With the playoffs nearing an end, let’s pause and look back at the five biggest blunders of the Cleveland Browns from the much-hyped 2019 season.
The Cleveland Browns in hindsight really messed up their turnaround season in the offseason. Quite literally, there was no move that was well received with the ability of hindsight. Sure a lot of these moves were heralded at the time, but if there’s one thing that we learned it’s that you can’t judge huge moves in the moment. That’s something you can only do after the fact.
There were some really disastrous moves that the Browns front office made, which is partly why the Browns front office is now all in the unemployment line. Identifying the five biggest issues this team faced isn’t hard. They’re mostly obvious, so don’t expect to be amazed that the last slide is in fact the last slide. We all know what’s coming. That said there are two other events that often go unmentioned when Browns fans lament the terrible year that was, and those two will kick things off.
It’s acknowledged that it’s easy to look back at these events in hindsight and criticize the moves, that said there might be one writer on this site that may or may not have lamented the moves in the moment. That doesn’t mean anyone who had high expectations was a fool for expecting these moves to pan out. After all, the Cleveland media told us that John Dorsey was this franchise making savior. Instead, we found out exactly why Kansas City let him leave.
They couldn’t have left a voice mail warning the Browns? How rude.
So with all that being said, these are the five biggest mistakes the Browns made heading into the 2019 season. May this be the last time this dreadful year is ever revisited. Until the next column that is.
Not drafting a lineman higher
The 2019 NFL draft will go down as a whopping disappointment for so many reasons, many of which will be talked about later. The Browns may have wasted their first-round pick in a trade, but that doesn’t justify their draft strategy. Despite having a full accompaniment of linebackers, with all three starters entrenched, the Browns opted to draft Mack Wilson in the 5th round and Sione Takitaki in the 3rd.
The Browns wouldn’t take a lineman, their biggest position of need, until the 6th round with tackle-turned-guard Drew Forbes. Forbes spent a good chunk of the year on the injured reserved, before being moved inside to be Joel Bitonio’s backup. This after drafting Greedy Williams at corner in the 2nd round, and kicker Austin Seibert in the 5th.
Now some of these positions may have needed depth and maybe some of these players were simply too good to pass up. That said, the Browns knew that Greg Robinson wasn’t the answer at left tackle. They ran with him anyway because they didn’t have any better options in 2018. They knowingly went into the draft and bypassed improving the tackle position despite the fact that Robinson has busted out of two previous stops in the NFL.
Forbes could turn into something wonderful, who knows? He simply wasn’t healthy enough to play. With how bad Robinson was, you’d at least think the Browns would have tried him out at left tackle. Silly us for thinking they’d do something that would make sense. That said, not prioritizing the biggest position of need wasn’t help smart. The secondary needed help, that’s entirely true, but they didn’t need to go and select three defensive backs and two linebackers.
The obvious two positions that need to be addressed this year, be it in free agency or the draft, is tight end and tackle. Let’s hope the new front office doesn’t pooch this draft too.
Cutting Seth Devalve and Carl Nassib
Now hold on. Yes, Carl Nassib was cut in the 2018 season and that was dumb then too. The reason why Nassib makes the 2019 list, however, is two-fold. Firstly, he played better than Olivier Vernon this season. That’s not even debatable. He’s also $13 million or so cheaper for the same production. Plus Nassib is bigger, and longer than Vernon, allowing Nassib to have more versatility with how you could use him.
Nassib could be a great red-zone/hail mary defensive back. He’s got good footwork, smooth hips, and the ability to play the pass. Plus he’s built like an NBA power forward with long, lanky arms.
Secondly, when Myles Garrett got suspended the team was lacking someone to help get pressure and that could’ve been Nassib. He only had six sacks in Tamp Bay in each of the last two years but he also wasn’t a full-time starter. He only started 8 of the 14 games he played in 2019. Imagine if he was on a team that valued him enough to play full time? His numbers would be even more impressive. He still would have been an impact player of sorts with Garrett out. Maybe not 18 sacks for a year, but the possibility of double digits does exist.
Now the Seth Devalve selection will confuse some readers. Devalve was once considered to be on par if not better than L.A. Chargers tight end Hunter Henry by some draft sites. He certainly showed flashes his first two seasons with the Browns but his 2018 campaign was marred by how the team used him. He got cut, went on to Jacksonville, and played well as a spot starter. He started six games and played in a total of 12.
Looking at the Browns tight ends, and there were a lot, the total group was targeted 73 times, with 44 receptions for a whopping 497 yards. The Browns had zero help from the tight end unit in 2019 and Devalve showed flashes in 2016 and 2017 that he could be a good target. Having Devalve on the roster would’ve provided Baker Mayfield that much-needed safety blanket he was lacking. Outside of the two star wide receivers, no Browns player broke 300 yards total for the year. Devalve may have been that guy to actually do just that.
Trading Duke Johnson
When the Browns signed Kareem Hunt, the team angered Duke Johnson and he demanded out of Cleveland. Johnson’s time in Cleveland saw him average 542 yards receiving alone from scrimmage during his career with the Browns. With a team that didn’t have a tight end, no slot receiver and a quarterback looking for a check-down option throughout most of the 2019 season, it would have made plenty of sense to have Johnson fill that third receiver role with the team.
Yet, the Browns fumbled the way they handled Johnson. Instead of retaining him, showing him the value he’d bring to the team, and using him in creative packages, they essentially gave him away for peanuts. The move weakened the passing game considerably.
