Browns release Odell Beckham

    The Cleveland Browns announced the worst kept secret in sports on Friday as the Browns released wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr reportedly after negotiating terms with the wideout to lessen the hit on Cleveland's salary cap for the in-season release.

Beckham played in six games this season, catching seventeen passes for 232 yards and without a touchdown.

Beckham's best games were against the Bears in week three (five catches, seventy-seven yards) and in a week six loss to the Cardinals (five catches, seventy-nine yards), but his noted lack of chemistry with Baker Mayfield never improved and after a video released by Beckham's father showed multiple clips of Mayfield missing an open Beckham by overthrowing him (expect to see videos of every other Browns receiver make similar videos if the argument is overthrown passes) and not throwing the ball to him at all.

Beckham was acquired by the Browns by the John Dorsey front office in 2019 when Dorsey traded first and third-round draft picks along with safety Jabrill Peppers to add what was thought to be an impact performer on the outside.

Beckham caught 74 passes for 1,035 yards and four touchdowns in his first season in Cleveland in the only year of the Freddie Kitchens era but caught only twenty-three passes and three touchdowns in seven games in 2020 before tearing his ACL.

Beckham never seemed to mesh with Baker Mayfield and every game that the two played together was likely to see a few of Mayfield overthrows, Mayfield not seeing an open Beckham, an attempt to find Beckham on a pass play intended to get Beckham into space that he never seemed to find, and occasional lack of effort by Beckham to catch the ball.

The Browns were reported to have received several trade offers for Beckham at the trade deadline but Cleveland decided to try to straighten out the differences with Beckham and then the video was released by Beckham Sr.

Here's my take- Plenty of blame to spread around.

Beckham deserves some blame for his occasional diva-like behavior, lack of effort unless getting the football in the volume that he wanted, and for not settling things with his father and apologizing for the stress created for the franchise.

Baker Mayfield deserves some blame because he did miss Beckham many times per game if you combine overthrowing him and not throwing to him at all. and he didn't exactly cool things down with his media outing on Wednesday.

Kevin Stefanski deserves some blame as his offense doesn't favor star wideouts.
Look at the Viking's wideouts in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs and their numbers before Stefanski as offensive coordinator in Minnesota, during his tenure, and then numbers after leaving his offense.

Stefanski is a coordinator/play-caller that hasn't always made the best use of wide receivers in his offense and he hasn't done a good job integrating Beckham into his offense in Cleveland.

Andrew Berry deserves some blame because if things were so bad with Beckham in the locker room, that the video posted by Beckham's father shouldn't have mattered and he should have taken the best offer available,

Berry's late decision meant the Browns received nothing for Beckham now and the release means the Browns will not receive a compensation pick when Beckham would have left for free agency following the season.

All of four of these gentlemen are deserving of criticism and you can even argue that the Browns shouldn't have released Beckham at all as even a reduced Beckham's production is unlikely to be equaled by any of Donovan Peoples-Jones, Rashard Higgins, and Anthony Schwartz.

And it does seem that the Browns felt the damage to the culture from Beckham's father yet didn't mind when Emily Mayfield (Baker's Wife) chimed in on Instagram a few weeks back.

In the end, the differences may have been too much for the Browns and Beckham to come to an agreement and straighten things out.

But I'm not sure the Browns gained anything today and they may have split an already divided locker room. 

A Tale of Two Bakers- Browns Rally Past Bengals 37-34

   Baker Mayfield threw five touchdown passes in the final three quarters and hit rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones with a 24-yard pass in the end zone with eleven seconds remaining to lift the Cleveland Browns to a 37-34 victory.

Mayfield finished the afternoon with 297 yards passing with those five touchdowns to four different receivers. 

Rookie tight end Harrison Bryant caught two of those scoring passes and Rashard Higgins grabbed all six of the passes thrown to him for 110 yards.

Kareem Hunt led the Browns in rushing with 76 yards in the victory that boosted the Browns to 5-2 on the season and in playoff contention.

