6 hours ago
Tell me if i'm wrong but one of my constant frustrations with this organization is their unwillingness to make the final one or two moves that REALLY make us threats to win it all. Here's the way I see it year by year:
2021 offseason: It was EXTREMELY clear that we needed a massive upgrade to our o-line. Burrow was coming off a shredded knee because of that awful line. What did we do? Signed an over the hill Riley Reiff and reached for Jackson Carman in the 2nd round. The result? I think most of us would say we were one solid o-lineman away from winning that SB. Extremely frustrating. It was SO OBVIOUS and they just didn't go all the way. Now we obviously had some great defensive signings this offseason but my point stands. And the o-line shortcomings kept us from getting the Lombardi.
2022: Atleast they tried here. We had the same issue as the year before but atleast this time they took it seriously and got us 3 new o-line starters in free agency and a rookie 4th round pick who started. That year I would mostly chalk up coming up short to bad luck. All those o-line injuries going into the playoffs killed us. Refs didn't help in that AFCCG either.
2023: We needed an upgrade at tackle (I would contend Volson should have been upgraded too but I can understand them thinking he would improve) and we got OBJ. Great signing.... On defense though, we lost Bates and attempted to go cheap (This will be a theme) to replace him with journeyman Nick Scott. Horrible signing. Set us back big time in addition to having a bad first round pick and really just getting stale on defense in general. Cody Ford was a solid signing as a backup (BACKUP being the key word....Obviously that has changed now). Overall just not enough again.
2024: Not signing Reader or a real replacement for him was a huge mistake. Signing a 30 year old Rankins was okay. There were better options but at the time it could have been a good signing IF they kept Reader like they probably should have. Also they attempted to fix their mistake from 2023 by signing Geno Stone to replace Scott. Was seen as a decent signing but again they went the cheap route for a position that was CLEARLY very important in Lou's system. Still just trying to put a serviceable body back there rather than fix the position with an exclamation point. Swing and a miss on both defensive free agent signings. Vonn Bell was basically free so I can't fault them for going back to him, but again this stale defense just keeps getting more stale. Could have used a veteran CB to replace Awuzie but nope. Cost us big time. Gisecki was a home run signing and Moss wasn't a bad signing, it just didn't really pan out. We could have used a guard at this point as Volson was still struggling and Cappa was declining rapidly. Just not quite doing enough. The draft was okay. Mims was a good first round pick but it was silly to expect our 2nd and 3rd round d tackles to contribute much in year one. Once again, just not quite enough.
2025: The most egregious example of this. We cut Cappa making us all think good things were coming. They saw a big weakness and wanted to upgrade there....Wellllllll as it turns out that was just a cost cutting move. We had 2 GLARING holes at left guard and right guard and our response was to re-sign Cody Ford, a solid BACKUP and Lukas Graham? A guy in his early 30's who's been a journeyman his entire career and a backup caliber player are going to protect our franchise qb. Have we not seen this movie enough times by now to know how it could end? Burrow has already had 2 serious injuries in 5 seasons. There have been multiple upgrades available since March and this organization would apparently rather save that money then massively improve Burrows chances of staying healthy and taking us to the promise land. Add to that the lack of a veteran CB that most would say would have been a wise move, then the decision to go for a 25 year old linebacker over a stud guard in the 2nd round. They just simply refuse to make the final one or two moves that would put them over the top. They are either counting on two backup caliber guards to suddenly play better than they have ever played OR they are counting on a 3rd and 5th round pick to start in year one and produce. And at corner we are relying on Hill coming off an ACL (Almost always takes 2 years to fully be back) and CTB who is coming off a horrible season. We hope Turner will take another step but if we have any injuries we are in trouble. Same at safety. So many moves could have been made that would have really upgraded this team. Instead we sit. Like we seem to do often.
