Cleveland Browns: Spend Whatever It Takes To Land A Top Offensive Guard

The Cleveland Browns’ offensive line was a mess last season and part of their solution to better play must be fixed in free agency.

For multiple reasons the Cleveland Browns‘ offensive line played horrible in 2016. Some were due to injuries, while others were due to poor execution or the quality of players were below average.

As the 2017 offseason starts to take form, Cleveland must spend big money on one of the top offensive guards on the market. Two such players come to mind to help fix that area of the line: Green Bay Packers’ T.J. Lang and Cincinnati Bengals’ Kevin Zeitler.

Browns left guard Joel Bitonio will be back starting in the fall. However, veteran lineman John Greco is not a guarantee to be healthy come the summer when practices start to pick up let alone the preseason.

Whenever he is ready to play again, Greco’s best role may be as a spot starter given his flexibility along the line or as the starting center. For the Browns sake, they need to acquire the best possible player they can to improve their roster.

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That said, Greco is valuable for Cleveland. However, in terms of their starting right guard position goes, there’s talent to be had so the Browns need to add in free agency.

Both Lang and Zeitler should end up on the open market come March. Spotrac.com has Lang’s market value set at $8.4 million/year, while Zeitler’s value was set at $11.6 million/year.

Based off of a four-year deal, Cleveland could end up signing them to a contract worth between $32-$47 million. That is fair compensation, but I would expect a contract’s final terms to be worth way more, especially if it is for Zeitler.

Should Cleveland go about adding a quality lineman like one of the two mentioned above, they will have fixed a key need. Not only that, but adding such a talent also would give them more flexibility in when and how they want to go about drafting an offensive lineman.

Such a contract would fluctuate based off of opposing teams’ interest and believe me, there will be multiple teams hoping both Lang and Zeitler lands with their organization.

Without solid, reliable offensive line play, no quarterback or offense can have and maintain success. Look at the Oakland Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys. Both franchises have very good lines and as a result have succeeded.