Cleveland will host the 3-3 Las Vegas Raiders next Sunday before their bye week

Brownie Bits

1) Before I start on the win, the Browns announced on Monday that Odell Beckham tore his ACL while attempting a tackle on Baker Mayfield's first-quarter interception and will miss the rest of the season.

I know how it seems like Baker Mayfield has been chemistry with other receivers and it may be so to an extent, but I also know this- this team doesn't have a deep threat on the roster without Odell Beckham other than the still-raw Donovan Peoples-Jones and as opponents realize this, the underneath throws to Jarvis Landry and Rashard Higgins will be contested more and more.

2) On to Baker Mayfield, who missed on his first five passes, his first was intercepted on the play that ended the season of his star receiver, and generally looked terrible in the first quarter.

As people such as myself were going crazy with his poor play (although I did criticize him on Twitter, I didn't call for Case Keenum as many did), the Browns started their first possession in the second quarter and...

3) That Baker Mayfield left the building, replaced by this other guy that resembled the player that finished the 2018 season.

The quarterback that arrived would complete every pass that he threw for the remainder of the game with the exception of one clock spike and would throw the game-winner with seconds to play.

That Mayfield played with confidence, put the ball on a line, didn't hang his receivers out to dry, and generally looked like a quality NFL quarterback.

Kevin Stefanski didn't ask him to make long downfield throws and maybe that could be the key to success for Mayfield, but I don't think you could ask for more than what the Browns got from their quarterback in the final three quarters.

4) All of that said, it's not unfair to say we still need to see a body of work.

Baker Mayfield's career passing rating against the Cincinnati Bengals is 111 and in all other games, his rating is 83.

That doesn't' mean that it will remain that way, it just states what has been to this point.

The schedule plays to his advantage with an erratic (much like the Browns) Raiders team next before games against weak sisters Houston and Philadelphia with all three games in Cleveland followed by a visit to one win Jacksonville.

It's not out of the question the Browns could be 9-2 or at least 8-3 going into Tennessee without a true test other than maybe the Raiders and we won't know that much more about Baker Mayfield's future than we do today.

5) Rashard Higgins, the most popular player in Cleveland, steps in and finishes with over 100 yards with two of the biggest catches of the game.

Higgins digging a low pass from the grass only gained eight yards, but Higgins managing to get out of bounds was a huge play in saving time and his following catch for thirty more yards put the Browns in a spot to throw more than a Hail Mary to score.

I recently wrote that everyone loves Higgins except several coaching staffs who try to avoid using him at every turn.

Perhaps now, Higgins can have some of the respect he deserves.

6) Donovan Peoples-Jones did make an excellent catch on the game-winning touchdown, but there was a little bit of luck involved as the ball literally passed between the arms of Bengals defensive back Darius Phillips.

I'll take the luck this time, but Peoples-Jones, for now at least, is the major deep threat on the roster and he'll need to continue his development.

7) Austin Hooper missed the game after an emergency appendectomy on Friday,  but the Browns did not miss him as much as they could have with Harrison Bryant catching two touchdowns and David Njoku catching another.

I really like Bryant and the Browns might have found themselves an excellent tight end.

8) Myles Garrett continued his display of dominance with two sacks, a forced fumble on Joe Burrow, and has sacked a quarterback in six straight games, which established a team record.

9) Denzel Ward had an excellent game covering A.J. Green, but the safety position is going to kill this team (like it has done several times) if Andrew Berry doesn't step up and get someone that can play safety.

Eric Reid is a Pro Bowl level safety that is available for nothing but money and the Browns would be well served to give him a call.

10) The Browns still almost lost this game after all that- Watch the Hail Mary and after the tip drill started, the ball was going straight to A.J. Green but bounced off the chest of Sheldrick Redwine.

For all of the excitement of this game, it almost added even more.

11) The injuries are piling up on offense.

Their top running back is gone as is the only deep threat in the passing game and although the schedule will help with the next four games against one team at .500, can you rely on Baker Mayfield to outscore all of these teams without his two biggest weapons?

We shall see.

12) And can you outscore EVERYONE, even the bad teams?

Let alone the good ones?

