Cleveland Browns adding a veteran wide receiver seems unlikely

The Cleveland Browns may be short on experience at wide receiver, but signing a player like Dorial Green-Beckham would not help solve the problem.

The Cleveland Browns currently have a group of wide receivers that – if we are being kind – is a bit underwhelming when it comes to public perception.

A year after selecting four wide receivers in the 2016 NFL Draft, the Browns were mostly quiet this past offseason, with the biggest move replacing Terrelle Pryor with Kenny Britt after Pryor and his agent misread the market and went to the Washington Redskins on a one-year contract.

As of today, the Browns look likely to head into the upcoming season with a position group made up primarily of Britt and second-year players Corey Coleman, Ricardo Louis, Rashard Higgins and Jordan Payton. That group has combined for 367 career receptions, 5,570 career yards and 33 career touchdowns, with Britt accounting for 84 percent of the receptions, 87 percent of the yards and 91 percent of the touchdowns.

More from Dawg Pound Daily

Even for a team that is allegedly going to focus on the run, that is not the most encouraging of situations.

It is understandable then why some fans and media members continue to call for the Browns to sign another free agent wide receiver. Those calls conveniently ignore that the list of available wide receivers is less than inspiring, even with the release last week of Dorial Green-Beckham of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Originally a second-round selection by the Tennessee Titans in 2015, Green-Beckham lasted one year with the Titans before the team grew tired of him. The Eagles took a shot on him last season and, like the Titans, decided that one year of Green-Beckham’s services were more than enough.

According to Reuben Frank at CSN Philly, while Green-Beckham looks the part of an NFL wide receiver, he is anything but:

"On the field, he showed no ability to adjust on a throw that was a millimeter too high or too low. He had zero body control and never was able to use that speed to get open. His instincts were terrible. He looked like a wide receiver, he just didn’t play like one. Off the field, he never showed any fire. The drops, the lack of production, the weekly disappearing act never seemed to bother him."

Sounds like the type of player that would have appealed to former Browns general manager Ray Farmer, but it is highly unlikely the current front office and coaching staff would see the attraction.

And while having another experienced player on the roster might be nice, senior offensive assistant Al Saunders is not sweating it, according to clevelandbrowns.com:

"“The only veteran receiver we really have is Kenny (Britt). That is one of the reasons our personnel people brought him in here was the veteran presence that he had. You would always like to have veteran leadership, but these young guys, the way that they are improving – I just told them when they were out here – the arrow is up for every one of those guys. Now, we just have to keep going and keep climbing into the level that we would like to be when the season starts.”"

The time has passed for the Browns to add any player worth adding to the wide receiver group. Signing someone like Green-Beckham, or any of the other less-than-desirable free agents, would be pretty pointless.

Next: Browns: Breaking down the roster subtractions

While they may not be inspiring confidence in some people, the Browns seem set at the position. The good news is that there is nowhere to go but up.

Home/Browns News