ESPN ranks Browns offseason lower than expected
By most accounts, the Cleveland Browns have had a very good offseason. On top of keeping the front office and coaching staff in place therein finally providing stability for Baker Mayfield and Myles Garrett, the team added a lot of talent to the roster.
After going 11 – 5 in 2020 and winning a playoff game, the Browns added speed all over the field, especially on defense. Cleveland could have as many as eight new starters on that side of the ball, joining leftovers Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward and Ronnie Harrison.
The additions of John Johnson III, Troy Hill, Greg Newsome II, Jadeveon Clowney, Takk McKinley, Malik Jackson, Anthony Walker, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Tommy Togiai, among others, should provide a significant upgrade to that side of the ball. Returns of Grant Delpit, Greedy Williams and Andrew Billings solidify a turnover of about half of the defensive roster.
The Browns didn’t ignore the offense. With Odell Beckham Jr. returning from injury, the Browns brought back Rashard Higgins, KhaDarel Hodge and JoJo Natson to compete at wide receiver.
The addition of Anthony Schwartz and Demetric Felton in the 2021 NFL draft added a much-needed speed to the offense as well.
With all of those additions and very few subtractions, the Browns have been getting a lot of positive attention for their offseason. Not everyone is head over heels for what the Browns did, compared to the rest of the league at least.
ESPN (subscriber piece, $) ranked Cleveland’s offseason as the tenth best in the league stating what they could have done differently:
What they could have done differently: Cleveland could have gone after one of the other available edge rushers as opposed to Clowney, who signed a one-year, $8 million deal. Justin Houston and Melvin Ingram both have knee injuries in their past, but then again, so does Clowney. Signing Clowney also seemingly led the Browns to cut Richardson, and while the organization has talked about possibly bringing the former Jets tackle back, he might be the better player at this point.
While the signing of Clowney could turn out to be a poor decision and cutting Sheldon Richardson could come back to bite the team, those decisions are outweighed by the good.
There are a few teams ranked above the Browns that are quite shocking. One that sticks out as glaring is the New Orleans Saints. The Saints lost Drew Brees, Jared Cook, Emmanuel Sanders and Sheldon Rankins yet somehow had a better offseason than Cleveland?
There is an argument to be made that the Browns had the best offseason in the NFL so far in 2021. Given that argument, there is little doubt that the Browns offseason was better than tenth.