It makes me think that although this team has improved, can they take the step forward by beating all the teams they should and do it with all offense?

13) Winding up with this- I always remember Dick Vermeil, back when he coached the Eagles, discussing the Miracle in the Meadowlands and what he was thinking before the famous Herman Edwards recovery and touchdown.

Vermeil was thinking about the game, but what he said was his thoughts were about his program.

In 1978, the Eagles were in their third year under Vermeil and his thoughts were about the foundation of the Eagles being the domination of the New York Giants and how that was slipping away before that fumble.

The Steelers and Ravens have that feeling with the Browns- they will bully them, beat them, and even when they play them close that they will find a way to win and the Browns know it.

Perhaps Kevin Stefanski has begun the foundation of his program with the domination of the Cincinnati Bengals?

Beckham leads Browns, Dallas falls 49-38!

Odell Beckham scored three touchdowns and carried the Cleveland Browns to a surprising 49-38 win over the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas.

Beckham scored the trio of trips to the end zone via a reception from Baker Mayfield, a reception from Jarvis Landry, and the game-ending end around rushing touchdown that clinched the win to avoid what would have been a franchise-crushing collapse as Dallas roared back in the fourth quarter to get as close as three points late in the game.

Beckham finished with 81 yards receiving and 75 yards rushing on two carries to lead the Browns offense and D'Ernest Johnson led Cleveland in rushing with 95 on a day that saw the Browns rush for over 300 yards while Baker Mayfield threw for two touchdowns to go with 165 yards through the air in the win.

The Browns move to 3-1 with the win and remain tied for second with Baltimore, a half-game behind 3-0 Pittsburgh, who received an unexpected bye with the Covid-19 wave hitting their scheduled opponent, the Tennessee Titans.

The Browns will go home for next Sunday's game against the visiting 3-1 Indianapolis Colts, who like the Browns have won three in a row after dropping their opener.

Brownie Bits

1) What can you state about Odell Beckham?

This is the electrifying player that the Browns thought they had acquired from the Giants and Kevin Stefanski did a good job involving him in creative ways.

For all of the good things that Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt do and as exciting as they can be, neither can be the game-breaker that Odell Beckham is, and that says a lot considering the talents of those two players.

2) The two gimmick plays that Kevin Stefanski called on the game's first drive and the game's final drive involved Odell Beckham on both plays.

And both plays brought different reactions from me as I watched!

On the touchdown reception, it was a joyful reaction as I screamed "He's (Jarvis Landry) gonna throw!" as I could see that Odell Beckham was open.

On the end-around at the end of the game, I loudly yelled "Oh...." as Aldon Smith beat his man to appear to be in a position to slam Beckham to the turf for a large loss.

Instead, it was Beckham hitting warp speed to avoid Smith and blow by everyone else for the clinching score.

Playcalling always comes down to success and failure by your players.

If Beckham is tackled by Smith, Kevin Stefanski is being grilled for being too cute.

Instead, we all are hailing him- Football is a funny game.

3) How about that running game?

I'll get to Nick Chubb in a minute and maybe Dallas couldn't stop a backfield consisting of myself, Fred Landucci, Battlin' Bob, and Ryan ( Although as Ryan can attest, I can run a pretty mean option offense), but even considering all of that, the Browns ran for 307 yards!

Yes, that number and the 7.7. yards per carry is inflated by the late game run by Odell Beckham, but even erasing that run, the Browns would have still finished with 257 yards.

The Browns were using Chubb before his injury, Kareem Hunt, D'Ernest Johnson, and even the practice squad promoted Dontrell Hilliard and all were effective, so the line was moving some beef.

Johnson rushed for almost one hundred yards and Hunt scored twice, so even without Chubb running the ball wasn't an issue in this one.

4) The loss of Nick Chubb to a knee injury that I haven't gotten word of its seriousness with Chubb undergoing an MRI tomorrow will be a huge one.

Now any team that can turn to a Kareem Hunt is more than fortunate, but the possible loss of Nick Chubb will hurt any team.

Fingers crossed that the Browns will see Nick Chubb return later in the season.

