Top receiver Edwards will strut his stuff with six national TV dates. Jeff Roberson/AP

2008 Schedule

September 7 DALLAS 14 PITTSBURGH 21 at Baltimore 28 at Cincinnati October 5 Bye 13 N.Y. GIANTS (M) 19 at Washington 26 at Jacksonville   November 2 BALTIMORE 6 DENVER (T) 17 at Buffalo (M) 23 HOUSTON 30 INDIANAPOLIS December 7 at Tennessee 15 at Philadelphia (M) 21 CINCINNATI 28 at Pittsburgh

SPOTLIGHT

Joe Thomas, Left Tackle: Last year the Browns kept waiting for their first-rounder to show a weakness. Didn't happen. He wasn't intimidated by a road game at Foxborough or two matchups with Ray Lewis's yappy Ravens. In 16 games Thomas surrendered one solo sack. Says G.M. Phil Savage, "How many rookie left tackles start from opening day and play like Pro Bowl players?"

What's all the fuss about? A franchise on the rise has playoff potential, but a rebuilt defensive front has to deliver first.

Nowhere was the release of the 2008 NFL schedule as newsy as it was in Cleveland. Quarterback Derek Anderson was on the golf course when he got a call from his dad. "You see how many times you're on national TV?" Glenn Anderson said. Fans bombarded wideout Braylon Edwards with the news. "Three Monday night games!" one of them told Edwards, who went to a computer to see for himself.

There it was: A Fox national game at home against the Cowboys in Week 1, a Sunday night NBC game with the Steelers in Week 2, Monday-night ESPN games in Weeks 6 (Giants), 11 (Bills) and 15 (Eagles), and a Thursday-nighter on NFL Network against the Broncos in Week 10. The Browns hadn't played on Monday night in five years or on Sunday night in three; now they were going to play five night games in one season -- one more than the Super Bowl-champion Giants.

"Prime time," Edwards says. "Now that's what I'm talking about."

And Cleveland didn't even make the playoffs last year.

So, the theory goes, the Browns must be a team about to break out. Or they're being set up for a big tumble. "When I saw the schedule I said, 'That's what happens when you play exciting football,' " says sixth-year guard Eric Steinbach. "The flip side, of course, is being a younger team, and after having your first winning season in a while, you worry about how all the exposure is going to affect your young players. The true test will be surviving that exposure and playing your best instead of playing like a deer in the headlights."

The Browns were a bunch of sluggers without a pitching staff last year, winning 51-45, 41-31 and 33-30 (twice). And when Anderson struggled in December -- he threw seven TD passes and eight interceptions in five games -- the defense wasn't able to cover for the offense's drop-off and Cleveland suffered crushing losses to Arizona and Cincinnati. The Browns wound up 30th in the league in yards allowed per game (359.6) and in yards allowed per rushing attempt (4.5).

That's why general manager Phil Savage, already without a first-round pick in 2008 because he traded it to move up and draft quarterback Brady Quinn last year, dealt his second- and third-round choices plus starting cornerback Leigh Bodden for two monstrous defensive linemen: former Packer Corey Williams, who'll play left end in coach Romeo Crennel's 3-4 scheme, and Shaun Rogers, late of the Lions, who'll be the nosetackle.

Strange but true: The 340-pound Rogers has never played the position. But the Browns believe he's well-suited to occupy more than one blocker and plug the middle of the line, creating the kind of congestion that makes for a great run-stopping unit.

"Our model is the Patriots," says Rogers. New England is a 3-4 team with a history of playing good run defense, and Rogers has studied the Pats' scheme. "[The Browns] got me because they were looking for beef in the middle, and that's so important to a 3-4 team," he says. "I don't want to be the whole solution, just part of the solution."

Cleveland needs some other defensive players to be part of the solution too. Pass-rush specialist Kamerion Wimbley has to play hungrier. "How can I put this?" says Savage. "He played a little safe last year." It's not often that a rookie gets 11 sacks and follows with a five-sack season, but that's what a healthy Wimbley did. The Browns have told him to take more chances, become more reckless. Also, second-year cornerbacks Brandon McDonald and Eric Wright will be picked on by opposing quarterbacks from Week 1, and by midseason fans may be wondering why their team invested so heavily in the defensive line when it's the secondary that's killing the Browns.

"We couldn't fix everything in one off-season," Savage says. The question is, have they done enough to help the Browns win their first division title since 1982 -- and make them a featured team on the 2009 schedule? -- Peter King