Final 2017 Cleveland Browns Report Card: Offensive Line
January 17, 2018Help on the way? Here are 16 potential Cavs Trade Targets
January 17, 2018Since returning to the league in 1999, the Cleveland Browns have been a case study on how not to handle the quarterback position. They’ve tried veterans. They’ve tried reclamation projects. They’ve tried late-first rounders, second rounders, and even a third rounder. They’ve tried Charlie Whitehurst. Thanks to a winless 2017 season, the Cleveland Browns own the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, and yet here we are debating a subject that needs no debate.
The Browns must—must—take their top-rated quarterback with the first pick in the draft. No trading down and getting someone. No hoping your guys is there at No. 4, only to be leap-frogged by three other quarterback-needy teams. Get. The. Quarterback.
Not helping matters: The rhetoric surrounding the playoffs where a sixth rounder, a third rounder, and an undrafted quarterback are the three best quarterbacks of the bunch—the fourth being a guy taken third overall who his own team benched in the preseason for being wildly inconsistent. You don’t need to use an early-round pick on a quarterback, the story would go. Suddenly, the Jaguars have morphed into the San Antonio Spurs of models to copy, where using early picks and free agency moves to build a defense is enough to cloak the fact that your quarterback is garbage.
Bullshit. Get the quarterback.
While I’ll always advocate spending wisely in free agency (the Jaguars used a rising salary cap to spend $20 million more than anyone this offseason), believing that story would mean ignoring countless other variables, including quarterback injuries (Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers, and Carson Wentz among them) and the fact that the Vikings were one blown coverage away from watching Drew Brees this weekend.
Through the previous five seasons, never has their been more than one anomaly quarterback to make the NFL’s Final Four. There have been a handful of QBs who were not No. 1 picks or Hall of Fame-bound passers to get into the playoffs (Brock Osweiler last season, for example), but they’re few and far between—and even further and fewer between when you extrapolate things to the conference championship weekend. T.J. Yates getting snaps for the Houston Texans in 2011 wasn’t a model worth recreating, it was a sign that that team needed to get a sure-fire quarterback to help put them over the top.
Here’s Peter King earlier this week:
Don’t overrate this and think it means the decline in importance of the Franchise Quarterback. It doesn’t. Just think of championship weekend as an outlier.
And here’s The Ringer’s Kevin Clark:
On Monday, ESPN’s Rich Cimini wrote that the Jets could use the Jaguars as a model, essentially saying that you can win in the NFL without a good quarterback. This is true in the same way that it’s true that you can walk from Los Angeles to New York: yes, it’s possible, but there are easier ways.
The Cleveland Browns need to spend. They need to spend in free agency—it’s not an accident that the Patriots, Titans, Rams, Vikings, Panthers, and Jaguars were among the biggest free agent spenders in 2017—and they need to spend their draft capital, those precious picks that were amassed during these last two seasons of absolutely pathetic on-field production. This includes the No. 1 pick.
Building a dominant defense, at this stage, would be a luxury. Fans who want to laud the Browns’ average yards per run stats as a sign of things to come should take a look at the units that are in the Final Four. Units littered with exceptional secondaries and top-end pass rushing. The Browns, in 2017, were among the teams most likely to blitz, but among the worst in actually turning said blitz into quarterback pressures. That fourth-ranked run defense was strong enough to put the Browns at No. 16 in overall DVOA, but of the top five teams in pass defense (Jacksonville, Baltimore, LA Rams, New Orleans, and Minnesota) four made the postseason while the fifth was a Week 17 collapse away from being in as well. The Browns, meanwhile, were 27th in pass defense, signaling that the road to replicate any of these quarterback agnostic situations is much longer than it would appear.
The 2017 season may prove to some that there are other ways to win in the NFL. A great defense helps, but the quarterback will continue being the most important position of them all. Sure, you can climb the mountain with nothing but your bare hands, but why not make it a bit easier on yourself?
Get the quarterback.
