MVP-  MLB  D’Qwell Jackson

This award was much tougher to pick and I am sure Ahtyba Rubin and Joe Haden fans will be screaming at me, but when all the dust settled I chose Jackson for two main reasons: the position he plays and the impact he had.

You always want your MLB to be a rock in the middle. You count on him to make the calls and ensure everyone is lined up correctly and you also need him to make plays all over the field. Not only did Jackson do those things, but he also had a season right up there with the best season’s of any MLB in the league.

The Browns had a defense that finished in the top ten in total yards, 5^th in points scored, and 2^nd in passing yards. The pundits will point out that the Browns had the 30^th ranked run defense in the NFL as a reason why Jackson shouldn’t get this award but I call BS to that notion. Jackson more than did his part to stop the run and in fact, while he led all the NFL in solo tackles, he also finished 2^nd in total tackles.

Too many people are caught up in his size and what he can’t do but I don’t want this guy to be overlooked like teams overlooked London Fletchher early in his career and who then struggled to replace him once he left. Jackson is a damn good LB in the NFL and just because he isn’t 6-4 255 doesn’t mean he needs replaced.

Special Teams MVP- PK Phil Dawson

The other option for this particular award is Josh Cribbs and I could have easily put him here if he was the lethal return man he used to be but I really didn’t see that from Cribbs this year. When they let him cover kickoffs this year he was great, but I really didn’t see the speed this year that usually accompanies his power and vision.

Although Dawson missed some kicks late in the season that he usually makes, he was 24 of 29 and 7 of 8 from 50 plus yards. Those are pretty impressive for a kicker his age. I really was impressed with his kicks over 50 yards and he did his part to cover up for an offense that struggled to score points.

Rookie of the Year- DE Jabaal Sheard

This rookie class really stepped up and by the end of the year 5 of them were starting. Although DT Phil Taylor had a really good rookie season and showed he can be a factor against the run and pass, DE Jabaal Sheard showed he has the potential to be a special player in this league.

The rookie DE finished the year leading the team in sacks with 8.5 and his ability to create fumbles was just as, if not more, impressive. He created a team leading 5 fumbles and seemed to have a knack for getting sack and fumbles on QBs.

If you go back and watch the second Bengals game you will see a game where his abilities to disrupt an offense are on full display. He totally dominated the first half of that game by staying in the offense’s backfield and he forced the Bengals to account for him with more than one blocker in the second half.

The rookie showed that he already has multiple pass rushing techniques in his arsenal, and those moves combined with his physical play and high motor will give him the opportunity to be a terror for NFL offenses for many years to come. His upside is extremely high and he should have Browns fans excited to see more of him in the future.

Best Coaching Performance- Dick Jauron/Dwaine Board

This was too tough to call for me so these guys will have to split it. How would you like to be DL Coach Dwaine Board when the boss tells you, “OK Dwaine, of your 4 starters, two will be rookies and the other two will be first time starters at their positions in the NFL”. Honestly I think he did a fabulous job helping Ahtyba Rubin transition from a two gap NT to an attacking DT and Coach Board also did a fabulous job coaching the rookies up and over the rookie wall.

He was able to plug in 4 different starting RDEs and the team still received solid production while the rushing defense improved as the year progressed. The defensive line coach clearly earned his paycheck this year.

Defensive Coordinator Dick Jauron took a 3-4 defense and switched it to a 4-3 defense that was not only competitive but was dominant at times and was the main reason the team won the 4 games they did win.

For a defense of a team that finished 4-12, whose offense ranked in the bottom 8 in every offensive category, to finish the year ranked 10^th in total defense, 2^nd against the pass, and 5^th in points allowed is pretty amazing.

The Browns defensive staff led by Jauron clearly had solid game plans all year and when something wasn’t working they quickly made adjustments to compensate. It was also a great decision to employ some simpler schemes that emphasized execution because it allowed the young players and the players who were used to playing a 3-4 to play faster and more effectively rather than suffer paralysis from analysis.

As bad as the offense was as a whole this past season, the defense was equally as good and Jauron and his staff should be commended.