5) Baker Mayfield did throw for two touchdowns and it's hard to argue with 49 points.

Still, Mayfield's 19 of 30 performance featured far too many high throws and yet another overthrow of an open Odell Beckham that cost the Browns a sure touchdown.

The good thing about the current Browns building around the running game means less Mayfield throws and an improved chance of winning.

What I am intrigued by is the offseason decision by Andrew Berry and company on Mayfield's fifth season option status.

Can the Kevin Stefanski offense get by with average quarterbacks until they have an opportunity to grab a great one?

Is Baker Mayfield good enough for the Browns to take a huge salary hit eventually that the Browns think in a conference that will go through Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes for his career (Mayfield is older than Mahomes by six months), that Mayfield can eventually get them through?

Fascinating...

6) Mayfield did show signs of catching on to the offense as he completed nine passes to tight ends Austin Hooper and Harrison Bryant, one of those a touchdown pass to Hooper.

The tight ends in this offense are your safety valves, finding them and hitting them accurately is very important and Mayfield is improving in that area.

7) The defense.

I know some of the Dallas comeback is on the soft coverages that every team uses when they have a sizable lead, but this defense, particularly the back seven, just cannot allow chunks of yardage as they did even with such a lead as they had against Dallas.

How much of that is on a back seven that has only Denzel Ward and maybe Mack Wilson that would start on a decent team or what Joe Woods was calling for them, I'm not sure, but it was crazy how easy Dallas had been moving up and down the field against them in the fourth quarter.

8) I know the secondary is battered with Greedy Williams continuing to miss time and the season-ending injury to Grant Delpit was a huge blow, but games aren't over until the final gun.

Terrence Mitchell and Kevin Johnson are fine to be your 4th cornerback, but right now they are your two and three and Andrew Sendejo is just awful.

Sendejo did force a fumble from Ezekiel Elliott, but it seemed that was more from Elliott falling on top of Sendejo than anything that he really did to make the play.

Twice, Dallas struck for touchdowns that you didn't see Sendejo on coverage until the replay, and both times he's the sad trailing culprit.

I'm not sure if this is that Sendejo is too slow or isn't in the right coverage, but not only shouldn't Sendejo be on the field, you could make a real argument that Sendejo is so bad that he shouldn't even be on the team.

He's that awful.

9) However, no complaints about the defensive line.

Myles Garrett is a force off the end, he forced another strip-sack and fumble on Dak Prescott and he is dominating more each week.

Sheldon Richardson and Larry Ogunjobi each played well inside, although Ogunjobi left the game and will be undergoing an MRI, and Olivier Vernon returned from injury and recovered the fumble caused by Garrett.

The line is going to have to continue to play at such a high level because of the bunch behind them. 

Well, let's say there is cause for concern.

10) Two weird plays in the fourth quarter.

Donovan Peoples-Jones was returning kicks and punts in place of the injured JoJo Natson and he did fine for the most part, but in the fourth quarter the Cowboys kicked a bouncing ball to the end zone and Peoples-Jones allowed the ball to bound by him and didn't chase it down.

For a fleeting second, it looked like the ball wouldn't hit the end zone and would be a live ball with Dallas racing down to recover.

Fortunately, the ball did make it across the line for a touchback.

11) The other was after the Odell Beckham touchdown run late in the game.

Cody Parkey attempts the extra point and it's blocked by the Cowboys.

The ball bounces around and Dallas tries to pick it up.

As soon as a Cowboy touches the ball (other than the initial block), the football is live and after some hops and miscues, Stephen Carlson falls on the ball in the end zone.

As I'm saying that's two points ( as I remember the combination of the Clyde Simmons game and the Leon Lett game for the rule even before the two-point conversion began), the referees confer among themselves and then rule it is two points for Cleveland.

Shouldn't have taken that long.

12) The Browns now have a good victory.

I wondered about the legitimacy of the team after home wins over Cincinnati and Washington because even though those games were winnable, they are wins that you use as a foundation of a program.

Dallas may be 1-3, but they score points like crazy and they are never out of a game.