This Week in #ActualSportswriting:
- “I Scouted the Patriots Using Steve Belichick’s Scouting Manual. Here’s What I Learned” by Connor Orr (Sports Illustrated)1
- “Tonya Harding Would Like Her Apology Now” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (NY Times)2
- “The Five Pillars of Popovich” by Ira Boudway (Bloomberg Buisnessweek)
- “The Gordon Hayward Experiment” by Tom Haberstroh (B/R Mag)
This Week in #ActualNonsportswriting:
- “How it Became Normal to Ignore Texts and Emails” by Julie Beck (The Atlantic)3
- “Camila Cabello and the End (?) of Girl Groups” by Lindsay Zoladz (The Ringer)
- “Why Jordan Brand Should Stop Making Signature Shoes” by Russ Bengtson (Complex)4
- “The Ferocious, Sublime Dolores O’Riordan, of the Cranberries” by Amanda Petrusich (New Yorker)
This Week in Bleacher Reporting:
After LeBron James spent more than half of his Monday morning shootaround discussing Martin Luther King Jr.—and not that night’s opponent in the Golden State Warriors, the direction of my postgame story became clear. Debating the merits of ephemeral trade rumors or attempting to analyze a rehabilitating Isaiah Thomas is of little interest to me. Getting multiple eventual Hall of Famers to open up about more bigger picture items? That’s more like it. I hope you feel the same.
- This is great. All too often, sportswriting is reactive—”Hey, here’s what happened!”—as opposed to being the product of a series of concepts or ideas seen to fruition. This is undoubtedly the latter. [↩]
- Taffy’s first-person profiles are must-read. [↩]
- And Slack discussions. [↩]
- “Instagram is the new SLAM magazine, off-court is the new on-court.” [↩]
79 Comments
I don’t know. I was inspired to say “Wow, what a waste of a first round draft pick” at least a half dozen times throughout the season.
Trading out of one but staying in the top four would be perfectly acceptable to me as we sit here in January. I think Rosen is the guy among the QBs, but this isn’t Andrew Luck: some folks aren’t sold. If that lack of being sold is the absurd fever dream that Cousins would even remotely consider calling our fetid diaper of a franchise home when he could get just as paid elsewhere, then those folks are…foolish is the nicest way I can say it. As for him not wanting to play here, I’d call his bluff in a half a heartbeat if we had made the change at HC that we so desperately need, but I’m not as confident with professional tosses of rookie QBs under the bus Hue Jackson at the helm—I’d avoid him, too. That said, plenty of time to convince the kid otherwise.
As for any issues of perception regarding how the number one pick is handled? Personally, I do not give a half of a half of a damn what the media “experts” have to say about a trade down, and the franchise has made abundantly clear they don’t concern themselves with the opinion of the fan base. If you’re passing on a chance to make the team appreciably better now AND later, and you’re doing so out of fear of criticism from outside the organization, then you are a coward who shouldn’t be guiding the franchise in the first place. Doing things just because the nerds before you didn’t (like drafting Allen because he reminds you so much of Wentz or stubbornly not trading back EVER AGAIN) does not guarantee you any more success than they had. The only thing that will matter is the results, not how you got there.
Agree. If Giants really want Rosen, and we see little difference between him and Darnold, then switch spots and grab another 2nd rounder this year and next or even just their 1 next season. The issue is not only who is the best QB coming out, but how much better than the #2 is he.
I’m in.
Hey guys…it turns out we may have mistakenly fired our secret weapon. It is never too late to bring back Sashi for draft time.
Thank you.
Excellent point, me. I like your style.
Actually I just respond here as an addendum, specifically having to do with perception of the team and its decisions on draft day. We all need to get comfortable with the idea that WINNING ON DRAFT DAY MEANS NOTHING. I mean, what’s at stake? Praise from sentient helmet of gelled hair Mel Kiper? An attaboy from whatever ex-player is included in the awkward cast of characters on set on your network of choice? Twitter points? The only thing that matters is how your selections pan out ON THE FIELD. Take the right QB at pick one, pick four, or pick 199 and you’ll be praised regardless. If we take a QB first overall and another team gets a better QB, guess what? The Browns are stupid. If we trade out of the number one and that QB goes on the be a stud? The Browns are stupid. Pass on Barkley and he goes on to be a mix of Barry Sanders and Jim Brown elsewhere? The Browns are stupid. If we take Barkley and he is Trent Richardson 2.0, the Browns are stupid. But it all depends on how they play, not when we draft them. The Browns cannot, will not, and should not win praise off the field until they do something worthy of it on the field. If you’re worried about perception, you’re worrying about the wrong thing.
so , let’s say you trade out of #1 & Rosen & Darnold get picked by other teams & they both end-up being pro-bowlers in their 2nd season a la Wentz & Watson … the fan base & critics heads will explode … can we afford to let this happen again ?
i think the ONLY way you can pass one of these two is if we acquire
Kirk Cousins … which is a possibility.
