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Browns wide receivers a tough group to get a handle on

By Thomas Moore

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Sep 3, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Lenz (17) makes a catch in front of Chicago Bears free safety Brock Vereen (45) during the first quarter at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The Cleveland Browns, along with the 31 other teams in the National Football League, have to trim their roster down to 53 players by Saturday at 4 p.m.

After weeks of Organized Team Activities, mandatory and voluntary minicamps, training camp, countless hours of film and four preseason friendlies, the time has come for general manager Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine to select the players that will take the field on Sept. 13 at MetLife Stadium in the season-opener against the New York Jets.

While there are position groups that are pretty much set – quarterback, offensive line and outside linebacker comes to mind – there is one group that is going to some tough decisions and is sure to result in some angry fans once the decisions are announced.

We’re talking, of course, about the wide receivers.

“I feel like I went out there and did everything I could in the preseason and put some good things on film.” – Wide receiver Josh Lenz

Last season, the Browns kept five wide receivers plus Marlon Moore, who is listed as a wide receiver but is making the team primarily because of his ability on special teams – a role that takes on even more importance this year with the addition of punter Andy Lee.

We’ve seen a lot of speculation that the Browns will keep an additional wide receiver this year, but that seems to be more the result of people trying to justify putting certain players on the roster rather than a change in philosophy from the team. It’s certainly possible, but for a club that emphasizes defense and the running game, carrying an extra wide receiver may be unrealistic.

If the Browns were going to fill out the wide receiver room based solely on production and no other factors, it would look like this:

  • Brian Hartline
  • Andrew Hawkins
  • Travis Benjamin
  • Taylor Gabriel
  • Josh Lenz

That leaves off some notable names, mainly Dwayne Bowe, Terrelle Pryor and rookie Vince Mayle.

Which is what makes things difficult.

“Dwayne? He just needed to work so that is why he was out there.” – Head coach Mike Pettine on Dwaye Bowe

Bowe played into the third quarter of last night’s game against Chicago in an attempt to shake off the rust after missing so much time in camp with a hamstring injury. He was targeted twice, making one catch for eight yards, and didn’t really look ready for the start of the season. (Of course, some of that may be attributed to quarterback Thad Lewis, who should be nowhere near the final roster come tomorrow afternoon.)

Despite analyst Solomon Wilcots saying on the team’s official broadcast that Bowe is in danger of not making the team (a statement later shot down by Pettine), the Browns have $9 million reasons to keep the 30-year-old Bowe on the club. But making the team and playing may be two different things. His contract may ensure him a roster spot, but if Bowe doesn’t produce he may not see the field on game days.

“I feel good. I’m a playmaker. I make plays when it’s time.” – Wide receiver Dwayne Bowe

So add Bowe to the roster, but let’s not drop Lenz just yet.

Next up is Mayle, the club’s fourth-round draft pick out of Washington State.

Mayle has been targeted 12 times in the preseason and has only come down with five receptions. Most notably he didn’t have a single pass thrown his way during the game against Tampa Bay, which just happened to be the one game where the Browns’ offense had it working.

It seemed unlikely at the outset of training camp that a fourth-round draft pick would not make the club, but then this popped up on our Twitter timeline during last night’s game:

That made us go back and take a look at Mayle’s draft profile at NFL.com, where the following jumps out:

"Evaluators seem sure that Mayle is a moldable piece of clay who can become substantially better as a pro with more coaching and experience. Mayle clearly needs work with some of the basic fundamentals for the position, but with his size and an ability to win vertically, he has a high ceiling. He might need a redshirt year before he is ready to contribute consistently."

We haven’t seen anything from Mayle to contradict what is in that paragraph. The only thing going for him in his bid to make the roster is his draft status, but luckily Farmer and Pettine have shown that they value production over anything else, so let’s put Mayle on the practice squad for the year. (And if another team claims him? Well, he can join the likes of Charles Johnson on the list of players who the Browns allegedly let “get away.”)

Which brings us to Pryor, the most-divisive player currently on the team not named Johnny Manziel.

“I think we have a pretty good sense of who he is and where he is right now in his transformation for a lack of a better word.” – Head coach Mike Pettine on Terrelle Pryor

There has been a section of Browns’ fans ready to hand Pryor a roster spot simply for showing up. And until last night he has barely been able to do even that, as hamstring problems have kept him out of the majority of practices and Cleveland’s first three preseason friendlies.

Pryor finally made his debut in the third quarter against Chicago and was … just another guy on the field.

He didn’t catch any passes, committed a penalty and ran the ball twice for a total of nine yards. That’s it.

If that is enough to earn a roster spot on an NFL team, then we don’t know what to tell you.

We’ve seen some speculation today that the Browns should keep Pryor on the team and build a “package” of plays around him. But didn’t the Browns do that last year with the “Johnny Package”? And haven’t NFL teams reached the point where they don’t waste time with that kind of nonsense? And if the Browns want to go down that road, can’t Manziel just fill that role?

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If Pryor makes the final roster, it will have nothing to do with what he’s done on the field or in practice, which would go against everything that Pettine has been preaching since he arrived in town.

So let’s circle back to the initial question of who makes the final roster.

We’ll stick with our initial feeling that the Browns will keep five wide receivers – Bowe, Hartline, Hawkins, Benjamin and Taylor – plus Moore. There are other places on the roster where the Browns need to build depth, and keeping an extra wide receiver should not be a priority.

The one good aspect in all of this is that, for once, Farmer and Pettine face real decisions on who to keep and who to cut, instead of just selecting the lesser of multiple evils.

And that can only make the Browns better in the long run.

Next: What do the injury designations mean for the Browns?

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