Combine that with beating them at Dallas and this is an excellent win.

13) The Browns finish the first quarter of the season at 3-1 and I would have been happy at 2-2.

Now the 3-1 Colts in Cleveland and this is the type of game that playoff teams win.

The Colts have played well on defense, but haven't rallied around new quarterback Phillip Rivers as much as they had hoped.

Win over Indianapolis, move to 4-1, and the grudge rematch against Pittsburgh could be the biggest game for the Cleveland Browns since at least their one playoff appearance in 2003 and possibly their playoff loss in 1994- both in Pittsburgh.

Lose to the Colts, a damper goes around this win, and it's likely the Browns are 3-3.

Don't look past the Colts and next Monday at this time, there could be as much excitement around the Browns as there have been in years.

 

Browns bump Bengals 27-19

The Cleveland Browns survived video reviews that both worked for them and against them, pre-game drama involving Odell Beckham, and another passing game that continues to puzzle, to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 27-19 in Cleveland.

Nick Chubb rushed for 106 yards with Kareem Hunt and Baker Mayfield rushing for a touchdown each as part of an attack that was very ground-based in the second half.
Denzel Ward led a defense that bent, but would only allow one touchdown, with a first-quarter interception that he returned sixty-one yards for a touchdown.
The Browns improve to 6-7 and keep playoff hopes alive that are about as bright as a lighter being seen from the moon with the victory.

Brownie Bits

1)  The Browns won a key reversal in the fourth period via replay and that helped in their victory today.
The first came when Baker Mayfield's pass forced a jumping Odell Beckham to only be able to get his fingertips on the ball, which then deflected to the Bengals  Jessie Bates for an interception.
After the Browns challenge, pass interference was called on Cincinnati and the drive continued.
Had the interception stood, the Bengals would have had the ball at the Browns fifteen-yard line down eight points.
Instead, the drive moved on and Austin Seibert would kick a field goal to stretch the Browns lead to eleven points.

2)  Freddie Kitchens managed to keep the Bengals in a game that they really had little business being in.
Kitchens with the league's leading rusher in Nick Chubb and the league's leading rusher in 2017 in Kareem Hunt on his side and facing the league's worst run defense, gave the pair six combined carries and continued his dubious decision on allowing this team to rely on Baker Mayfield, he of the 33rd in the league passer rating entering the game, to make plays rather than his two runners.

3) BUT as bad as that decision was, Kitchens was smart enough to realize that error and began to slam the ball at the Bengals.
The Browns ran four straight running plays to start the second half and arrived for a first and goal at the three of the Bengals.
First and goal- neither Chubb or Hunt in the backfield, Baker Mayfield throws incomplete to David Njoku.
Second and goal-Hunt for the three-yard score.
Far too often, these teams just overthink themselves.

4)  I'll start with the best part of Baker Mayfield's day- his seven-yard, second-quarter run that saw him tip-toe along the sideline and ensuing dive for the pylon for the score.
Mayfield showed nice athletic ability and nose for the end zone on the play.
5) That was about the only highlight of his day as he threw two interceptions without a touchdown, as noted above, Mayfield needed a kind video replay to save him from a third interception and per his usual campaign continued to fire footballs over his receivers that fell incomplete or forced them to leap to make catches.
You are likely tired of reading this every week.
I am tired of typing it.

6) The Bengals are a pretty poor defensive team, but Baker Mayfield did have time to throw today and was sacked only one time in the win.
Kendall Lamm started at right tackle with Chris Hubbard being injured and Greg Robinson returned at left tackle.
I'm not sure if the returns of Lamm and Robinson can be given or the Bengals are that bad, but one sack is a pretty solid number.

7) The review that hurt the Browns was in the first quarter when Baker Mayfield hit David Njoku and while it appeared Njoku was on the ground, Bengals linebacker Nick Vigil appeared to take the ball away from him.
The ruling on the field was for a Vigil interception, but if that is the case why didn't Vigil have the ball until Njoku hit the ground?
A call of a fumble would have made more sense, but even so, the ground cannot cause a fumble, so that doesn't wash either.
The obvious call was an incomplete pass and yet the replay 'confirmed" the call.
Sometimes, I wonder why they bother.

