When Do the Browns Get Real Football Players?
The Cleveland Browns had another season effectively end in Pittsburgh, losing 20-13, dropping their record to 5-7. It wasn't lost because of poor schemes or bad play calls. The Browns needed real football players and the guy who boldly proclaimed he'd provide them when he was hired, John Dorsey, didn't. The guys he chose were the root why the Browns lost and why Baker Mayfield got hit over and over, including when he had to leave the game in the first half.
Two years into his tenure, Dorsey has provided the team's franchise quarterback Baker Mayfield, with Chris Hubbard, Greg Robinson, Austin Corbett and Wyatt Teller. Teller is the only one who is likely to be back in 2020.
He took apart the defensive line depth, piece by piece in a race to the bottom, forcing the Browns to rely on Chad Thomas, who's good for exactly one play a game, flanked by a mediocrity every on most every other, causing people to try to talk themselves into hi growth when he's just not good.
Dorsey's answer to safety, Damarious Randall, managed to get himself grounded this week in what has been a disaster of a season, forcing the team to play a rookie fourth rounder. The secondary spent most of the day getting torched, notably including Greedy Williams and some bad moments from Denzel Ward.
Dorsey's prized offseason acquisition, Odell Beckham, hasn't delivered. For the undeniable amount of talent he brings, it has not come through for the Browns to this point. The Browns weren't even pretending he was their main option in Pittsburgh.
The actions of Myles Garrett were a disaster for the Browns in their first matchup with the Steelers and the Browns simply can't replace a talent like that. But that doesn't change the fact that Dorsey's acquisitions have been incredibly underwhelming for a guy who came in as cocky as he did.
No one has ever had as many premium draft picks as Dorsey did in the 2018 And he wasted half of them. After the 35th pick of the draft, there's barely evidence the Browns participated. A second round pick, two thirds, a fourth, a fifth, and two sixths and all the Browns have to show for it is Chad Thomas and Damion Ratley, neither of which would meet Dorsey's definition of real football players.
The Browns have a number of young players they hope can develop and grow up. And maybe they will, but that's not what the Browns needed in Pittsburgh. That's not what they needed with their season on the line. They needed reliable, accountable football players who could step in and do their job. And to this point, John Dorsey has failed to provide them.
Now sitting at 5-7 needing to win the remaining four games just to be able to try to spin this disaster of a season into some kind of positive development for the season, Dorsey has to own it.
His process, his star-studded front office that was going to wake a sleeping giant, has provided more problems than it has answers. Drafting players that missed entire seasons of college because of drug suspensions only to have to waive them, because of, wait for it, failing drug tests! Signing players that required press conference to account for their off field behavior after saying the team would be adding men of character.
Everyone is going to focus on the viability of the head coach and those questions deserved to be asked and answered, but the guy who's responsible for all of it, including hiring that head coach, John Dorsey, has to own this season and every miserable failure that has come with it. Full Dorse is a full on disaster
