The Cleveland Browns’ new front office prepared us for today’s events. New coach Hue Jackson and executive VP of football operations Sashi Brown both hinted nobody should expect the team to make a huge splash in free agency. The Browns planned on building through the draft while at least putting in some effort to retain its own free agents.
Yet, as today unraveled, many people began questioning Cleveland’s game plan. Alerts came out left and right regarding potential targets being snatched up by other teams, while the free agents within the Browns’ locker room left for greener pastures. Fans hoping the aura of this new regime would convince players to stay were sorely disappointed, and are now wondering just what the plan is for this latest rebuild.
All in all, Cleveland’s offensive line was decimated by the losses of Alex Mack and Mitchell Schwartz. Safety Tashaun Gipson and wideout Travis Benjamin also fled to new teams. After the dust settled, a Browns roster full of holes now looks a little worse.
As all of this unfolded, national pundits began dumping on Cleveland, noting how the team was making no efforts to retain its own or go after any remotely big names. Word began surfacing regarding how poorly the Browns’ front office was at negotiations.
Again, Cleveland made no indication it was planning on a big day of signings. At the same time, with the new league year just hours old, the Browns’ new front office appears to be off to a rough start.
It’s tough to get too frustrated by Cleveland avoiding major signings in free agency. The concept as a whole has never been the end-all fix for a bad team. Even if the Browns signed every high-quality player available, the team would still be some distance away from competing.
What’s difficult to swallow, though, is how casually Cleveland watched its own players skip town. Talks with Benjamin reportedly broke off weeks ago, and if there were any negotiations with Gipson, nobody heard anything about them. Schwartz was apparently given an offer by the Browns, but it was “pulled off the table.” Meanwhile, guaranteed money was all it took to woo Mack away.
While this was happening, Cleveland was quickly developing a reputation of being hesitant in negotiations, apparently low-balling more often than not. Granted, a lot of this was coming from agents who were likely upset at the idea of a lower commission. Still, I think all fans can agree the last thing you want to hear about your team is how annoyed people are about it.
At the end of the day, the hope established by the hiring of this new regime took a hit. After such a miserable 2015 season, fans were excited about the potentially positive changes this new front office appeared to bring. However, given the first chance to prove they had a plan, everyone instead sat on their hands.
If there is an agenda, it’d be great to see what it looks like. Right now, we have a bad team with a bad history full of losing. The last thing Cleveland needed to do was add more fuel to that fire, to scare off players and agents from even considering signing there.
People expressed initial hesitation about the fact the Browns’ new front office featured a lot of people who haven’t dealt with football matters of this level before (or in chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta‘s case, have no experience in football period). However, the fact these new hires were all highly educated did seem to ease some fears.
Today, those fears might be creeping back. There’s still time to prove there’s a plan here. At the moment, though, Browns fans are once again wondering just what direction this team is heading in.
