Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Browns trade Ogbah to Chiefs for Eric Murray

John Dorsey still isn't finished retooling the Cleveland Browns before the draft as he released three more draftees from the Sashi Brown tenure and traded another to a familiar site for a familiar face to Dorsey.

The trade is the biggest news as Dorsey sent Emmanuel Ogbah to the Kansas City Chiefs in return for safety Eric Murray.
Ogbah was the first pick in the second round in the 2016 draft and in 2016 showed occasional bursts of breaking out as a pass rusher.
Ogbah was expected to flourish playing the opposite defensive end from Myles Garrett, but missed six games in 2017 and two more in 2018 and combined for only seven sacks in those games.
Ogbah was expected to provide the needed non-Garrett pass rush entering last season and was pointed to by Dorsey, Garrett and then defensive coordinator Gregg Williams as one of the reasons the Browns passed on Bradley Chubb with the fourth pick in favor of cornerback Denzel Ward.
While few are groaning about the selection of Ward, Chubb's success only helped to magnify the disappointment from Ogbah's performance and when John Dorsey was able to add Sheldon Richardson and Olivier Vernon, it was pretty clear that Ogbah was going to be a rotational player at best and would have to make a shift inside to earn any significant playing time.

As for Eric Murray, I don't claim to know a lot about the 2016 4th round pick as a pro, although I do remember him from his college days as a Minnesota Golden Gopher, where he was a good player on an average team.
Murray made 43 solo tackles with an interception last season as an occasional starter but reading the responses of Chiefs fans, they don't seem to think he is a big loss and think they won this trade by a mile.
His one interception made highlights all season for plays of the year, but still, it was his only interception of the campaign, so it's not like he was a huge playmaker.
Murray will get a chance to play for the Browns with their sudden need at safety after their pre-draft moves but is far from a sure thing.


The Browns were expected to give Derrick Kindred the chance to grab the safety spot vacated by the traded Jabrill Peppers, but either John Dorsey wanted his former draftee in Murray, likes another veteran free agent (Eric Berry or Morgan Burnett could be possibilities) or will be using a draft pick or two on a safety because Kindred along with two other Sashi Brown draftees (Ricardo Louis and Howard Wilson) were released.
Add those three with Emmanuel Ogbah and the Browns purged four "Brown picks" in one day.

Kindred was the Browns fourth-round pick in 2016 from TCU and started 17 games in the three years that he spent in Cleveland.
Kindred didn't play as well last season as in his first two, but was expected to return and was the surprise release of the day.
Again, safety will have to be addressed now in some form even if just for depth.

Ricardo Louis was also a 4th rounder in 2016 from Auburn and played every game for his first two seasons finishing with 45 catches for over 500 yards.
Scott Dryden once referred to Louis as "Having everything it takes to be a top wide receiver except for hands and route running ability".
Since both of those two factors are a large part of the success for any wide receiver, it's easy to see why Louis didn't work out.
Louis suffered a neck injury and missed all of the 2018 season, so he was unlikely to make the team.

Howard Wilson was a cornerback from Houston that I liked in 2017 and the Browns traded up to take him in the fourth round.
I had seen a lot of Wilson as a Cougar and even though I preferred Iowa's Desmond King (King was an All-Pro last year and was still on the board), I thought Wilson was a solid selection and he might have been.
IF Wilson hadn't broken his kneecap on his second day of mini-camp!
AND if Wilson didn't have a patella tendon surgery last June that didn't heal correctly from the kneecap surgery, he might have been a good cornerback.
We'll have to find out about Wilson from his next stop as the Browns waived him with a career total of one and a half practices in two seasons in Cleveland.

I still think John Dorsey isn't finished before the draft.
Safety could still use a veteran and suddenly there is an issue with Duke Johnson, so who knows where that will take the Browns with a little over three weeks to go before the draft.




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