Cleveland Browns: Picking up the pieces

The Cleveland Browns had a rough – and familiar – start on the opening day of free agency in the NFL.

It was a clean sweep for the Cleveland Browns on the first day of free agency.

Four starters were unrestricted free agents and all four left town for new deals, which may be some kind of record for free agency.

Browns fans were up in arms on Wednesday as the news rolled in throughout the day – wide receiver Travis Benjamin to the San Diego Chargers, center Alex Mack to the Atlanta Falcons, right tackle Mitchell Schwartz to the Kansas City Chiefs, free safety Tashaun Gipson to the Jacksonville Jaguars – each one another cut in a wound that never seems to heal.

One of the strangest aspects in an already strange day was seeing Browns fans chided by media members for being upset that the team was not doing something to improve its fortunes, most notably from the Browns themselves:

No one expected the Browns to be big players in the opening hours of free agency and no Browns fan should be upset didn’t join the madness by handing out:

• $52.5 million in guaranteed money to a defensive end with 29 career sacks
• $37 million in guaranteed money to a quarterback with seven career starts
• $15 million to a 27-year-old running back who’s rushed for less than 500 yards in two of the past four seasons

But that is different from expecting the team to retain its own players, ones that were drafted and developed by the team (no matter which regime made the pick). Especially when your top football guy claims that is a team priority.

“It is important that we keep our own,” Sashi Brown, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, said about free agency . “It sends the right message to the locker room when you reward guys that do it the right way.”

If you are not willing to reward players like Schwartz and Mack, for example, what message does that send to not only the locker room, but also the fans? How, exactly, does losing two starters off the offensive line – the team’s lone strength in recent years – make the team better?

Or are the fans just supposed to accept it because they were told “it was coming”?

Wednesday’s mass exodus, especially Benjamin and Schwartz, only exacerbates a bigger problem the Browns have been dealing with for years, which is the NFL draft.

The Browns continue to make mistake after mistake on draft weekend, but they also continue to make things worse when they do actually make a decent pick by not retaining those players. Consider that between 2010 and 2013, the Browns had 32 draft picks and this is what remains of those selections on the current roster:

• 2010: Joe Haden
• 2011: No one
• 2012: John Hughes
• 2013: Barkevious Mingo and Armonty Bryant (at least for now)

Now, a lot of those 32 picks were a complete waste (and that doesn’t even include the first round of the 2014 draft), but the Browns have also selected and let walk away some players that, while maybe not stars, could be solid contributors. If you rarely get it right in the draft, and never keep players when you do get it right, how can you ever expect to get better?

Finally, every time there is a regime change in Berea the new guys talk about how they are going to do things differently and better than the guys they are replacing. But one thing that never changes, outside of the continual losing, is the Browns unwillingness to ever get out in front of a negative story. If there was ever a time for Brown to hold an impromptu press conference to explain what was going on, it was last night.

Or if he didn’t want to meet with the press, Brown could have gone on one of the team’s own shows, where he would be guaranteed of having an unchallenged forum to explain what is going on.

But instead, the team’s website boasted a photo slideshow that included Mack, Schwartz, Benjamin as Gipson as “top headline” and the Browns let others set the narrative of a day of dysfunction at team headquarters.

There are obviously two sides to every story, and both a team and the player need to agree on a new deal, but the Browns just never get their side of the story out until it is too late. Telling it first and telling it truthfully are the staples of any good communications plan and the Browns continually come up short. Whether or not their approach to retaining their own players is valid or not, there is simply no excuse for not being the ones who drive the story.

It was a rough day for Browns fans on Wednesday, but one that we’ve seen repeated on an annual basis. While it may have been “expected,” that doesn’t make it any easier to accept.

The team has been promising for weeks now that they are going to do things differently and that this will not be the “same old Browns.”

But from what we’ve seen so far, it sure looks like business as usual in Berea.

Next: Draft profile: Jalen Ramsey

Free agency is underway – maybe somebody should tell the Browns? – and Cleveland has around $48 million in cap space to spend. Follow Dawg Pound Daily for all the latest news on free agency as the Browns work to rebuild their roster.