NFL: Cleveland Browns will be in the playoffs in 2014 if…

If: The offense can control the football and steadily put points on the board. That sounds like the ideal game plan but it is one that has been an issue for the team each of the last six seasons and for the vast majority of the time the clubs has been back in the league.

Consider these numbers: In 96 regular-season outings by the team dating back to 2008, the Browns have averaged a paltry 16.4 points per game and been limited to 17 points or less in 60 of those 96 contests. Even more amazing is the fact that this club has averaged fewer than 20 points per game in 13-of-15 seasons since 1999, the lone exceptions being 2002 and 2007. Coincidentally (or not), those are the only two winning campaigns by the Browns over that aforementioned stretch. Even less surprising that in the last six seasons the team has had 11 different starting quarterbacks.

One of those was five-year veteran Brian Hoyer, who enters training camp as the top dog on the depth chart. Waiting in the wings is rookie Johnny Manziel, the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner who hopes to do what the other three quarterbacks drafted by the team in the first round since 1999 (Tim Couch, Brady Quinn and Brandon Weeden) failed to do and that’s start a playoff game for the team.

Still, don’t discount Hoyer, who was 3-0 as a starter this past season before going down in October. Considering the Browns won only four games in 2013, he’s the logical choice behind center…for now at least. He figures to benefit from one of the better offensive lines in the league, led by Pro Bowlers Joe Thomas and Alex Mack, and the addition of free agent running back Ben Tate, late of the Houston Texans.