Only issue I have with this line of thinking is that it assumes there isn’t a consensus in the building. Just because *we* don’t have a consensus, or Mel Kiper/whomever isn’t sold on one doesn’t mean there isn’t a clear cut guy to them, or one won’t shake out throughout the process.
You trade to 2, maybe three. You don’t leave the top four. If Rosen and Darnold go 1-2, Jackson is still there. Right now, sitting here in January? I’d be ok with that. Let’s see what we can learn between now and then.
LMAO !!! … man , you are one-of-a-kind … but in a good way.
you have great point , bu when you come out of some drafts with Gilbert , Manziel & Erving as really high draft picks , that’s more than just bad luck.
Wow was not the first word out of my mouth at least a half dozen times
i agree …
My point is, plenty of process to go. Today, right now? I have zero issue considering moving around at the top of the draft. If a clear choice emerges in the eyes of our new front office by draft day? Then obviously you take your guy number one overall.
I think Chubb deserves a legit discussion. Ogbah is a kind of a Paul Kruger who wont make too much impact without a stud. Nassib is flaky and had 2 seasons to show he’s not a replacement level pass specialist with just 1 move.
Orchard will be a free agent who leaves.
Look at the NYG teas that had Strahan, Jean Paul Pierce and that other stud, they had a clear strength. It’s worth examining.
The reason NFL GMs are paid millions of dollars to to identify that #1 guy. The Browns have the opportunity to take the best player they see fit.
There might not be consensus, but there will be a #1 guy from the Browns perspective. That’s all that matters.
Peppers, Weeden, Mingo…buddy we can make a list longer than my…leg. Of course that’s more than just bad luck. All the more reason I’m done judging this team by anything off the field. Teams that win are inevitably fawned upon by the Peter Kings of the world anyway. So win on Sundays, and don’t worry about grades on draft day.
You already have more faith in the new guys than I am willing to extend. The Browns have made plenty of guys rich without getting the results.
Hey, I’m mindful of the commenting policies around here. The transcripts of my game day musings would not meet those standards.
hi SCRIPTY … i agree. so , maybe it’s more of BPA than drafting for need ?
The execs just need to decide how they want to build the team. If it’s just throwing best players available on a pile and going from there, fine. If they want a dominant offense, fine, etc. They just should have an identity to how they will build the team and go from there. Sometimes the identity comes organically from the players availabile to them at the time.
TLDR
Just because we have Garrett and some avg guys doesnt mean we should immediately disregard chubb
Except for a franchise QB, it is always BPA in my view.
If Minkah is gone, then taking Chubb so that we have Garrett/Ogbah/Chubb in a DE rotation would be… wow, that would be fun.
With the 1st pick you take the best impact player on the board and that is Barkley. Would you pass on a Jim Brown type player? With the 4th pick you take the QB with the highest rating and that is Mayfield. With the 33rd pick you take the next best RB available and move Duke to the slot where he is a natural. You now have a backfield that would be feared in the league. Now you take two secondary guys to fill out round two because you busted on Peppers. Round 3 and 4 should have Miller and Pettis as WR’s. None of this will happen and the Browns will pick Darnold who is uninspiring or Rosen who everybody hates.
Everybody is going to hate any pick who doesn’t perform on the field. I can promise you, if Rosen wins games in a Browns uniform, both he and we will be ok.
This is why The Plan was so dumb to begin with in my opinion. It’s not basketball, where you can tank for a season and spent almost literally any amount of money to buy a championship team. Arguably the Browns now have so much unspent money on the cap that it is going to be impossible to spend it all on one FA class, without ending up with some duds. There are only so many Calais Campbells and Josh Normans available every year.
Oh, and today is the 30th anniversary of…
hi SKULB … good point , but look at the FA QB’s that were available that last couple of years … NOTHING. this year you have Cousins , Brees , Garoppolo , Bridgewater , Keenum , Bradford , maybe McCarron & a few others … I still think Sashi was waiting for this year to start the spending spree on some meaningful free-agents.
Well, apparently there was Keenum. But forget Jimmy Garoppolo. SF can tag him if they can’t get a deal done. And they will tag him. Hard to imagine Brees going anywhere too.