Back in the late 70’s or early 80’s, we remember an essay in Bill James’ Baseball Abstract about the Montreal Expos. The Expos at the time had Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Tim Wallach, Ellis Valentine, and Warren Cromartie (look them up), but couldn’t get over the hump to win the division.
James’ theory was even though Montreal had these five great players, the rest of their everyday lineup was so poor, it offset how good the stars were.
You may ask what that has to do with football. We thought about this in evaluating what the Cleveland Browns did in free agency.
You see, the Browns have star players. Myles Garrett is one of the best defensive players in the NFL, and Nick Chubb is arguably the best running back.
They have their quarterback now after trading for Deshaun Watson, and have a pair of Pro Bowl guards in Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller. Amari Cooper is an upper echelon wide receiver, Denzel Ward is one of the better cover corners in the league, and David Njoku is showing flashes of becoming an excellent receiving tight end.
But after those stars, the roster fell off pretty quickly in terms of quality.
So, although many Browns’ fans felt there were no big splashes in terms of free agency (Jessie Bates or Javon Hargrave), they signed a lot of solid players with upside, so the balance of the roster went from a “2” to a “5”, and that is probably what is needed.
GM Andrew Berry redid the defensive line, signing Dalvin Tomlinson and Ogbonnia Okoronkwo initially, and then added two more defensive tackles as wild cards, low risk, high reward players to improve the depth.
They didn’t get the kind of production out of John Johnson III the past two years, so they signed Juan Thornhill, more of a pass defending safety, and one rated higher by Pro Football Focus, for whatever that is worth.
They had two solid wide receivers in Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones, but they lacked speed, a guy who could take a short pass and make it a big gain. So Berry traded for disgruntled WR Elijah Moore, the 34th overall pick two years ago, and followed that up by signing veteran Marquise Goodwin, late of Seattle.
Cleveland also added a tight end who has worked with Watson before in Jordan Akins.
They traded the 42nd overall pick for Moore but got a third-round pick back. Some of criticized dealing the pick, the highest Cleveland had, but moving it for someone who is 22-years-old and has had two productive seasons in the NFL already? No brainer.
They also upgraded the special teams, adding Matt Adams, Mike Ford, and Jordan Kunaszyk.
We understand all teams think they are better after the free agent period, no team plans to get worse by adding talent. But the Browns had a very top heavy roster in 2022, and Berry and the front office needed to balance it out for this year.
Didn’t they see this last season? It’s a good question, because we thought the organization seemed to punt in ’22 because of Watson’s suspension. It seems odd to do this when you haven’t won an NFL title since 1964, but…
The Cleveland Browns made a lot of changes since the end of the season. Two coordinators have been changed, and a good part of the roster has too. Unfortunately, we have to wait until fall to find out if the latest plan worked.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 