I Want to Believe John Dorsey has a Plan for the Offensive Line. Does he?
Halfway through his second season since taking over as general manager of the Cleveland Browns, John Dorsey has made 11 consequential moves involving the offensive line and the line has not only gotten worse, the two best players up front were here before he was hired.
I can and have defended a lot of what he has done, seeing the long-term vision of where this offensive line appears to be headed, but Dorsey's current desperate search for anything that even resembles an offensive tackle in the NFC East, regardless of talent, is making that more difficult.
Dorsey looks desperate as if he woke up a couple weeks ago only to realize what everyone else already knew about the Browns. Their tackles aren't good. They weren't good last year either, but they were enough to get the job done almost entirely as a result of Baker Mayfield playing at a high enough level to make them look effective. The tackles haven't changed, playing at pretty much the same level they were last year. Mayfield isn't. And because of that, now suddenly Dorsey is considering trades for players other teams don't want that are actually worse than what the Browns have now.
I knew full well the Browns were trying to get through this season with Greg Robinson and Chris Hubbard, planning to move on from both of them after the season. Robinson's one-year contract was exactly that and Hubbard's contract has a natural out after this year and while he may be the salt of Earth, he can't run block to save his life.
I was fully on board with the notion that they'd like to get Drew Forbes ready to take over a tackle spot in 2020, likely right tackle. The fact he was actually ahead of schedule was fantastic up until he hurt his knee right before the season started. He still may end up on the field this year, which is the only meaningful solution at tackle in play. With the exception of acquiring Trent Williams, which is a bad idea for a whole host of reasons, every other option actually involves getting tackles that are worse than what the Browns are currently trotting out on Sundays.
Just this season, Dorsey has done the following with the offensive line.
He drafted Drew Forbes in the sixth round of the 2019 NFL Draft, which was an inspired choice. He has the talent to not only start but be special, but needs to incubate.
Dorsey signed Eric Kush and Kendall Lamm in free agency, which were smart moves. Cheap veterans with starting experience that could be swing players. These moves were prudent in improving the team's depth at all three offensive line spots that could be spot starters. Kush has obviously been far more and Lamm was injured, but should be ready to go now if they insist on making a switch.
He would then trade Kevin Zeitler to the New York Giants for Olivier Vernon. Zeitler was a terrific guard, but the Browns were always looking to get out of his contract at some point as they had an unbelievably high amount of their salary cap tied up in their offensive line. Moving on from Robinson and Hubbard will get them where they need to be.
People may not like the timing of the Zeitler move, but looking at it from Dorsey's perspective, it got them out of the contract and netted them a tremendous player in Vernon to play across from Myles Garrett. There was no reason to believe he'd ever get that type of opportunity again, even if it meant a small regression at the right guard spot.
Dorsey made a pair of trades before roster cut down day to get Wyatt Teller from the Buffalo Bills and Justin McCray from the Green Bay Packers. Teller was a great trade, giving up a fifth and seventh to get a player with the talent to be a long-term answer at a guard spot, making up for the botched selection of Corbett. McCray was just a body, but the price was nothing anyway.
Now, after four offensive line trades and two free agent signings just in this football season, the Browns are desperately trying to make another trade, another move that won't actually solve the problem they have?
One move they could make, extending their terrific center, J.C. Tretter, is basically the one move they haven't made. It has yet to be discussed at this point. Rather than locking up one of the two good offensive linemen the Browns have, they are looking at trading for players other teams are trying to move.
I want to believe there's a plan. I'd like to believe the Browns plan to have an offensive line of a 2020 first round pick at left tackle, Bitonio at left guard, Tretter at center, Teller at right guard and Forbes at right tackle under the guidance of James Campen. That's the most prudent way to go that can provide a meaningful difference going forward. It could be a great group if they develop properly.
In order for that to happen, they need to extend Tretter and accept that the moves they made, all seven of them this year, are as good as it's going to get this year. The Browns have who they have and they aren't an eighth move away. They either didn't work or have yet to come to fruition. Coach them up, put different guys in like Teller and Forbes, but there's no magic wand. If there is, it's Baker Mayfield getting back to being a phenom in the pocket again like he was the second half of his rookie year. This is the group Dorsey put together. Be honest and admit Rome wasn't built in a day. Choices were made. The offensive line was deferred a year in favor of other spots and because it wasn't a great class for them. This upcoming year is.
What's happening now doesn't look like a general manager with a plan. It looks like someone who's operating out of desperation and potentially willing to give up critical assets to do so in order to make a move that won't make a meaningful difference, either this season or next.
I want John Dorsey to listen to the John Dorsey who was at the press conference during the bye week. That John Dorsey was preaching patience and talking about how much football was still to be played. That Dorsey seemed like one that understood where his team was, still building as it was evolving into a team that could be a contender.
The one running around talking to every team on I-95 about impractical trades is the one I remember from Kansas City that didn't manage his team well in terms of assets or the salary cap. The one who was fired and left the current group multiple messes he made. Messes they are still trying to clean up into this season. Give me reason to believe lessons were learned from the mistakes made in Kansas City. Grind tape on the 2020 tackles and find the guy to protect Mayfield's blindside for the foreseeable future. Let Freddie Kitchens, his staff and the players in the building figure this one out in the mean time.
