The War Between The Browns & The People Who Cover Them.

It has been evident all year long that there is a disconnect between the front office of the Cleveland Browns and the people who cover the team.

There is no question that the Browns’ front office is trying something that really hasn’t been done since the Dallas Cowboys after Tom Landry was fired, and Jerry Jones bought the team and hired Jimmy Johnson as head coach.

After last season, they decided to release older players who were making big money, and accumulate draft picks.

To do that, they needed to trade down in the 2016 draft, and in doing so, passed up on several players who made an immediate impact this season, namely Ohio State products Ezekiel Elliott and Joey Bosa.

They had 14 picks in 2016 and will have 13 more next spring, as they try to lay a foundation for the future, one that hasn’t been laid before.

Of course, this is difficult to sell to a media that has covered a team that has made one playoff appearance since 1994. They are exposed to this everyday and to be sure it gets old, covering loss after loss, with seemingly a new head coach and new promises every other year.

At yesterday’s press conference with Sashi Brown, Paul DePodesta, and Hue Jackson, you could hear the conflict with the questions that were asked.

And there was one article today addressing the “arrogance” of Brown and DePodesta after a season in which there was one win.

Look, we aren’t a genius, but here is what we feel the Browns plan is:

They wanted to rid the roster of high-priced veterans with no upside to their careers, and replace them with young players who will get better with experience. We are talking about guys like Karlos Dansby and Donte Whitner.

To do that, they wanted to accumulate extra draft choices in the 2016 draft to fill the holes on the roster and lay a foundation for the future. To do that, they made a decision to get out of the top ten picks, and therefore passing on some elite talents.

Whether they did that remains to be seen, because unlike some folks, we aren’t going to make rash judgments on first year players.

However, we do see promise in Corey Coleman, Emmanuel Ogbah, Carl Nassib, Derrick Kindred, Seth DeValve, and Shon Coleman.

With those young players in place, now the front office will try to use the four picks they have in the first 50 selections to pick some impact talent to go along with the ’16 draft class.

That’s why we are under the belief that they will not trade down from the first overall pick. They may trade down from #12 if they think they can get the player they want by moving down slightly.

They also understand they need a quarterback, but they aren’t going to draft let’s say the 50th best player at #1 or #12. They are going to be true to their draft board.

Which, of course, is something they should be doing.

The media is in love with quarterbacks. Most of them pooh-poohed Carson Wentz before last year’s draft, but after Wentz played well in his first three games (including one vs. Cleveland), they hammered the front office for trading down.

This isn’t to say what the front office is doing will work, but it should be given a chance before it is condemned. They’ve tried mixing veterans with young guys, bringing in some vets for leadership, etc.

Guess what? It hasn’t worked.

Why not tear it down and start completely over? And don’t blame these guys for mistakes made by past regimes.

It’s not difficult to understand. Would it be too much to ask for the media to open their minds?

Too Soon To Rate Browns’ Rookie Class

Most football experts agree you really can’t evaluate an NFL draft class for three years after the players are picked.

That doesn’t stop fans and some of the media from deciding already that the first year Browns players are busts, although even the harshest critics are softening on Emmanuel Ogbah, who has come on strong as of late.

While in Cleveland, we are certainly aware of Carson Wentz, who was acquired with a pick originally owned by the Browns, and we also know Ohio State products Joey Bosa and Ezekiel Elliott, who have both made great impacts with thus far, not every rookie in the NFL appears to be headed to Canton.

Somehow, that seems to be the expectation when the players are picked by Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta.

Think back to before this season actually started and the opinion most people had of last year’s first round pick, Danny Shelton. He was considered a bust. However, look at how much progress the nose tackle has made in his second year.

You can also see the progress made by third year pro LB Christian Kirksey, who looks to be a building block for the future. Kirksey, along with injured G Joel Bitonio, are the lone remaining players from the ’14 draft.

You can’t be successful if you only have two players left from three years ago. However, don’t pin that mistake on Brown and DePodesta, they weren’t here. It’s not fair to blame them.

While Shelton looks like the best of the ’15 selections, Duke Johnson was also in the draft, and we still like Ibraheim Campbell. Of course, you also have the Cam Erving question. Many think he’s a bust, but others still see him as a serviceable NFL offensive lineman.

And while fans wonder why at least a few of Cleveland’s picks didn’t turn out like Elliott and QB Dak Prescott, with the Cowboys, who have the best record in the NFL, it’s a lot easier for those two to be productive surrounded by solid veterans, a luxury the Browns’ rookie class doesn’t have.

