The Cleveland Browns lit a spark under their fans and across the NFL with their
victory over the New York Jets a little more than a week ago.That spark could
turn into a bonfire if the Browns can string a few wins together starting on
Sunday when they face the Oakland Raiders. Just don’t expect that to turn into
an appearance this season on Sunday Night Football.Beginning in Week
5
Cleveland Browns T-Shirt , NBC has the ability to dump the scheduled Sunday night game and “flex” another game into that time slot. It is not as simple as
executives at NBC pointing to the schedule and saying, “we want Baker Mayfield
and the Browns,” however. There are guidelines to follow, with the key ones
being that:CBS and FOX have to approve losing one of their games to Sunday
nightThe decision has to be made no later than 12 days prior to the actual game.
So, for example, nothing that happens this weekend has any impact on the Sunday
night game for the following week.NBC has to be willing to give up the game that
is currently scheduled for Sunday night.The Browns have some games that could be
appealing, so let’s take at look and see what the chances are of the Browns
picking up a Sunday night slot.October 21 at Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers have been
an early season surprise, but the magic of quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick may be
wearing off a bit. The scheduled game for that week is the Los Angeles Rams
against the San Francisco 49ers, which has lost some of its appeal after San
Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was lost for the season with a knee
injury. Even so, Browns vs. Bucs may not have enough national appeal.October 28
at Pittsburgh. Mayfield’s first trip to Pittsburgh with the possibility of him
planting a Browns flag at Heinz Field is spicy. But the scheduled Sunday night
game is New Orleans at Minnesota, and NBC is not dropping a playoff
rematch.November 4 vs. Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes and Mayfield lighting up the
scoreboard is something that everyone can get behind. The problem? The scheduled
game that night is Green Bay at New England, so no chance NBC is giving that
game up.November 11 vs. Atlanta. If the Browns and Falcons are both in playoff
contention come mid-November, this game could have some appeal. The bigger
question is whether or not NBC would be willing to give up the Dallas vs.
Philadelphia matchup already on the schedule. The NFC East may be extremely
overexposed
Cleveland Browns Hats , but those teams pull in the ratings.December 9 vs. Carolina. This game actually has some potential if the Browns can hit December playing
well. The scheduled game for that evening is Pittsburgh vs. Oakland, and while
people are still oddly fascinated by Oakland head coach Jon Gruden, the idea of
putting a two-win Oakland team on primetime might be more than NBC can stomach.
The idea of the Browns playing their way into a Sunday primetime game this
season is fun to speculate about, but when you break it down it seems pretty
unlikely that will happen. (Although if they manage to enter Week 17 needing a
win for a playoff spot, anything is possible.)A more plausible scenario would be
the Browns playing well enough to have a game or two moved into the
late-afternoon slot as part of a national broadcast. All they have to do is keep
on winning.Announcing Staff Changes at DBN Hi DBN faithful!You may have noticed
over the past two weeks some changes at Dawgs By Nature, so let me formally
announce them to you.I remain the Site Manager, just as I have been since March
2006, and will continue writing just like I always have.Mike Hoag is now our
site’s Deputy Manager. You don’t really need to worry about memorizing each
person’s title, but Mike will be bringing you about 1 article per day. In
addition, if there are ever any times when I am on vacation, he will “take over
the site” for those days.Tom Moore has joined our staff as a writer. You may
have noticed a flurry of his articles over the weekend. One of the areas in
which our site has lacked over the years is providing regular weekend coverage
(outside of Sundays during the regular season). What can I say — after writing
during the week and working full-time with my actual job, you kind of just burn
out sometimes. Tom has plenty of writing experience from his own site, and from
formerly helping run Dawg Pound Daily. Every week
Cleveland Browns Womens Hoodie , we are now extending the Daily Dawg Chow to the weekend, which Tom will cover. Tom will also provide some more weekend
coverage, and then a couple of posts during the weekdays.rufio has pretty much
always been on our staff, but now he will be bringing you an edition of Rufio’s
Playbook for almost every week of the year.Dan Lalich (notthatnoise) is now
taking on the title of Community Manager. I know there are often some very
valuable articles that our readers create as FanPosts, but unfortunately I am so
bogged down that I seldom have time to award them the front page exposure they
deserve. Dan will help keep tabs on this, as well as encouraging more posts, fun
features, and helping facilitate possible meet-ups.Those are all the new orders
of business. We are still very much appreciative to also have Jon Stinchcomb,
Andrea Hangst, Matt Wood, and Ezweav continue their contributions to the
site.