Most Improved- G Jason Pinkston

This award could have gone in a few directions. Ideally I would have liked to have found a player who got dramatically better from last year to this year but in reality there really wasn’t anyone who made drastic improvement. So I went another route and gave the award to the player that came the furthest from training camp to the end of the season.

Pinkston was a mess in the preseason and in the beginning of the year. He was struggling with the new technique needed on the inside of the offensive line and he really looked out-matched.

He really progressed as the season went on and actually played better than the other first year starting guard Shawn Lauvao did at the end of the year. He still needs to improve if he wants to be a long term starter in the NFL but he improved greatly by the end of the year, and with a full offseason to get stronger and better footwork he should be a valuable member of the offensive line even if Eric Steinbach returns to claim his LG spot.

Breakout Player- WR Greg Little

Rookie WR Greg Little didn’t play football at all last year and had only played the WR position for one year prior to being drafted by the Browns, but he handled himself well in his rookie year. I know people are reading this and ranting about his dropped passes, and those did frustrate me at times, but right now I want to focus on the good things the young player did.

If people want to complain about the lack of talent at the position then so be it and they have every right to talk about the horrible WR group, but you can’t blame the rookie for being thrust into the spotlight right away.

Little led the team in receptions and yards and he also had the longest play from scrimmage this year. All of those things provide a solid foundation to build on and should be commended. He also was second in receptions by a rookie and 5^th in yards while racking up the second longest TD reception of the rookie class.

This year will be a critical one for Little because he now knows the system, knows what it takes to be a NFL WR, and has a full offseason with NFL coaches and teammates to get better. This will be the season we find out what kind of work ethic he really has, because if he doesn’t get any better and more consistent we will all know it is because he didn’t put in the time this offseason.

I think he has a high ceiling, but history tells us that potential can quickly turn into bust if a player doesn’t put in the work so I am anxious to see what path Little takes.

Biggest Disappointment (Player)- RB Peyton Hillis

This wasn’t as easy to pick as you might have thought. I almost went with the Tom Heckert’s man-crush Jayme Mitchell who was terrible…I was a blink away from picking my forecasted breakout player DE Marcus Benard, who came to camp 25lbs too heavy and ended up pulling a Winslow on a motorcycle and ending his season before it even really got started….I almost chose a failure close to our heart by choosing ex-Buckeye WR Brian Robiske who ended up being a dud and getting cut…..hell, I was even real close to naming 2010 rookie sensation T.J. Ward as my biggest disappointment.

In the end none of them could pass the Madden cover boy who out of nowhere showed more cracks in his foundation than a poorly built house. Peyton Hillis turned from the player you most wanted your kid to ask for his jersey into some punk from MTV’s Jersey Shore.

Was he sick/wasn’t he sick….was his hamstring hurt that bad or wasn’t it? Goofing off before games…needing multiple counseling sessions from teammates…..standing kids up for events…

Honestly, Hillis made me question everything about him this season including how good he is on the field. Madden curse or not, Hillis had an epic fail this season and he will have to compile a monster season for some team to get his respect back on the field. But even with that, he may never be looked at in the same light off of it.

Biggest Disappointment (Coach)- Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator Pat Shurmur

For a coach who was in his first year as a head coach in the NFL, and facing no offseason prior to the start of the season, Pat Shurmur added fuel to the fire by making some horrible decisions during the season.

The first year head coach struggled in both aspects of this job. The offense looked horrible and was about as creative as the Ohio State offense under Jim Bollman. The offense often looked unprepared, never found rhythm, and failed to get the ball into the hands of the few playmakers it had. They didn’t run or throw well and they absolutely failed to allow the Browns to get a lead or even keep pace in the early portions of games because they couldn’t score at all in 1^st quarters during the season.

As a head coach he mishandled the entire Peyton Hillis situation(s) from the very start when he didn’t play because of “strep throat”…He totally and singly blew the Rams game with his horrible game management then acted like a scumbag in the post game press conference….Then he topped it all off by handling the Colt McCoy head blast from James Harrison by showing the decision making skills of a 3^rd grader.

I don’t know any other way to say this than the simple truth; Pat Shurmur laid an egg in his first year as head coach and offensive coordinator…the good thing is that there is nowhere to go but up so hopefully he is a fast learner and learns from his blunders.