Certainly, Ogbah has stood out on defense and Carl Nassib flashed early, but seems to have plateaued. Corey Coleman got hurt, which seems to have set back his progress.

We haven’t seen much of Shon Coleman, but Joe Schobert, Ricardo Louis, Derrick Kindred, Seth DeValve, and Spencer Drango have all been on the field this season with various degrees of success.

It will be interested and necessary to see the progress of those players when they go through an NFL off-season conditioning program, and can be in that program from the end of the season until training camp.

We feel we tend to underestimate how much these players lose attending scouting combines and personal workouts instead of getting ready for an NFL season.

Any criticism of this draft class is reactionary and premature. It’s simply way too soon to form judgments, and comparing all picks to Elliott, Prescott, and Joey Bosa is not fair.

You have to see the process through. With all the picks Cleveland has in the 2017 draft, they will likely have half of the opening game roster next year be first and second year players.

Making the playoffs would be a miracle next year, but there should be reason for optimism. Just don’t let your impatience get the best of you.

Understand Browns Process, But Still Have Questions

With the Cleveland Browns, you either trust the process or you are bitter about a 0-11 season.

There doesn’t seem to be any in between.

For us, it is more the former than the latter. Nothing else has worked for this franchise since they returned to the NFL in 1999.

They’ve tried signing free agents, they’ve tried trading down in the draft to accumulate more picks, they’ve drafted quarterbacks on the first round, they’ve tried signing experienced veteran passers.

Mostly, they’ve tried to be competitive every year. That may sound like a good thing, trying to win as many games as you can each season, but it doesn’t allow the organization to build a foundation of talent.

So, Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta decided to basically build from scratch, like an expansion team. Get rid of the older, declining veteran players, and replace them with young guys with a future and draft picks.

It seems logical, but it doesn’t make losing every week less painful. And although we get what the Browns are trying to accomplish, it doesn’t mean we don’t understand why fans of this team, with over 20 years of pretty much horrible football, are frustrated.

And even though we get and support what the front office is doing (why not try something new?), there are things that drive us crazy and make us shake our head.

The first is the offensive line. Clearly, the combination the Browns are using isn’t working. The running game isn’t working anymore, and our quarterbacks are resembling Evel Knievel.

Cleveland used a third round pick on Shon Coleman, an offensive tackle. Why not put him out there? Several football people have told us the line may improve by moving Austin Pasztor to guard, next to Joe Thomas, and put Coleman at right tackle.

Perhaps they would be able to run better behind Thomas and Pasztor and relieve some of the pressure off the passer.

And no, maybe we are crazy, but we aren’t ready to move on from Cam Erving just yet. Perhaps putting him between two veterans (Pasztor and John Greco) will help him.

The offense is sputtering, scoring no more than 10 points in any of the last three games. So, why not get the ball into the hands of the Browns’ best playmakers, Terrelle Pryor and Duke Johnson, more often.

We just witnessed the Steelers getting the ball to Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown as much as possible. Why not copy them.

We’d have Pryor getting hitch passes, slants, deep throws, and even running on end arounds or jet sweeps. Johnson has the ability to take a short throw and make something out of it.

Right now, they are under utilized.

We understand part of the problem may very well be the revolving door Hue Jackson has at quarterback. The team hasn’t been able to start the same guy more than three weeks in a row.

This week, it’s more of Josh McCown, who no doubt will make a critical error at some point in the game.

It is frustrating to watch the Browns week after week, and not get the payoff of seeing a victory. The front office wants and needs high draft picks.

Hopefully, Brown’s plan pays off and the rebuilding process has been accelerated. If not, we don’t know what the team can try next.

Browns’ Final Roster Not Shocking

No one should be surprised that all 14 of the draft choices made by the Browns’ new front office made the initial 53 man roster yesterday.

How many of them are still there after Sashi Brown, Hue Jackson, and the personnel staff scour the waiver wire is a good question, but our guess is that most of the 14 will still be wearing orange and brown.

Let’s face it, it’s a new front office staff, and the team they inherited went 3-13 a year ago. The question should be why didn’t they just replace most of the players who were on the team a year ago.

After the 2015 season ended, the roster had too many players over 30 for a team that had the second overall pick in the draft.

