The Browns are the NFL's last winless team, an inglorious honor nabbed by Cleveland for the second straight season.
Asked to assess the enemy, veteran safety Glover Quin told reporters that Cleveland's roster "probably" has better athletes than 25 of the 32 teams league-wide.
"They've got a lot of first-round draft picks. They've got talent," Quin said, per MLive.com. "They just haven't won a bunch of games. Don't sleep on them."
Coach Jim Caldwell backed up Quin's scouting report, saying: "It's very difficult to play a team that everybody thinks ... doesn't have players. That team has players."
Rookie DeShone Kizer also authored his best game of the season, but hope and wins are two different beasts in the NFL. The slow progress has been mired by an embarrassing botched trade for Bengals backup passer AJ McCarron and a draft-day history of passing on wunderkinds Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson in favor of piling up draft picks.
It's fair to wonder who will be making the call in the next year's draft -- and who will be coaching -- but Sunday progress, albeit invisible to many, left a mark on the Lions.
It's a start, but will this under-fire regime be given a chance to finish?
