No Real Surprises On Browns’ Cuts Would Indicate Lack Of Depth

After watching the football games that didn’t count, the fact the Cleveland Browns were boat raced in the second half of each of the first two games indicated to us that depth might be a problem. That fear was confirmed when the team pared down the roster to 53 and there really wasn’t any big surprises.

Offensive lineman KT Levenson was a bit of an eyebrow raiser, but only because new offensive line coach George Warhop moved him to guard early in camp and reportedly was impressed. But Levenson struggled all last year when pressed into duty so it’s not as though they were cutting a starting player. And he was added to the practice squad.

We believe everyone was rooting for WR Luke Floreia, from Mentor, after his preseason performance, and his situation was a little complicated for us. We don’t see a world in which Jerry Jeudy will be happy being fourth on the depth chart behind rookies KC Concepcion, Denzel Boston, and second year player Isaiah Bond.

The Browns don’t need headaches in their locker room, so we would have seen what we could have gotten for him on the trade market.

The big news was the back injury for Dillon Gabriel that put him on injured reverse for four weeks and make rookie Taylen Green the third QB. We realize Green is raw, but after the way he played in the last exhibition game, the Browns had to keep him. He’s just that good of an athlete and we have no doubt a good NFL organization would have found a way to use him.

In fact, the Browns should figure out a way to use him in certain situations.

He may never be a starting quarterback in the NFL, but when you are downtrodden franchise, his talent is something they can’t pass up.

Speaking of the quarterbacks, a friend commented after the New England game that of the four QBs who played, Deshaun Watson played the worst. Of course, that’s why he was named the starter for the opener.

While the initial cuts were not surprising, we figured the Browns would be active in picking up players cut by other teams in order to build some of that depth. However, they only claimed one player, Toriano Pride, a cornerback who was the Bills 7th round pick in April.

This comes after they picked up Mekhi Blackmon from Indianapolis last week.

We are anxious to see the defense under new coordinator Mike Rutenberg with all the parts playing. We didn’t see much if any of the unit’s best players, DE Jared Verse, LB Carson Schwesinger, and CBs Denzel Ward and Tyson Campbell.

That the front office picked up two corners in the last couple of weeks should tell you their replacements didn’t flash in the preseason. On the other hand, in today’s NFL, you can never have too many cornerbacks.

There is still almost two weeks until the season opener at Jacksonville, and we would anticipate Andrew Berry, and his staff will be looking for players who can help. They would seem to need a lot of that.

Thoughts About A Meaningless Browns’ Loss

We are sure many fans are saying “same ol’ Browns” after Saturday’s 34-10 beating at the hands of the Chicago Bears. But you know what? It doesn’t count. One thing we don’t know about these games is who is trying to win and who isn’t.

We would assume Todd Monken wants to win because it is his first year as a head coach, but it may not matter to him. And as we say every year, in the second half, which Chicago outscored Cleveland 24-0, featured a bunch of players, a majority probably, who will never play a minute in an NFL regular season game.

Everyone focuses on the starting QB battle, and of course, we will start by saying we don’t understand why there is a competition because it makes no sense to start Deshaun Watson. But Watson did go 11 of 15 for 126 yards, 43 of those on a short pass to RB Dylan Sampson who took it for 43 yards. Without that play, Watson was a pedestrian 10 of 14 for 83 yards.

He also lost a fumble. Look, he did okay. We aren’t ready to say he’s back to his 2020 form with Houston.

Shedeur Sanders did throw an interception, but the six passes he completed went for 79 yards, completing one for 35 yards and another for 24 yards. He also had two throws knocked down at the line of scrimmage.

We should also inform everyone we are not some sort of crazed Shedeur fan. We simply don’t see the upside in playing a QB who hasn’t played well in six years and whose contract ends after this season.

To argue about it now seems like a moot point because from his comments after the game, the coach seems ready to name Watson the starter, probably with a push from the front office, because, you know, the Browns have a dysfunctional organization.

As for the other individual performances, it looks like the Browns might have some talent at wide receiver. Rookies KC Concepcion returned a kickoff 31 yards and scored the only touchdown on a jet sweep. And Denzel Boston is simply a big target, something this franchise has needed for a long time.

Monken has already named the second-round pick as a starter.

First round pick Spencer Fano also played well, but we don’t know how many snaps the Bears’ starters played and we would also guess the defensive scheme they played was very vanilla.

Let us reiterate again, the game doesn’t count. It wasn’t too long ago that the Browns went 4-0 in exhibition play and then went 1-15 in the regular season.

Probably the best indication of anything prior to the opening of the regular season will be the joint practice with the Buffalo Bills this week. That will likely show more than any of the preseason contests.

A poll was put out before the game asking what people were thinking about Monken’s first game as head coach of the Browns. We will let you know just prior to September 13th, because that’s his first game. These games are glorified scrimmages that the NFL owners make fans pay to see.

Hopefully, Sanders plays well in his opportunity to get this ridiculous notion about starting Watson reconsidered.

On Paper, The Browns’ Draft Leaves Little To Complain About.

The Cleveland Browns participated in the NFL Draft over the weekend and this year there was no weirdness like drafting two quarterbacks or two running backs. It seemed to be a sound sensible draft and if you believe the draft pundits, GM Andrew Berry had a real good weekend.

It was a given going in the Browns were going to look for a left tackle early in the selection process and after a trade down with Kansas City, they took Spencer Fano out of Utah, and coach Todd Monken said he will play the position. Fano played right tackle the past couple of years in college but did play on the left side during his freshman season.

We will say this with all of the picks, that no one knows for sure until these guys take the field, but Fano seems like a guy who can be an NFL starter. He was highly rated by the “draftniks”, with the only negative being his arms were short.

With their second pick in the first round, they went with KC Concepcion from Texas A & M. We would have preferred a bigger wide receiver, since the majority of the wideouts the Browns have are smaller. And the rap on Concepcion is he has questionable hands.

The Browns have a type. They love receivers who struggle catching the football, which would seem to be the prerequisite for the job. We understand he’s dynamic in the open field, but if you don’t hang on to the ball…

They remedied that on the second round, taking Denzel Boston, listed a 6’4″ and 209 pounds. You have to wonder with Concepcion and Boston now on the roster, how that affects Jerry Jeudy. We don’t see Jeudy being happy with his role if he’s suddenly the third or fourth wide receiver in the pecking order.

Cleveland also added S Emmanuel McNeil-Warren from Toledo in the third round (58th overall). We saw several draft experts projecting him as a late first round pick, so the value is there. With Grant Delpit being a potential free agent after the year and Ronnie Hickman on a one-year tender, this selection makes a lot of sense.

They built depth with the rest of the draft, especially on the offensive line and at tight end, with after the last couple of years, having extra players at those spots, that is definitely needed. The Browns have had to play linemen just signed or activated off the practice squad over the last couple of seasons.

We know we asked the Browns not to take a QB, but really, Taylen Green is the perfect 6th round pick, a ton of upside and an elite athlete. Now, we would still move one of the three quarterbacks currently on the roster, but not the one the team will choose, we are sure. At least having him on the field will make the exhibition games worth watching.

Pretty much everything about the draft made sense and Berry picked a lot of players ranked highly by the draft experts. That’s the reason they received high marks.

The truth of the matter is no one will really know until these players take the field against a different team. But there isn’t a lot to complain about right now.