Four moves the Browns should make before the NFL Trade Deadline.
The Browns have been exposed. The things we were worried about have in fact come to pass. The Browns’ secondary is not improved, the Browns receivers are not back to their Pro Bowl selfs, the offensive line has declined a bit (but not enough to go full sale on them) and the Browns as a whole are limping at 4-4 into the mid-way point.
Baker Mayfield is having a very defining season, with a torn labrum in his left shoulder, he’s been extremly accurate, save for the two games he played after he tore his labrum where he didn’t wear a brace. Since then, he’s been very efficient. Save for all the drops by his receivers. There is no real help around him. There isn’t. I’ve been saying this for a while but after the Pittsburgh game, people are now seeing that isn’t Mayfield who the issue is.
Sure, he’s not a $40 million quarterback, partly because no one is worth that much, but the Browns can win with him. They just can’t win with who’s around him. That’s beyond obvious. The running backs are good as a unit, the offensive line is still fine but the receivers aren’t running the correct routes, they’re dropping passes, and are making mental mistakes that are drive-killers.
Rashard Higgins doesn’t know the snap-counts, Anthony Schwartz knows so little of his routes that the Browns are afraid to put him in the game, the Browns three-big contracted Pro Bowlers (Odell Beckham, Jarvis Landry, Austin Hooper) are not making plays and Mayfield has to rely on his screen passes because of how little separation receivers end up getting on this team.
That’s just the offensive woes, somehow the Browns upgraded the safeties and they’re still worse than the crop Cleveland had last year. Want to know how bad? Andrew Sendejo has a PFF of 65.2 currently with the Colts. He’s actually playing very well and helped limit Derrick Henry to just 68 yards yesterday.
Sendejo is nearly 10 points ahead of the Browns‘ top safety John Johnson.
We need new safeties. So who’s available? That’s what we’re about to talk about. These are four players the Browns should consider trading for. It should be noted, because there’s always someone who doesn’t get it, *NO* the Browns should not trade for all four of these men. One, maybe two tops.
These are just options to pick from.
Allen Robinson
The Browns have no elite wide receivers. It’s hard to say they have any Pro Bowl-caliber ones either after Sunday’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. For some reason, the narrative is still on Baker Mayfield, but that’s flat-out wrong. The Browns pushed the ball down the field, quite often in fact. It was the receivers, not Kevin Stefanski’s play-calling or Mayfield’s passing, that hindered the offense.
If every player Mayfield threw the ball to catch the pass and didn’t drop it, Mayfield would’ve had a completion percentage around 84-87% on the day. More than likely two touchdowns as well. Stefanski and Mayfield can’t make these receivers catch the ball. They got them opportunities, but they aren’t capitalizing. Landry’s day was by far the worst with three drops (and a fumble), but D’Ernest Johnson had a drop, Odell Beckham had a drop, Rashard Higgins didn’t have a drop – statistically speaking – but he let the ball go right through his arms on what would’ve been a first down had he caught it.
Those six are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. Imagine how much better the offense would’ve been if the $45 million-plus the Browns were paying to Beckham, Landry and Austin Hooper actually translated into performance.
The Browns trading for Allen Robinson won’t be comfortable on the cap by any means, and you’d probably want to trade him with Beckham to not incur even more salary, but the Browns need an elite wide receiver. Maybe Robinson isn’t “elite” but he’s different. Maybe that’s what the Browns need, something different.
The biggest issues with Robinson are a perceived decline in his play, his age (29), and his contract (last year). He’ll want a three or four-year deal after this year at least and the Browns would be wise to walk away from that type of contract.
Ryan Kerrigan
The current Eagles end, and former Washington Pro Bowler, Ryan Kerrigan may seem like an obscure name, considering how well Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney have been playing. Frankly, they’re the best tandem in the league. There’s also a problem, they’re also, to an aggressively selfish degree, humans. Meaning they get tired. How dare they.
Sarcasm aside, that’s a problem any team has to deal with. It’s why so many NFL teams run four or five deep at the defensive end spot because rotating guys out is very common. Garrett and Clowney are top-tier defensive guys this year, but their backups are absolutely unremarkable. To an unbelievable degree.
Getting Ryan Kerrigan doesn’t help the Browns at safety, arguably their biggest need, but it does help solve a problem that became very evident against the Steelers; when Clowney and Garrett are both off the field, the Browns defensive line has no forward push. No one can get depth, separation, or even apply pressure to a team passing the ball.
This happened every time the Steelers got to about the 30-yard line on the Browns’ side of the field. Cleveland would sub in for Garrett and Clowney for a few plays, or until the Steelers got into the red zone.
Getting Karrigan, or someone like him (an older pass-rushing specialist) would be a good move to bolster the depth on the defensive line. He’s not a game-changer on his own but the depth he could provide would be helpful.
Brandin Cooks
Of the two receivers, I’d rather have Brandin Cooks over Allen Robinson. They’re about the same age but Cooks, unlike Allen, has not started to decline, has a few years left on his deal, and is outperforming his expectations in Houston currently. Both receivers are in bad situations with quarterbacks who likely won’t be around for long. While Robinson has fallen off in that situation, Cooks has stayed consistent.
Either that means Davis Mills is a better quarterback than Justin Fields or it means that Cooks is better than Robinson.
Cooks may not be as fast as he was in college (4.33-40 yard dash), but he’s still probably faster than any of the full-time receivers that the Browns have. That type of speed, coupled with Jarvis Landry’s *usually* sure hands, the tight ends, Rashard Higgins, and Demetric Felton would all make for a better situation for the Browns’ passing offense.
The Browns would be wise to go get a second receiving option, though not at the same price point as Cooks because it’s clear they need more than they even with Cooks. Seeing if some of the bottom rung teams have a slide receiver to get would be a good move. Or maybe go snag DeSean Jackson. Word is he wants a change of scenery.
Marcus Maye
The Browns have some really good corners in Greedy Williams and Greg Newsome. They have an ok one in Denzel Ward. The rest are….eh. The safties, however, are bad. Just, really bad. John Johnson has a PFF grade of 57.4, which is really bad considering how vaunted he was coming over from Los Angeles, and early 30 points down from 2020 (85.6). Somehow, he’s the best the Browns have to offer. Ronnie Harrison has a 54.3 grade on PFF and he’s prone to violent outbursts that hurt the team. Grant Delpit has a 51.4 grade and it turns out he’s really bad at tackling.
That’s the one skill trait safeties are supposed to have that cornerbacks don’t. Let’s not even get into Richard LeCounte, who has been so lost he can’t even play steady snaps on special teams week to week. He was deactivated for three games and then had to suffer the indignity of Jovante Moffatt taking his spot.
The Browns need a safety who can actually do something. We’ve seen all facets of the defense improve week to week but the safeties. It’s hard to keep blaming Joe Woods when the defensive has, objectively, played better in recent weeks. Well, played better except at safety.
Getting someone like Marcus Maye would do wonders for the Browns. Send over Ronnie Harrison and/or Grant Delpit in the deal and make it happen. Maybe send over Odell Beckham if you have to. That way you can extend Maye if you feel so inclined.
Update: After writing this, the Washington Football Team was rumored to be shopping around Landon Collins as well, another potential fit. He comes with him a huge contract but he’s in the final year of “back-breaking money” and if he fails to impress, the Browns can easily cut him while eating just a few million dollars in penalties over the next two years.