Now, there are just seven, and only three (Joe Thomas, John Greco, and Gary Barnidge) are starters, and it would not be a shock if two more, Andrew Hawkins and Tramon Williams, are released after the organization reviews the players cut by other teams yesterday.

There are now only three players, Thomas, Williams, and back up QB Josh McCown who have been in the NFL for ten years or more.

Perhaps the biggest surprise yesterday was the trade of former 1st round selection Justin Gilbert to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a sixth round pick in 2018.

We understand Gilbert was a polarizing figure here in his two plus seasons, but we thought he was buried by the old coaching staff, and when he did play, he wasn’t burned consistently by wide receivers.

His reputation was that he didn’t take well to coaching, and we get that.

On the other hand, it is interesting that both Gilbert and another first rounder, Barkevious Mingo, were both acquired by teams with a history of winning football in Pittsburgh and New England.

If either become contributors with their new squads it will say volumes about the talent evaluation of the Cleveland organization, both past and present.

Our opinion of Mingo, in particular, is that he is an athletic freak. His interception of Peyton Manning against Denver last year may have been the most amazing play made by a Browns’ defender all season. Why any coordinator here couldn’t find a place or scheme in which to use him is a fail by Cleveland.

The current roster has 18 rookies or first year players, and 10 second year guys. That’s 28 of the current 53, which even a non-math expert knows is more than half.

That’s how you build a football team.

You also have to make a commitment to the coaching staff, so they don’t have to worry about accumulating wins while playing young players.

That was the weakness of previous regimes here. They wanted to get younger, but they also wanted the coach to win. That’s why the Randy Starks, Donte Whitners, and Karlos Dansbys of the NFL were brought in.

We trust that Brown and Jimmy Haslam have told Jackson not to be concerned with the Browns record in 2016.

How should we judge the coach this season? Focus on the progression of the team. If the Browns are a better, more competitive football team when they take the field on January 1st against the Steelers than they are next Sunday, then Jackson has done his job.

In the meantime, the next few days should be interesting to see who will dress a week from today, and who won’t be a part of phase one of the building process.

What Did You Expect From Browns?

It was shocking to read and listen to both fans and media alike being irritated by the Browns’ performance Friday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

What did these people expect? Did they believe Hue Jackson’s team was suddenly going to dominate another NFL team?

After Jackson was hired and Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta took over control of the franchise, the management has made no bones about the direction of the team. They were going to get younger and build through the draft, really the only tried and true method of building a winning football team.

If you have read this blog since the beginning of 2016, we have advocated and predicted that Brown and DePodesta were going to rid the roster of most of the over 30 years of age crew.

After all, the only thing worse than being a bad team is being a bad, old team.

The purge started with Donte Whitner and Karlos Dansby, Dwayne Bowe followed, and now Paul Kruger and even punter Andy Lee were moved off the squad.

And we believe that Tramon Williams, Andrew Hawkins won’t be here for week one, and we have a feeling that Josh McCown won’t be either.

The Browns are accumulating young players and draft picks, and when you play a lot of inexperienced players, losing usually follows. At least at the beginning.

The expectation is the team will build around the players taken last season that weren’t really given a chance to play, the 14 draft picks taken last April, and all of the picks the front office has accumulated in the 2017 and 2018 NFL Drafts.

That doesn’t mean the players and coaching staff will not try to win every week, of course they will, that’s imbedded in the DNA of competitive people.

However, they are usually going to be outmanned in each game, mostly because of a lack of experience.

What the front office is trying to decide is who can be a contributing player in 2018 or 2019, when this team is ready to make a legitimate playoff run. If it happens sooner, then great, all that means is the Browns will be winners and still have a boatload of draft picks.

Gone is the philosophy of bringing veterans to patch some holes and keep the team somewhat competitive, perhaps winning five or six games so the coaching staff can say the Browns are improving.

Instead, the organization is throwing a lot of stuff against the wall and hoping some of it sticks.

The rookies and second year players are going to get to play and prove themselves. If they get better as the season progresses, the coaches and front office will determine them to be keepers. If they can’t get it done, they will be replaced by younger players acquired in the next two drafts.

It’s not a mystery. Every signal given by the folks in Berea indicate just that.

So, don’t be surprised if this team loses in the early part of the season, and sometimes, the games will be flat out ugly.

And if the team doesn’t show some improvement as the season goes on, then you can be concerned, because that’s the plan.

In the meantime, get ready for more veterans to depart and more young players, particularly players cut after the final cut this weekend, to be brought in.

