If nothing else, the Cleveland Browns have a loyal cheerleader in Dwayne Bowe.
Weeks after calling Josh McCown a "top-five quarterback," the veteran wideout emerged again on Saturday to rave over an offense no longer laced with playmakers Josh Gordon or Jordan Cameron.
"I'm very, very confident," Bowe said, per Mary Kay Cabot of The Plain Dealer. "We have a talented core, our group. All it takes is time. We'll let the doubters doubt. When we get on this field and work, we know what we've got as a team, the chemistry. When Week 1 comes around, we're going to show a lot of doubters how a high-powered offense really moves."
Bowe won't get the benefit of the doubt from fantasy heads, who look at Cleveland's attack and don't see a player worth drafting. The wideouts are a hard-working group, but they're missing a bona fide top target. The tight end position sorely misses Cameron's field-stretching talents, while the running backs -- Terrance West, Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson -- appear bound for a season's worth of committee work.
The hope in Cleveland is that that ground game takes off behind one of the league's top offensive lines. New coordinator John DeFilippo has revealed very little about his scheme this preseason, but we already know enough about McCown. He's prone to killer picks and has never started 16 games in a season. He's also a strong leader who quickly won over players like Bowe, but we still expect Johnny Manziel to make starts this season.
The Browns haven't strung together a "high-powered" offense since 2007, when passer Derek Anderson dialed up a Pro Bowl campaign for a surprising 10-win squad that still missed the playoffs. This year's offense -- on paper -- is multiple players away from dominating anyone, but don't tell that to Bowe. His glass of Cleveland tap water is always half full.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast caps the weeklong Fantasy Extravaganza by talking undervalued and overvalued QBs and everyone's draft philosophies.