Yeah i'm ranting, but I think my point is valid. We always end up one or two moves short of really being a team capable of the SB we all desperately want. But do the Browns desperately want it? I have my doubts.
2025
2021 offseason: It was EXTREMELY clear that we needed a massive upgrade to our o-line. Burrow was coming off a shredded knee because of that awful line. What did we do? Signed an over the hill Riley Reiff and reached for Jackson Carman in the 2nd round. The result? I think most of us would say we were one solid o-lineman away from winning that SB. Extremely frustrating. It was SO OBVIOUS and they just didn't go all the way. Now we obviously had some great defensive signings this offseason but my point stands. And the o-line shortcomings kept us from getting the Lombardi.
2022: Atleast they tried here. We had the same issue as the year before but atleast this time they took it seriously and got us 3 new o-line starters in free agency and a rookie 4th round pick who started. That year I would mostly chalk up coming up short to bad luck. All those o-line injuries going into the playoffs killed us. Refs didn't help in that AFCCG either.
2023: We needed an upgrade at tackle (I would contend Volson should have been upgraded too but I can understand them thinking he would improve) and we got OBJ. Great signing.... On defense though, we lost Bates and attempted to go cheap (This will be a theme) to replace him with journeyman Nick Scott. Horrible signing. Set us back big time in addition to having a bad first round pick and really just getting stale on defense in general. Cody Ford was a solid signing as a backup (BACKUP being the key word....Obviously that has changed now). Overall just not enough again.
2024: Not signing Reader or a real replacement for him was a huge mistake. Signing a 30 year old Rankins was okay. There were better options but at the time it could have been a good signing IF they kept Reader like they probably should have. Also they attempted to fix their mistake from 2023 by signing Geno Stone to replace Scott. Was seen as a decent signing but again they went the cheap route for a position that was CLEARLY very important in Lou's system. Still just trying to put a serviceable body back there rather than fix the position with an exclamation point. Swing and a miss on both defensive free agent signings. Vonn Bell was basically free so I can't fault them for going back to him, but again this stale defense just keeps getting more stale. Could have used a veteran CB to replace Awuzie but nope. Cost us big time. Gisecki was a home run signing and Moss wasn't a bad signing, it just didn't really pan out. We could have used a guard at this point as Volson was still struggling and Cappa was declining rapidly. Just not quite doing enough. The draft was okay. Mims was a good first round pick but it was silly to expect our 2nd and 3rd round d tackles to contribute much in year one. Once again, just not quite enough.
2025: The most egregious example of this. We cut Cappa making us all think good things were coming. They saw a big weakness and wanted to upgrade there....Wellllllll as it turns out that was just a cost cutting move. We had 2 GLARING holes at left guard and right guard and our response was to re-sign Cody Ford, a solid BACKUP and Lukas Graham? A guy in his early 30's who's been a journeyman his entire career and a backup caliber player are going to protect our franchise qb. Have we not seen this movie enough times by now to know how it could end? Burrow has already had 2 serious injuries in 5 seasons. There have been multiple upgrades available since March and this organization would apparently rather save that money then massively improve Burrows chances of staying healthy and taking us to the promise land. Add to that the lack of a veteran CB that most would say would have been a wise move, then the decision to go for a 25 year old linebacker over a stud guard in the 2nd round. They just simply refuse to make the final one or two moves that would put them over the top. They are either counting on two backup caliber guards to suddenly play better than they have ever played OR they are counting on a 3rd and 5th round pick to start in year one and produce. And at corner we are relying on Hill coming off an ACL (Almost always takes 2 years to fully be back) and CTB who is coming off a horrible season. We hope Turner will take another step but if we have any injuries we are in trouble. Same at safety. So many moves could have been made that would have really upgraded this team. Instead we sit. Like we seem to do often.
Yeah i'm ranting, but I think my point is valid. We always end up one or two moves short of really being a team capable of the SB we all desperately want. But do the Browns desperately want it? I have my doubts.
2025
