Browns trade Genard Avery to Eagles

Early in yesterday's loss to the Patriots, Cleveland Browns play by play voice Jim Donovan was very excited to speak the name Genard Avery as he pressured Tom Brady  as Brady dropped back to throw (Avery's name does not appear in the box score for defensive statistics) and referred to the Memphis pass rusher as the "forgotten man".

Avery may have been the forgotten man after being mentioned prominently as either an outside linebacker or part of the team's pass-rushing package at defensive end and yesterday was the first game since their loss to the Rams (the only other game) that Avery had been active.

Apparently, the Browns were willing to forget about Avery for good as they sent him to Philadelphia in return for a 2021 fourth-round draft pick.
Genard Avery wasn't forgotten as a rookie in 2018 when he was selected in the fifth round from Memphis, finished with 30 solo tackles and four and a half sacks and looked to be part of the Browns future.
However, that was under then-defensive coordinator Gregg Williams' system and when Williams didn't receive the head coaching job that wound up going to Freddie Kitchens and moved to the same job with the New York Jets with former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks hired as the new defensive coordinator, Avery apparently wasn't a good fit for Wilks' defense and as noted, Avery was seldom active.

Suddenly, the kudos that so many (including me) were tossing John Dorsey's way for his 2018 draft have been silenced as it doesn't look nearly as strong now as it did just twelve months ago.
The second of their two second-rounders has become a star in Nick Chubb, but Austin Corbett is already gone and now Genard Avery in the fifth has been traded as well.
Baker Mayfield doesn't look like a bust, but he clearly is behind one quarterback (Baltimore's Lamar Jackson) right now in his draft class and he's still in the plenty to prove class with New York's Sam Darnold and Buffalo's Josh Allen.
The Browns other first-rounder in Denzel Ward has proven to have all the skills needed to be a top corner except being able to stay on the field and third-rounder Chad Thomas is at least playing this season but hasn't been more than a rotational player, while their two receivers Antonio Callaway (4th) and Damion Ratley (6th) have been best remembered for dropping passes rather than catching them.
What looked to be a draft to remember is showing the beginnings of being a draft from the Farmer, Banner, Mangini, Brown, Holm... Oh never mind you get it.
We aren't there yet, but you are seeing a few signs.

Genard Avery could have success with the Eagles and he wasn't noted as a problem with the Browns in the locker room, so looking at the trade by the merits, John Dorsey traded a player that he invested a fifth-round pick and added a fourth after getting a good year from the player.
Even if you have to wait two years for the return, that's not bad value, but what I'm thinking is this- the trade deadline is tomorrow at 4;00 PM and suddenly the Washington Redskins have let it be known that their Pro Bowl left tackle holdup Trent Williams is suddenly available after weeks of saying that he was not on the block.
Could it be that John Dorsey is leery of trading a first-round pick for the second round in a row after trading the 2019 top pick to the Giants for Odell Beckham and is accumulating lower picks to add to perhaps a second-rounder to make it worth the Redskins while?
It's an interesting thought and perhaps the Redskins are motivated to make a move to accommodate Williams before he sits out an entire season and loses value from sitting out an entire season, but considering Williams age (31), timing after sitting out all season and needing to sign him to a new contract, I'm afraid trading a first-rounder in an attempt to save a possible lost season would be a desperate overpay.
It will be very interesting to see if the Browns make any moves tomorrow and if so, what type?
Will they go after a Trent Williams to salvage this season and continue to bulk up on veterans?
Or could they go in the opposite direction, a direction that few have given thought to- Could they trade someone that you wouldn't think and add draft picks to continue to a rebuild that they may have attempted too much too soon and now realize that more is needed to have a firm foundation?
We will see soon.

Browns finish up draft

The Cleveland Browns finished up their draft day early with three picks, one in round five and the final two in the sixth round.

I absolutely love the Browns selection in round five of Memphis linebacker Genard Avery.
I watched more American Athletic Conference football than any conference this year other than the Big Ten (Maybe the Pac 12 was close) and Avery ranked behind Houston's Ed Oliver (No Kidding, right?) as the defensive player in the league that just seemed to be all over the place running down ballcarriers as the proverbial man among boys.
Avery is physical, likes to hit, can play inside or outside linebacker (although I think he is better suited to the inside), can rush the passer and isn't awful in coverage in addition to being a strong special teams player.
So why was he available in the fifth round?
Frankly, I don't know because I had him pegged as more of a 3rd-4th round player and sometimes players fall through the cracks.
Had you told me Friday that the Browns had taken Genard Avery in the 3rd round where they took Chad Thomas, I would have likely had a better reaction than I did for Thomas
I watched a lot of Boise State games and saw a lot of Dallas first rounder Leighton Vander Esch and from the more limited games that I saw Avery in (I see almost all Boise games, I watched maybe four or five Memphis games), I didn't see much difference in the two except Vander Esch is four inches taller and a handful of pounds heavier with Avery being a little faster.
I'm really happy with this pick and I might even go as far to say that Avery might be a starter as early as 2019.


In the sixth round, the Browns added another receiver in Texas A&M's Damion Ratley.
Ratley is big (6'2) and fast (Faster than his teammate Christian Kirk, who was taken off the board in round two), so he is very toolsy.
The problem is that as an Aggie, he was pretty much a one trick pony as in- "go deep and if we throw it to you- catch it", so route running will be something that Ratley will need to work on.
The rap on Ratley apparently was that Ratley doesn't block well, doesn't like physical corners and doesn't always hustle on special teams.
Considering that most backup wideouts have to help make special teams work part of their profession, Ratley will have to change that in a hurry to make the Browns final roster.
I had two players that I preferred to Ratley in the super-productive Cedric Wilson of Boise State (Picked by Dallas in the sixth round) and Steven Dunbar of Houston (Free agent-49ers), but I could have a bias because I watched so many of their games over their career.
Still, Ratley will have a rough time making this roster.


The Browns final pick is a player that I know very little about in Simeon Thomas, a cornerback from
Louisiana-Lafayette.
Thomas looks like what you would think a player from the smallest of the group of five conferences would be if you took a chance on him- he's big for a corner at 6'2 and 197 and he's athletic with strong leaping ability.
However, Thomas played just one full season in his four years at ULL, had academic issues and was involved in a theft with 13 other football players, so there are questions with Thomas.
I've never seen him play and there is next to nothing on Thomas as far as tape goes, so he's an unknown quantity.
I will say this though if the Browns were going to take a cornerback with off the field questions and with plenty of physical ability, I really liked the tape of Holton Hill of Texas, who signed with the Vikings as a free agent.
Hill's problems clearly scared teams off, but if the Browns weren't bothered by those issues of Thomas (or Antonio Callaway's for that matter), I'm not sure why they would be concerned by those of Hill.


I'll have a Browns draft recap sometime soon, but we still have today's Cavaliers game, a bloated inbox and road trip stories to write, so a Browns recap may wait a little bit...