Grant Delpit among those Cleveland Browns players who saw their stock plummet

The Cleveland Browns fell to the New England Patriots and these players didn’t help the cause

The Cleveland Browns are not a good football team, and a lot of that has to do with Andrew Berry’s drafting and free-agent signing. The players the team needs to rely on aren’t doing their job, and you can only coach up a player so much.

This was a team that had flashes of brilliance over the last two years, on both sides of the ball. We know the schemes can work with the right players, so clearly it’s an issue of not having the right players. These three players (and then some), may not be the right players. Especially if this his how they play against a .500 team.

Anthony Schwartz doesn’t make the list this week for one reason, his stock has been at rock bottom all season long. If you need even more examples that PFF is an accessory tool and not the final say in football, Schwartz is still at a 49.3 on the year. Denzel Ward is at a 39.8. Now, Ward is playing badly, but he’s playing badly against the best receivers in the league. Schwartz can’t even get on the field. Yet he’s been riding the momentum of one good running play from Week 1. Schwartz has been the worst player on the team for two seasons and frankly, his stock can’t actually fall any further.

Three Cleveland Browns with falling stocks

Grant Delpit

The secondary is in shambles for a variety of reasons, not the least of all is the fact the team has yet to find one player who can replace Troy Hill or M.J. Stewart. Grant Delpit has looked awful, and watching him lose his footing on man coverage in the first half is a ringing endorsement for why the Browns don’t run man. The secondary can’t even break out of their backpedal without whiffing and eating grass. That wasn’t his sole mistake but it was the one that was the most eye-rolling.

The Offensive Line

Jedrick Wills shouldn’t get a second contract, if Jack Conklin is this bad all year, he shouldn’t either. Ethan Pocic got manhandled without Wyatt Teller in the game, and the offensive line as a whole was lackluster, disappointing, and entirely predictable. They played poorly. Four sacks, another eight QB hits, that’s 12 times Brissett got knocked around. PFF can give them good grades all they want, but the O-line is why the team couldn’t run the ball, and why Brissett was forcing throws all game. This is the kind of thing that happens when you face a defense you can’t just bully with size and strength.

Jacoby Brissett

I have a rule of thumb; if you end a game on an interception because you were trying to will a miracle to happen, I’m not holding that against someone. I didn’t blame that on Baker Mayfield, I haven’t blamed that on Jacoby Brissett and whoever comes in next in the ever-revolving quarterback carrousel will get the same benefit from me. That said, watching Brissett throw two interceptions in a game, neither of which was in a miracle-making situation, can’t be excused. Obviously the second is on the offensive line just as much but Brissett can’t afford to turn the ball over just once. He’s not the kind of guy who can outplay a single mistake. It may not be fair to say that but it’s an honest evaluation. When it came to players like Mayfield, Brett Favre, or Lamar Jackson, they all had a way to overcome a bad play. Brissett doesn’t have the athleticism, arm strength, or gun-slinger mentality to put the team back in a spot to score and make up a turnover.