The Cleveland Browns season is all but over and it’s time to what else you have.
There are 10 games left in the Cleveland Browns’ regular season, but unfortunately for them, the trade deadline is coming up. They don’t have the ability to see if they can turn the team around completely before then. Sure, they may beat the Cinncinati Bengals in prime time next week, but then what?
The Browns are all but dead in the water, and while some may be holding out hope that the disgraced star that is Deshaun Watson may be able to lead this team back, even if he isn’t rusty, which he will be, he’d have to play perfectly just like the offense has had to all year just to stay in the game.
That’s too much to ask. He’ll play come the Houston game unless he gets himself in more trouble, which is always possible. He won’t sit this year, as that will pause his contract and make sure his big bump in pay doesn’t start until 2024, which he won’t allow to happen. So instead of looking at the rest of this season as a potential playoff season, fans need to look at the rest of the year as a tryout.
Find out who can play and who can’t.
Andrew Berry has failed to build this team properly but maybe we can find some gems that deserve new deals. Guys who can help who you don’t think might, like your M.J. Stewart’s and Porter Gustin’s.
In order to find that out, some guys have got to go.
LB Jacob Phillips
Jacob Phillips had a fine albeit unimpressive day against the Baltimore Ravens. He didn’t make any impactful plays, didn’t show up anywhere on a highlight reel, and got run over a few times by the Ravens. The Ravens game wasn’t his worst game ever, but he certainly didn’t prove he could help turn the tide.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Sione Takitaki did some work but Phillips is largely just in the way. This isn’t new, this has been his M.O. since he was drafted. He couldn’t crack the starting lineup regardless of who was over him.
Phillips has been a bust since the jump and that’s been no more evident than this year when the Browns asked him to fill in for Anthony Walker. While Walker wasn’t a huge playmaker and played well only against the worst offenses in the league, he’s a huge improvement over Phillips and that’s why the team brought him back instead of giving the team over to him. Phillips is what he is, and it isn’t good.
The Browns would be better off giving a guy like Jordan Kunaszyk full-time reps for the rest of the year and cutting ties with Phillips. He’s not someone who is going to emerge and just keeping him around will only continue the cycle of disappointment.
S Grant Delpit
Yeah, Grant Delpit is an issue. Firstly, let’s talk about his ability, or lack thereof, to cover guys properly. I firmly believe that the lack of a second safety, namely Delpit or Ronnie Harrison is why the Browns run the coverage that they do. They simply don’t have faith in the safetys to fulfill their obligations. Now, blown coverages happen to everyone, it’s true. Yet, the Ravens picked on Delpit all game long. Lamar Jackson is arguably the worst passer in the NFL when he’s not running, and even he was throwing dimes to whoever Delpit was near.
The league doesn’t respect Delpit.
Secondly, the man can’t tackle. He’s so hard to be Brian Dawkins with these big hits, that all he ends up doing is pushing the receiver away, allowing him to regain his composure and keep running, thereby taking any of his own Cleveland teammates out of the play. Wrap, run, fall. It’s not hard to learn to tackle.
Lastly, his teammates apparently can’t stand him. We already know that Denzel Ward and Delpit exchanged verbal barbs with one another and considering Delpit and Ward often play next to each other, you have to believe that Delpit’s poor play is affecting Ward’s ability to do his job as well.
WR Anthony Schwartz
Where do we start? Anthony Schwartz has all the speed in the world and was drafted to be the Cleveland Browns’ answer to a guy like Tyreke Hill. Someone who can turn on the boosters and outrun a defense, just like Hill did to the Cleveland Browns in the playoffs. Every team needs someone like Schwartz, so the pick was a good one.
Yet, outside of several catches in the 2021 regular season debut against the Kansas City Chiefs, Schwartz has been anything but a good receiver, or even a good football player. Schwartz has gotten to be such a problem in the offense, that not only have his touches been minimized completely, but the Browns have to draw up stunts just to get him the ball. That’s telling the world that you don’t trust your receiver.
It’s one thing to be a good receiver and take handoffs, Dennis Northcutt did that a lot, but to only get handoffs really implies you’re bad at your job.
The final nail in the coffin may have come Sunday when the Browns left him as a healthy scratch on the roster for the Ravens game. When your own team won’t carry you, and you were a third-round pick, you’re done.
VER Demetric Felton
We’re going to slap a versatile next to Demetric Felton, as he’s versatile as heck. He’ll disappoint you as a running back, as a receiver, and as a returner. He’s been so bad, I genuinely don’t know if Demetric Felton has dressed the last few games after he lost his returning responsibilities to Donovan Peoples-Jones.
He is someone who has had all the hype in the world from the fanbase, and it always bothered me as to that fact. He’s a sixth-round pick, and fans are talking about him as a long-term replacement for a guy like Kareem Hunt. Sixth-round picks aren’t anything to hold onto. Your odds of getting a guy who lasted two years on a team at that point in the draft are slim to none, but everyone drank the “Andrew Berry is so smurt” Kool-Aid that people thought Felton was going to be a game-changer.
The only thing he changed is the fans’ excitement for the NFL Draft, as fans know by the time the sixth round comes around, to not get excited because no one is going to be relevant. The fact Donovan Peoples-Jones is playing as well as he is is proof that you don’t rely on sixth-rounders to start for you. He’s not a starter, but he’s at least a serviceable player. Let’s not get it twisted, the Browns need to upgrade at his spot too.
The only difference between Peoples-Jones and Felton is that Peoples-Jones can actually do the things he was drafted to do, even if he’s a borderline starter. A borderline starter is leaps and bounds over the magician that Felton is because his disappearing act is remarkable.