8) The Browns run defense was nothing to brag about though as Joe Mixon ran for even more than Nick Chubb as Mixon finished with 146 yards and an average of over six yards a carry.
Mixon's a very good back, but I expected better from the Browns defense.

9) Now the big news: Before the game, Jay Glazer announced on a pre-game show that Odell Beckham wanted out of Cleveland, etc.
It's the usual nugget from these talking heads, but I think it is likely true.
Would you want to play in this mess?

10) Then after the game, Baker Mayfield, who never misses an opportunity to offer an opinion, brings up Beckham's playing hurt all season, which is a good thing for Mayfield to say for Beckham.
But Mayfield doesn't stop there as he then says the mistake was made by the teams training staff and had Beckham been operated on when he should have been, he would have missed only a game or two rather than be hampered all season.
While that may have been true, it likely wasn't smart to toss the blame on the medical staff.
Baker Mayfield: Landscaper, human resources officer, player personnel director and now a physician.
Everything but an accurate passer.

11) Why is it that even when the Browns win, it still feels like a loss?
In the end, this will be a meaningless win in the big picture, but still couldn't we enjoy the win?
I mean really, other than the Ravens win and maybe the Bills win, all of the wins had something else going on.
Miami was because they were awful,  Jets was that they didn't have Sam Darnold, Pittsburgh had the helmet hammer and today was Odell Beckham wants to leave and Baker Mayfield throwing the medical staff under the bus.
Only with the Browns.

Garrett Grounds Jets-Browns win first 23-3

Myles Garrett sacked New York Jets quarterbacks three times and Odell Beckham grabbed a Baker Mayfield pass and ran 89 yards for a score as the Cleveland Browns improved to 1-1 with a 23-3 win in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Baker Mayfield threw for over 300 yards, Nick Chubb ran for 62 yards including a 19-yard touchdown and Odell Beckham finished the night with six catches for 161 yards to pace the Browns offense.
Cleveland will host the St.Louis Rams on Sunday night on national television.

Brownie Bits

1) Myles Garrett just destroyed the New Jets quarterbacks with three sacks and two other hits to clearly be the most dominant player on the field.
Garrett's physical ability may be unmatched by any defensive lineman in football and few are in his class as a pass rusher.
Any offense that has the Browns on their schedule had better scheme to figure out how to at least try to keep their quarterback away from Myles Garrett.

2) However, Garrett knocked Jets quarterback Trevor Siemian from the game with one of two roughing the passer penalties and two other offsides calls (one was declined), so it's not like Garrett doesn't have some things to work on.
The question isn't that Garrett needs to work avoiding late hits- he does.
The question is with the constantly evolving standard on what roughing is and isn't, how can any player know what is and isn't and how does it affect their play?
Garrett doesn't seem to be a dirty player, he isn't a Suh-type player, but eventually, he's going to slow a step to avoid a penalty possibility and that will come at a cost of effectiveness.
Look at the difference in the career slope of Clay Matthews Jr, who became a different player after these rule changes, moving from a player that could have potentially received Hall of Fame consideration to one that is now a completely different level of player.

3) Odell Beckham showed just what he can bring to an offense.
Beckham's one-handed catch in the first quarter was the type of catch that just amazes me and his ability to take a ten-yard pass and go 89 yards with the acceleration shown usually by track stars in shorter distance races.
Odell Beckham will always bring difficulties (off the field issues and constantly worries about his health), but what talent and what he brings to an offense when he is on the field.

4) I know the NFL has their rules on uniforms, helmets, visors etc, but removing a player from the field on a third and goal play because his visor was the wrong color is ridiculous.
In those situations, the proper move should be to tell the player that it needs to be changed during the next change of possession and the player would not be allowed to play after that until the equipment was changed.
Forcing Odell Beckham to leave at that point in the possession was ridiculous and needs to be addressed with the league's policy.

