Detroit Lions can surpass the Cleveland Browns for NFL relevance

DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE!!!

As I mentioned above, everyone seems to be looking at the Cleveland Browns right now and that level of scrutiny and high praise could bring along with it a false sense of hope for those located on the other side of the lens.

We have just over a month to go before this year’s NFL Draft and that means we are still quite a ways off from meaningful snaps of football being played.

This is uncharted territory for the Browns and if they fall victim to all the hype that’s surrounding their team right now, before their season even begins, they could become overly confident in themselves and their abilities and underplay their newfound lofty expectations.

Though the Lions just came out swinging in free agency with the acquisitions of players like Trey Flowers, Justin Coleman and a few others, they are continuing to fly under the radar. No one is saddling Detroit with unrealistic expectations and that is just fine with me.

Lions general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia have a clear and distinctive goal that they are trying to accomplish in Detroit and they aren’t trying to win any offseason popularity contests. They are sticking to their guns, putting in the man-hours and doing the gritty work necessary in order to turn Detroit’s culture of misery into a winning one.

For as glitzy as the Browns are for now, the free agency story of the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles is one to take heed to when it comes to buying too much into the hype of a seemingly successful offseason.

I’ll roll with Detroit’s smart, low risk-high reward signings over Cleveland’s flashy-yet-unpredictable blockbuster deal.