Somehow, the Browns futility in Week 1 may have just been an appetizer

The Cleveland Browns lost their home opener last Sunday to the Dallas Cowboys 33-17. Twenty-six of those points were actually by the Cowboys' offense against the Browns' defense, which is the strength of their team. For context, 26 points per game would've been the second-worst scoring defense in the NFL last season.

Cleveland's defense already had high expectations put on it to start the season. In 2023 this was the best defense by yards allowed and second in DVOA, dragging along an offense that was 16th in yards and 28th in DVOA.

It's hard to maintain a high level of defense while the offense is underperforming and finish the season with a winning record. It's even harder to do it two years in a row. By DVOA only one team has been a top-six defense and bottom-five offense two years in a row and that was the New York Jets in 2022 and 2023 — and their record both years was just 7-10.

Two teams that have come close in the past were the 2021-2022 New Orleans Saints and 2020-21 Washington Commanders. Both teams fell off defensively in year two while maintaining a bottom-tier offense and had losing records.

And Cleveland's offense doesn't look any better to start 2024. It's just week one, but the Browns had the fifth-fewest offensive yards and were bottom-10 in points last week. Quarterback Deshaun Watson was 24-of-45 for 169 yards. There have only been three quarterbacks in the NFL since the merger to throw the ball 45 times for less than 170 yards — and Watson is the first since the year 2000 (which was also by a Browns quarterback).

The level of difficulty is ramping up for the Browns

If you think the outlook for Cleveland can't get any bleaker, think again. The Browns added multiple defensive pieces to IR this week.

Luckily this isn't the end-all-be-all. Safety Juan Thornhill is the only player from last year to play over half the defensive snaps (57.3 percent). And their backup safeties last year who played nearly a third of the snaps each, Ronnie Hickman and Rodney McCleod Jr., are both on the roster this year. So there's continuity from last year's elite group.

The other silver lining, is their stars are healthy. This isn't Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, or Greg Newsome going down. Those individual injuries would probably have a bigger impact on their own than this group all going out at the same time.

But for a team relying on their defense to do something that hasn't been done in recent memory (carry a bottom-tier offense to a winning record), that is already sustaining injuries things can get worse in a hurry. Chipping away at depth, asking more of the star players as well as players further down the depth chart, can eat at a team over time. And for a team with playoff aspirations, that is not a place you want to be this early in a season.