It’s time to blow up the Browns. A miserable season should lead to an active trade deadline
CLEVELAND – Blow it up. Blow it all up. Light the wreck on fire, dump it in Lake Erie and let it float to Pelee Island or Buffalo or somewhere in between. The NFL’s most expensive selection ranks near the bottom alongside the other famous shipwrecks, accessible only with fins and oxygen tanks.
Trade Za’Darius Smith, Dalvin Tomlinson and Jed Wills. Call contenders looking for a backup quarterback and send them Jameis Winston for market value (it won’t be much). Elijah Moore can go with him.
I’m not sure anyone here is ready for the Nick Chubb conversation, but I also don’t think he would return much value anyway.
The bigger point is that any player not under contract after this season is free to leave, because this thing will become so corrosive come January that no one will survive.
GO DEEPER
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The NFL trade deadline is Tuesday. This roster should look very different on Wednesday, when general manager Andrew Berry is sure to have an awkward conversation with reporters this past week.
This is about to become the Cleveland Browns version of a Presidents Day mattress sale. Buy now, pay later. Zero percent financing with approved credit.
A few players left the locker room after Sunday’s 27-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers with that zombie look, unsure of how they got here or what would happen next.
“I’ve never been in this situation before,” one veteran said as he left the locker room. “I’ve never been to a place where the season is over before the bye week.”
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There’s never a bad time for a week off in the NFL, but the Browns are heading into their time off needing to get away from each other and clean up. Exfoliate. Maybe buy a nice foot scrub?
The Browns have invested $337 million in cash expenditures on this roster, $15 million more than any other team in the league. Not only is it the most expensive roster, it’s also the most expensive roster in NFL history.
They have two wins.
They blew up an offense and an offensive coaching staff that fought through incredible injuries and setbacks to reach the playoffs last year.
They have two wins.
Firing Alex Van Pelt as offensive coordinator was clearly a huge mistake. It may have cost them Bill Callahan too. The design and installation of whatever this is has been a disaster.
The Deshaun Watson trade destroyed the franchise. There’s no other way to frame it. At the time of the deal, off-field baggage aside, Watson seemed like the better quarterback. But it didn’t turn out that way. The money they paid him, the future ceiling hits that still loom, the trade capital they sent to Houston and Watson’s inability to perform and stay healthy have slammed shut a window of discussion that has barely ever opened.
GO DEEPER
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The Browns tanked for two full seasons in 2016 and 2017 and won one playoff game in the seven years that followed. And now it’s over.
Joel Bitonio still has one year left on his contract, but just turned 33. Why would he want to return here? Myles Garrett has two years left on his term. When does he walk up and ask out?
Chubb is in the final year of his contract. How much does he honestly have left? How much patience does he have left for an organization that wasted the career of one of the best running backs in team history?
The entire offensive line may need to be rebuilt. Those sent away on Tuesday must be replaced.
And all of this has to happen despite Watson’s strangling cap hits, which still total more than $170 million. If there’s a worse combination of roster predictions and future limits anywhere in sports, I can’t find it.
Winston threw interceptions to all corners of the field on Sunday, the secondary can’t do simple things like communicate coverages well, and the special teams are a particular disaster. Checked stairs allowed. Large yields surrendered.
James Winston today
16-31
0 Passed TD
3 INT
24.5 Sufficient rating pic.twitter.com/ytYWdg8XgX— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) November 3, 2024
The Browns were leaning toward Dorian Thompson-Robinson a few weeks ago. His promotion from scout team quarterback to backup — even though no one bothered to tell him — would last more than a week. Then Thompson-Robinson hurt his finger and the Browns probably thought they owed it to the veterans to play Winston.
Well, there’s nothing left to play for now. Garrett said the Browns could still win and go 10-7, which leaders should say from the lectern. The season is over and the players all know it.
This was so close to being the most Jameis Winston game of all time pic.twitter.com/YopGOhepmh
— Football Digest (@FoootballDigest) November 3, 2024
Thompson-Robinson is probably not the answer. He is too small and cannot stay healthy. But now that the bye week is behind us, whether Winston is still around or not, now is the perfect time to get him going against an equally poor New Orleans Saints roster.
Either DTR surprises everyone, or more likely, the Browns will be bad enough to draft another quarterback in March and start this miserable process all over again.
As for the fate of the front office and coaching staff, anything is possible at this point. No one is safe. I thought last year tested Kevin Stefanski’s mettle and his ability to keep the team together despite a storm of injuries. He thrived in the moment. This is a completely different challenge. Guys have nothing left to play for except their tape and their next contract.
GO DEEPER
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As the defense was introduced individually before the game, Smith ran out of the tunnel in his No. 99 jersey and blew kisses to the crowd. If this was his last day in a Browns uniform, it was his farewell.
Who else is going with him?
(Photo by Jameis Winston: Jason Miller/Getty Images)