The team didn’t have a slot receiver they could rely on. Antonio Callaway was a mess with all sorts of problems after a solid rookie campaign, and then Rashard Higgins was marginalized into obscurity by Freddie Kitchens, despite putting up over 500 yards in 2018. With Johnson’s versatility and dynamic playmaking abilities, the Browns would have been better off putting him in the slot and transitioning him to a slot receiver for three-quarters of snaps played. Johnson had an amazing ability to make plays one on one, and that would have helped with screenplays, dump outs, and slant routes.
Kareem Hunt wasn’t a bad option, but he’s nowhere near the pass-catching dynamo that Johnson is out of the backfield. Instead of being creative and finding a way to make Johnson useful, the team decided they’d actually stand up to a disgruntled player for the only team all year and traded Johnson to Houston for a measly third-round draft pick.
Trading with New York
The trade with the New York Giants was a giant and monumental waste of assets. Sure, Odell Beckham Jr. wasn’t a complete waste, though he only caught about half the passes thrown to him. With the offense being so predicated on timing, and the need for receivers to get over, it’s not surprising that Beckham had such an off-year. If the injury he had was as severe as we were lead to believe, he may not have been able to perform his job as necessary, making him a liability on a team with actual depth. The Browns didn’t have depth, hence why they relied so heavily on him.
Olivier Vernon, the other player acquired in that trade, was an absolute disaster. Vernon wasn’t just injured for a good chunk of the year but was also highly ineffective when he was on the field. At least Beckham filled a need, as he was the only other passing option to throw to besides Jarvis Landry. Vernon was in a likely similar situation considering the state of the defensive line but he failed to generate even the barest minimum of difference.
Giving up former Browns guard Kevin Zeitler in the trade to the Giants wrecked the offensive line. The timing was off, but more important the team wasn’t cohesive enough for complicated snap counts. The number of penalties made by the offensive line alone throughout the year showed just how necessary an overhaul for the line is this offseason.
The other player the Browns sent over, Jabril Peppers, also hurt. The team had tackling problems, especially in the second half and Peppers was always a stout defender. While he missed a good chunk of time in New York, he was far more effective in 11 games in New York than he did in 16 in Cleveland the year prior. Peppers has a great upside and considering the Browns will be looking for two potential starters at safety, it seems stupid now in hindsight to give up on a great player like Peppers.
Add on the fact the Browns gave up a 1st and 3rd round draft pick to acquire two underachieving, big salaried players hurts even more. The first-round pick was the 17th selection and the Giants picked defensive tackle Dexter Lawerence. The very next pick, the Minnesota Vikings picked center Garrett Bradbury. A versatile interior lineman who started the entire year for the Vikings. Picks 22 and 23 were tackles Andre Dillard (Eagles) and Tytus Howard (Texans). Any three of those men would’ve improved the offensive line tremendously and kept the team from being so porous in its pass protection.
Now the Browns still need another wide receiver, several new defensive linemen, one if not two new safeties and at two if not three offensive linemen. Hey, at least we have an injury-prone Beckham though, right?
Hiring Freddie and not Gregg Williams
Obviously the biggest issue was hiring Freddie Kitchens, though it wasn’t hiring Kitchens alone that was the issue. See, the biggest problem the Browns had in 2019 wasn’t anything more than discipline. That falls on John Dorsey, who brought in a cavalcade of poor moral players. Hooligans and ruffians plagued the team on both sides of the ball. Myles Garrett braining someone wasn’t even the only time that happened. Greg Robinson kicked a player’s head in Week 1 for crying out loud. Jarvis Landry was penalized during his time in Miami for brawling on the field. The team went out and got talented players over the years, but all of whom had control issues. Then there’s Baker Mayfield who spent more time throwing players under the bus than he did anything else.
There’s going to be some saying “BUH DIS IS FUTBOLL YOU DUMMY” as a defense to fighting on the field. There is no defense for swinging punches, kicking people or smashing people in the skull with a helmet. If you can’t stay disciplined enough to walk away from an argument, then how are you going to be disciplined enough to not jump offsides or execute fundamentally sound tackles.
Myles Garrett alone showed the harm what an undisciplined player can do. Garrett had two roughing the passer calls in one game, an unnecessary roughness penalty in week one and the worst being his responsibility toward four offsides penalties. Now, not the end of the world, but someone who’s supposed to be THAT good needs to not make ticky-tack penalties that extend drives.
Those four offside calls may not sound like a lot, but when all you have to do to NOT jump offsides is watch a brown ball that you’re eight feet from, it makes it pretty obvious that Garrett wasn’t paying attention a lot of the time. No defensive lineman should ever jump offsides, the ball is right in front of you. You move when it moves. If you need an advantage of a quarter of a second to do your job effectively then you’re not good enough to do the job at all.
That’s the kind of issue Kitchens allowed to fester and grow. He never held the players accountable. He didn’t instill discipline in them, and the team played like a bunch of hockey goons at a beer-fueled pick-up game. Just a bunch of men doing whatever they want with no clear understanding of the consequences of their actions.
This was not an issue under Gregg Williams, at least not to the point that it was hindering the team as it did under Kitchens. The team played more cohesively and with more respect for the brand. There were fewer “moments of frustration” and more competency. Williams guided a mostly similar roster to a much better season, and was in the playoff chase longer than the Kitchens-lead “super team”.
Discipline in football, nay sports, is the only way you can ever win. If the team makes dumb mistakes or goes into business for itself, the team will never succeed and failure is then guaranteed. New coach Kevin Stefanski would be wise to remember this and should be willing to fine players thousands of dollars if needed in order to keep them in line. If they refuse to straighten up then trade them, cut them or bench them. After that, just move on and find someone willing to step up. This team cannot be subjected to more of Mayfield’s antics for another year either. Make statements, and instill a culture of respect. Make Mayfield and Garrett lead by example
Don’t be their friends like Kitchens tried to do.