The departure was somewhat expected,but the surprise was the length and terms of the deal-one year and eight million,which was far lower than Pryor had been asking for from the Browns and one that the Browns could have easily matched and exceeded,had they desired.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that the Browns were not given a chance to match the Washington offer and that the team didn't make an effort to be involved once Pryor made his decision to surf the market for potential new hopes.
Tony Grossi had been writing since yesterday that the Browns had "given the deal budgeted to Pryor to new signee Kenny Britt" and were out on the former Buckeye as soon as Britt agreed to his contract of four years and thirty two million.
Here's my problem with this-for the second year in a row,the Sashi Brown led front office have won the negotiations and lost the player.
Let me explain what I mean.
Just as in the case in 2016 with tackle Mitchell Schwartz,the Browns were able to accurately gauge the market for the player and avoid overpaying them to stay with the team.
That's a good thing and shows that the front office has a good grasp on the financial aspect of dealing with talent on contracts.
However,the Browns show an inflexibility to make deals beyond their ideas for it should be and seem to be working from a scaffold of arrogance once things have moved beyond what they are willing to pay.
In other words,once a player has decided to take a look around and see what offers might be available,the Browns act like petulant children and are no longer interested in discussing.
I can understand that the team will need to explore other avenues,just as the player is,but in both cases (Schwartz and Pryor) the team pulled their offers that might have landed them the player after they had scanned available offers.
Schwartz came back to the Browns looking to accept and Pryor may have as well and the Browns weren't interested even at the cost that they were willing to pay.
In other words,the Browns were happy to pat themselves on the back for reading the tea leaves correctly,but then arrogantly let the player leave.
Imagine the offensive line with yesterday's tweaks and having Mitchell Schwartz manning what is the one weak spot on the line at right tackle.
Imagine the wideouts with Kenny Pritt,Terrelle Pryor and Corey Coleman instead of Britt,Coleman and who knows.
In both cases,the Browns could have had the players at their evaluated rate,improved their team,but were more concerned with "winning" the talks.
The Pryor case is even more glaring because had they not burned the field to the ground (Blame Pryor's agent Drew Rosenhaus a large amount here as well),they had plenty of money to sign Pryor and Britt.
The Browns collected plenty of kudos for getting Houston's 2018 second round pick for Brock Osweiler and being willing to pay Osweiler's 16 million contract,even if they release him.
I'm in agreement for liking that move,but they could have kept Pryor for half (or perhaps a little over half) of the amount that they are willing to pay Osweiler-whether he plays for the Browns or not.
The money was there,the budget could have been held (or a small upturn to get the deal done) and instead the Browns allowed the one playmaker that they had to walk away.
I agree that Pryor and Rosenhaus overreached in their original demands and the Browns earn points for not overpaying,but the rigidity that the team has shown over the last two free agent periods with players that not only wanted to stay,but would have been foundation blocks of this rebuild,makes me wonder this-If the fight to keep players and hold the line on budgets are this bad with oodles of cap space,what will it be if the team ever reaches contention?
I think Terrelle Pryor and Kenny Britt are pretty comparable,although I prefer Pryor by a hair,but unless the Browns have a plan to add another receiver from somewhere that is of solid starting level (
either in the draft or another "Waiting for Josh Gordon" event),they could have them both and instead found it more important to win the battle and take another hit in winning the war....
Editor's Note: I'll be back tonight with a note on the Browns release of Robert Griffin and just what will they might do from here at quarterback.
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