Frankly, we are puzzled as to why people were expecting anything different.

Grading Browns Draft? Stupid To Do Now

No one can evaluate how the Cleveland Browns did in the NFL draft for several years. Anyone who wants to tell you differently is insane.

All of the analysts who rank the drafts for each team are doing so based on how they ranked each player prior to the selection process.

For example, if the writer/analyst liked Corey Coleman and let’s say, Carl Nassib, then they would probably say the Browns had a very good draft.

If they didn’t like those guys, then they are panning Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta for not taking Laquon Treadwell with the 15th overall pick.

It really is that simple.

That’s why you see a large disparity of grade on the Browns’ draft. Pro Football Focus gave them an “A”. Mel Kiper gave them a “C”. Pete Prisco gave them a “C-“.

Lord knows what famous Browns critic Jason LaCanfora gave them. Is there a grade lower than F?

One thing we can say is Brown and company are trying to make this team younger, and with 14 picks and the acquisition of CB Jamar Taylor from Miami, the roster will have a drastic turnover from a year ago.

We have written several times about the players over 30 years of age on this roster. The choices Cleveland made indicate more of this group will be gone by the time training camp starts in July.

Paul Kruger said a lot of good things at OTA’s a few weeks ago, but with the drafting of Emmanuel Ogbah, Nassib, and Joe Schobert, there doesn’t seem to be room for him to play.

Grabbing Taylor in the deal with the Dolphins likely will mean that Tramon Williams will not be with the Browns for long.

And with four wide receivers being picked, one of them the first rounder, will Andrew Hawkins be in Berea by the end of summer?

If those players aren’t here, that will leave punter Andy Lee, Joe Thomas, John Greco, and Gary Barnidge as the only players on the wrong side of 30.

The lightning rod pick was taking QB Cody Kessler from USC on the third round. That’s what a lot of people want to talk about, with most of the objections being that he was a third round pick.

While that is true, he was picked 93rd, and Cleveland had (at the time) the 99th and 100th overall picks.

If Kessler were chosen with one of those selections, would that appease the critics? In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t mean much difference.

And for the people who wanted the Browns to take local boy Connor Cook? A bunch of teams passed on him multiple times. And to reiterate what we used to say about Brian Hoyer, just because a player is from here, doesn’t need they will be good quarterbacks.

Not everyone from northeast Ohio is Bernie Kosar.

Also, Kessler’s presence may mean another member of the over 30 set could be gone soon. It wouldn’t be a shock if Josh McCown is dealt before the beginning of the regular season.

We knew going into this off-season that the Browns were going to overhaul their roster, and by getting 15 new players last weekend, the process has started.

But judging the draft now, and putting a grade on it is based on bias and is out and out stupid. You also can’t pin the sins of past administrations on Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta.

The Browns are sticking to a plan right now. Whether they can stick to the plan will probably determine how successful they will be.

Trading Down Just Means Passing On Talent

Based on our entry on Sunday, you can well imagine we were not happy with the Cleveland Browns’ decision to trade out of the second overall pick in next week’s NFL Draft.

To move down six spots, we feel you needed to get a second round pick this year, not two years from now.

The Browns are spinning this as having six picks in the top 100 players, however, two of those picks are #99 and #100. Really, they have four picks in the top 77 players, which is just one more pick than they would have if they had done nothing.

For this year, you received a third round pick and another in the fourth in order to move down six spots.

We feel the Browns need great players. Can they get one of the players we identified the other day with the 8th choice? Of course, there is a chance, but now they could lose a possibility of getting the guy they judged to have been the second best player.

Getting a first rounder next year is a given, and if the Eagles chose correctly, which means the Browns passed up a good quarterback, that pick will be in the lower half of the first round.

If the guy they pick doesn’t play well, then the Browns get another high first round pick, which is what they already had.

It just seems like the old philosophy is still in vogue at Berea…We’ll be good next year.

Look, we know the Browns are not going to be contending for a playoff spot for a few years, but it’s still not too early to start accumulating the foundation. So, unless another trade occurs, and it might, Cleveland still has just one first round pick, and one second pick this year.

That’s where you get starters. And the Browns aren’t any better than they were before the trade.

If they would have received a 2nd rounder this year and then had four of the top 65 players, to us, that’s better value.

And if you are in the camp where you believed both Jared Goff and Carson Wentz can be franchise quarterbacks, you have to be livid today.