5) It was nice to see Austin Seibert connect on all three of his field goal attempts with two of them over forty yards.
The rookie missed an extra point in the loss to Tennessee and the Browns kicking situation has had its share of questions over the last few seasons.
Seibert took a small step forward with his performance in New York.

6) Baker Mayfield was OK in the win.
Mayfield is still learning and dealing with the adjustments that defenses make for a young quarterback and did make some nice throws.
However, he's beginning to show a disturbing tendency to hang some of his throws high and leaving his receivers very vulnerable.
David Njoku took a hit that resulted in a concussion that finished his evening on a high Mayfield throw and both Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham took unneeded shots as they leaped to catch Mayfield passes that were less than accurate.
I'm not saying that it is a problem yet, but it is something to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

7) Some of the inaccurate tosses weren't Mayfield's fault as he was often forced out of the pocket and was sacked three times by the Jets front, which won't make you recall any great pass rushes of the past.
The offensive line is a major concern other than Joel Bitonio and J.C. Tretter and I wonder if the Browns would be willing to send a 1 to Washington for Trent Williams, who would instantly upgrade the line, but would mean the Browns would have sent two first-rounders in a row away.
If I could get Washington down to a 2 and maybe another pick, I would think John Dorsey would almost have to do it.

8) Morgan Burnett left the game early with an injury and no word on its seriousness.
With Demetrius Randall missing this game and uncertain for the Rams game, the loss of Burnett would leave the Browns very vulnerable against the Rams passing game down the middle.

9) The Browns could have had some of their offensive struggles against Gregg Williams' defense because he knows most of the Cleveland personnel so well.
The Browns certainly had their successes, but Williams managed to keep an overmatched team in a game that with average quarterbacking could have been won.
Give Williams his share of credit for keeping it this close.

10) The enigmatic David Njoku hasn't been proven to be able to be counted on, but if his concussion causes him to miss time, the Browns will lose an element of their offense that the backups cannot provide- the pass-catching threat.
None of the current three backups are more than blocking tight end and the only player that could have filled the role as a receiving tight end was released in the final cutdown in Seth DeValve.
I'm not sure how this can be plugged if Njoku misses serious time.

11)  A win is a win and even though it was the hapless Jets using their third-string. quarterback for most of the game, they do all count the same.
Was this a great performance? No, and the Browns will have to improve with the tougher stretch coming next over the next month (Rams, Ravens, 49ers, and Seahawks).
However, they did what they needed to do against a bad team- a small step forward.

Browns reel in Odell Beckham

John Dorsey sure knows how to fire up his base and the seemingly endless field of Democratic Presidential candidates could learn a few things from the engineer of the rebuild of the Cleveland Browns.

Dorsey allowed the first day of free agency (commitments, not official signings, those cannot start until today) to quietly go slide by and Browns fans wondered about Dorsey's plans when linebacker C.J, Mosley, a player desired by most Browns fans, signed with the New York Jets, not the Browns.

Dorsey apparently planned on a more spectacular day two as it would be the Cleveland Browns that would be the talk of the football world at the end of this night.
Earlier in the day, the Browns had made their first transaction in signing defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson in a move that had Browns fans and football scribes giving the team plenty of credit for improving a defensive line's pass rush and sending a front four of the caliber that the Browns have not seen in years.
Dorsey then followed up with a one-year contract with Breshad Perriman, the former Baltimore first-round wideout that revived his career in Cleveland.
Perriman was expected to perhaps exceed that number in salary and the Browns seemed to have retained their base receiving corps at a fair price for the 2019 season.

The Browns looked now to be adding to the back seven with needs to be addressed in the secondary and at linebacker in free agency and the draft with many of the available upgrades taken out of the free agency pool, but John Dorsey not only wasn't finished, he was able to rock more than the football universe, but the sports universe as well.

