There’s no good reason for the Cleveland Browns to not sign J.C. Tretter
By Chad Porto
The Cleveland Browns are in need of some help, so why not bring back J.C. Tretter?
J.C. Tretter is, in my opinion, a Top 5 center in the league. I agree wholeheartedly that he’s being blackballed from the league due to his position with the NFL Players Association. Most billionaires don’t like unions and Tretter is the head of the players. So I’m not surprised to find out that there are players in the league that think Tretter is getting shafted.
The Browns are down Nick Harris, probably for the season. Ethan Pocic has not looked good all camp and many are wondering why they signed him. Then rookie Dawson Deaton got hurt on Monday, making the center position all the more mercurial.
The idea someone suggested of putting Hjalte Froholdt is intriguing, as is moving someone like Michael Dunn, Blake Hance, or Drew Forbes to center. Doing that, however, just puts the position into even more turmoil than it was in prior. You have no idea what any of them can do at the position. That’s why Tretter makes more sense, you know what he can do.
There’s no reason for the Cleveland Browns to not bring back J.C. Tretter
The Cleveland Browns never should have cut Tretter in the first place. Clearly, money wasn’t going to be an issue, and it’s not like he’s aging out of the position. He also posted the highest-rated season of his career in 2021 according to PFF with a 78.7 rating.
The only reasons I can think about as to why he was cut were 1) Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski hated his union ties, 2) He was close with Baker Mayfield, or 3) when the rumors of the Browns being interested in Deshaun Watson came to light, Tretter spoke out against it privately to the heads of the team, and they cut him in retaliation.
We know it wasn’t because of money or play. So what other reason could it have been?
So that brings up an interesting question on if Tretter would even return to the Browns if he was offered a contract. If he was really fired over such petty reasons, would he want to return to such a dysfunctional organization? Only time will truly tell.