The Browns were in a position to get one of them, and now they will get neither. Time will tell if Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta are smarter than everyone or they acted like a teenager who just got paid and its Friday night.

If you trade down again on draft night, it’s just a repeat of what has been done time and again in Berea, accumulating picks. What you are really doing is delaying making a decision.

You are saying you don’t trust your draft board.

The gutsy move would have been to take whoever is the best player according to your rankings after the Rams made the first selection. It worries me that these guys aren’t trusting the scouting staff.

That, and the high picks they received will not help this team until the 2017 and 2018 seasons. It seems the whole process is being delayed, and Browns’ fans should be fed up with that thinking.

Not to mention you are also letting a team in your division, the Ravens, pick in front of you.

However, the people who love having picks will like this move.

We’d rather get the second best player in the draft. On the other hand, based on decisions like this, they may get another opportunity in April 2017.

Browns Should Keep #2, Trade Down Later

Many people think the Los Angeles Rams threw a wrench in the NFL draft plans of many teams when they moved up 14 spots to the first overall selection.

Now, there are many Browns’ fans and media alike advocating trading down to gain more picks, just like the Tennessee Titans did.

We are not in that category.

This is not to say the Browns have an awful lot of holes on the roster, and need plenty of help. However, we would not trade down from the second selection in the process.

Cleveland earned getting the second pick by virtue of their terrible 2015 season, and they should not forfeit the choice.

While we aren’t draft experts or scouts, there does seem to be some talented players, Pro Bowl type players in the top five guys coming into the league.

If the front office and coaching staff still want a quarterback after signing Robert Griffin III as a free agent, then they can still select whomever is left between Jared Goff and Carson Wentz.

If they want to add to the other areas of the team, most of which need help for sure, they can choose between DT DeForest Buckner of Oregon, CB/S Jalen Ramsey of Florida State, DE Joey Bosa of Ohio State, and LB Myles Jack of UCLA.

Notice all four of those guys are defensive players, and if you can recall last season (or still want to for that matter), the Browns defense resembled a sieve.

Whether it is on offense or defense, the Browns need a star, someone to build the unit around. That’s why we would keep the pick.

Don’t forget that the brown and orange have the first pick in the second round too. Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta will likely be inundated with teams wanting that pick from the end of the first round on Thursday to the time the second round starts on Friday.

If Cleveland wants to deal that choice to get more picks, then so be it. It is sound strategy. We aren’t disputing the Browns need a large influx of talent.

But they need great players to start the building process, and more often than not you get great players early in the first round.

Granted, Tennessee got a haul for moving down to #15, they should have. There is a big difference between picking first and in the middle of the round. The Browns would probably have to go down that many spots to get that type of bounty.

Dropping out of the top five or even the top ten choices, won’t get you as much as the Titans received. And is it really worth an extra pick or two this year to remove yourself from having the chance to pick one of the top five players in this year’s draft?

Besides, we feel the Browns will wind up with more picks this year anyway. It would not be surprising if Cleveland dealt players like Paul Kruger, Trammon Williams, Desmond Bryant, and yes, even Joe Thomas for more picks during the draft.

Remember, all of those guys are over 30 years old, and we believe the front office doesn’t want aging players on this roster.

The gutsy move is to make a decision at #2, and not defer it until later in the draft. Take the best player on your draft board, whether it’s a QB or not.

The Browns needs players, yes. However, they also need great players.

Optimism On Browns Doesn’t Mean Winning

When you are doing something different, you leave your self open for criticism. That’s what the Cleveland Browns are experiencing this off-season.

Look, we have no idea if the “analytic” approach will work, or whether Sashi Brown, Paul DePodesta, Andrew Berry, and Hue Jackson will get the Browns back to the playoffs.

What we do know is that they can’t be worse than what came before them.

Cleveland has lost ten games or more in seven of the last eight seasons. They aren’t exactly a model of success.

So, we don’t listen to the national experts about how an NFL franchise is supposed to operate. We understand that the new front office staff is trying something different, and that is absolutely fine.

Veteran NFL executive Bill Polian made the comment, presumably because of DePodesta’s presence that the Browns were conducting the equivalent of a baseball fire sales.

Polian might have been trying to be snarky, but he is correct. That is exactly what the Browns are doing. They are basically gutting the roster and starting over. And we say why not?

All of the losing has poisoned the locker room. These guys simply don’t know how to win, and they have been exposed to coach after coach without an idea of how to win, or the enthusiasm to do so.