Trades involving Odell Beckham had been rumored for months and not only with the Browns.
It was tough to see why the Giants signed Beckham to a five-year/ninety million dollar contract, paid him a sizable upfront bonus and they would shop him as available, but available he seemed to be, but the Browns had to wonder about the price that they would pay.
After all, one of the other top wideouts in the game was going to be traded in Pittsburgh's Antonio Brown, and using Brown to gauge the market for Beckham, who is younger, made sense.
However, after the Steelers seemed to trade Brown for nowhere near his value (3rd and 5th round pick in April's draft), the Giants appeared to have made the decision to swap Beckham now for the best that they could reel in.
That return was better than Pittsburgh's, but far from what was expected as the Browns traded their first-round pick (17th overall), the third-round pick that the Browns obtained from New England for Danny Shelton (the last pick in the third round before compensation picks) and safety Jabrill Peppers to add Odell Beckham to their roster to solidify the Browns as a contender in 2019.
Beckham caught 77 passes for 1,052 yards and six touchdowns last season over 12 games, for a Giants team that was often criticized for Eli Manning's lack of arm strength to throw the ball downfield and a propensity to check down and dump the ball off to rookie running back Saquon Barkley, who finished the season with 91 catches to show often Manning did just that.

Considering the skills of Beckham, the Browns got away with theft should Beckham perform as expected.
The Browns haven't picked as low as 17 with their own pick in the first round in years and the third is one acquired from New England, so they still have a 3rd rounder.
As for Jabrill Peppers, his play did improve last year at safety, but he never seemed to show the playmaking skills that he was supposed to have (other than a terrific game against Denver last season) and he was very disappointing in the return game.
Some were calling Peppers a bust last night in the euphoria after the trade and even though I've never been a fan of his, calling him a bust is unfair.
Peppers may develop further as a Giant, but including him in the trade didn't exactly make me wince as safety was a position of need with him, showing that losing him wouldn't be a huge hit to the roster.

Odell Beckham's not perfect.
Beckham missed four games last season and twelve in 2017, had issues with the Giants, although he was very popular in the locker room, so he wasn't a clubhouse cancer there, but wasn't afraid to criticize the offense, play-calling, and the eroding skills of quarterback Eli Manning.
That's the downside, other than Beckham's agent already making a little noise about contract modifications similar to those of Antonio Brown, but the Browns have enough space to accommodate those fairly easily.

Now for what the Browns are bringing to Lake Erie.
Odell Beckham is easily in the upper tier of receivers in the game with all the names you would think of as such, has deep speed, excellent hands, and generally hasn't been criticized for a lack of effort.
Beckham's in his prime (turns 27 during the season) and should have his Cleveland transition eased with his good friend and college teammate Jarvis Landry and Adam Henry was his position coach with both LSU and the Giants on the roster/coaching staff.
Spare the trading of a number one, when you consider where that first-rounder resides, this isn't trading that pick for Antonio Brown (31, Beckham's contract will almost be over before he reaches that age), you are getting an elite player in his prime for a middle of the first-round draft pick.
I value draft picks even more than most, but you can't value them that high considering that this trade involves a young superstar and just one first-rounder is involved.
My opinion might have changed if the cost was as rumored earlier in the day (2019 and 2020 first-rounder and backup defensive Emmanuel Ogbah for Beckham and the Giants 2020 second-rounder), but I'm more than fine with this cost.

The Browns still need some help.
They released tight end Darren Fells (a 2018 FA signee) over the weekend and some help for the enigmatic David Njoku couldn't hurt.
The linebackers need help with at least one and maybe even two, depending on where they want to play Olivier Vernon (Likely prefer DE, but can play linebacker) and the status of Emmanuel Ogbah (could they get a 2020 pick at the draft?) and safety was a position that could have used help before trading Jabrill Peppers and now is a spot that John Dorsey must address (Pro Bowler Earl Thomas is rumored to be currently considering the Browns after trading for Beckham).

On paper, this is a team that seems to be at least the division co-favorite and all things considered maybe the favorite in the AFC North.
I'm not sure that they are better than New England or Kansas City yet, but they are going to put lots of points on the scoreboard and they are going to pound some opposing passers.
With a rookie head coach and a second-year quarterback that occasionally shows (on-field) maturity problems, there may be a grace period needed before everyone is on the same page, but finally, the Browns are contenders again.