So, if Jackson comes off as cocky and self-confident, he is a virtual extrovert compared to Eric Mangini, Pat Shurmur, and Mike Pettine.

Think about it, when did any of those guys show one ounce of bounce and pep on the sideline.

Think about how the players, even the good ones, talked as the season went on and the losses piled up over the years. How many of them were genuinely angry or ticked off?

Exactly. That’s why one by one, the front office is purging those guys.

It is also funny to hear players offer statements questioning the weight program over the past few seasons. Apparently, Jackson and his staff looked at Cam Erving, for example, and told him he needed to get a lot stronger.

Why didn’t anyone tell him before now?

We have said it will be apparent this season how poorly this team was coached over the last two seasons. We will not be surprised at all if players like Danny Shelton, Erving, Nate Orchard, Christian Kirksey, and Ibrahim Campbell can be solid to good NFL players with the correct leadership.

We don’t know how these guys will draft and what their eye for talent is, but they shouldn’t be condemned by the mistakes of the people who came before them.

More veterans will be let go or traded before the beginning of training camp and we are okay with that. We believe these guys are following our adage, that being the only worse than a bad team is a bad, old team.

So, optimistic may be the wrong word regarding our thoughts on the Browns, perhaps a healthy curiosity is a better choice. At this point, you have to think that what they are doing makes sense.

And that doesn’t mean we think the Browns are going to win in 2016 either. If they win three or four games, that’s probably an accurate prediction.

But we can feel good about it as fans if they are doing it with young players and those guys are showing process on a week to week basis.

That would show a promising future, and if they do a good job with this year’s draft, we can all be anxious to see what they can do with another high pick and a bunch of choices later in the draft.

In the meantime, there is nothing wrong with trying something different. It just may pay off in the long run.

Browns Have More House Cleaning To Do

A few weeks ago, we wrote about the Cleveland Browns’ need to get younger because it’s bad enough to stink, but to have many old players and stink is worse.

Since then, the Browns have cut ties with Karlos Dansby, and Alex Mack departed via free agency. Both were over 30 years old.

However, Sashi Brown and coach Hue Jackson still have a bunch of grizzled veterans who wouldn’t seem to have a place on a building football operation.

Notice he didn’t use the term “rebuilding” because something needs to be in place at one time, and having two winning seasons in 16 years doesn’t really qualify.

Cleveland still has 10 players over 30 years old on the roster, nine if you disqualify punter Andy Lee, because he should be able to kick a football effectively for a few more years.

That leaves this group with their ages listed:

Josh McCown (36)
Tramonn Williams (33)
John Greco (31)
Joe Thomas (31)
Gary Barnidge (30)
Desmond Bryant (30)
Andrew Hawkins (30)
Paul Kruger (30)
Donte Whitner (30)

We would get rid of all of them, and we feel most will no longer be with the team after the NFL Draft occurs in late April.

Rumors already have the brown and orange shopping McCown now that Robert Griffin III signed here as a free agent.

Brown, Paul DePodesta, and Jackson are probably holding on to most of these guys trying to move each of them for additional draft picks during the draft, and if trades can’t be made, many of them could be released shortly after the selection meeting.

The most controversial name here is Thomas, a nine time Pro Bowl player.

We wouldn’t move the future Hall of Famer unless Cleveland can secure a first round draft choice for him. This is likely the last time Thomas would be able to garner such a haul, and our guess is the “analytical” approach of the front office tells them the same thing.

If Thomas is dealt, the Browns may keep Greco to keep at least one veteran on the offensive line. Barnidge will likely stay as well, since the team signed him to a friendly three year deal last season.

For the rest of the players, well, let’s say we wouldn’t get involved in long term lease arrangements.

In our opinion, the new regime wants to get rid of the losing attitude that has hovered over the locker room over the past ten years. It’s no disrespect to these players, who play hard for the most part, but when you lose 10 or more games year in and year out, it is human nature to insulate yourself against all the losing and you begin to accept it.

You lose your will to be angry about it.

The Browns need to build around this draft class and the young players from the past couple of drafts who can play.

We also have a feeling that we will see what a terrible coaching staff this team had the past two years, and perhaps Danny Shelton, Cam Irving, Nate Orchard, and some others aren’t as bad as originally thought.

Basically, the Browns need to do a thorough cleaning of their locker room, getting rid of the losing stench.

So, we anticipate more roster adjustments will be made. In one month, this roster will look completely different from the one who ended the season.