Cleveland Browns: The dawn of another new era focuses on the youth

The Cleveland Browns are embracing the youth movement after keeping all 14 of their draft picks on the final roster.

The Cleveland Browns reduced their roster on Saturday to the NFL-mandated maximum of 53 players, and in the process made one thing abundantly clear.

This team belongs to executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown and head coach Hue Jackson.

All 14 of the team’s draft picks made the final roster, at least for now, as Brown and Jackson took the approach that if you are going to rebuild there is no reason to not go all the way.

“We’ve talked a lot about needing to find the guys who embody the values that we like and will make us successful in this league so as we look at our 53-man roster,” Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of young talent and guys that we want to develop.

“And the key thing for us is to maintain and really create that young nucleus of talent that we’ll build off of for some time and that’s a blend of our veterans — Joe Thomas, Joe Haden, Demario Davis, John Greco — but also with the youngest guys on our roster and rookies … It’s a nice blend of young guys but we are going to be young and that’s what’s exciting about it.”

The Browns will be relying on the youngsters at several positions across the roster, including:

• Wide receiver, where draft picks Corey Coleman, Rashard Higgins, Jordan Payton and Ricardo Louis join Terrelle Pryor and Andrew Hawkins. Collectively the receivers have 178 career receptions – 176 of them by Hawkins.
• Tight end, where Gary Barnidge is joined by Randall Telfer and Seth DeValve. Combined NFL receptions: 123, all by Barnidge.
• Outside linebacker, where draft picks Emmanuel Ogbah and Joe Schobert join second-year player Nate Orchard. Career sacks: three, all by Orchard.

In addition to embracing the youth, Brown and Jackson set fire to former general manager Ray Farmer’s work, releasing defensive backs Charles Gaines and Pierre Desir and, most notably, trading former first-round pick Justin Gilbert to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a sixth-round selection in the 2018 NFL Draft.

“We’ve talked a lot about needing to find the guys who embody the values that we like and will make us successful in this league.” – Sashi Brown

Gilbert became the sixth and final first-round selection made by the Browns between 2011 and 2014 to no longer be on the team. While that stat dominates the conversation about the Browns and their lack of success, a closer look reveals the troubles extend beyond just the first round in recent years.

In his two seasons running the team, Farmer made 18 draft picks, eight of which are no longer on the Browns. In addition, he signed 15 free agents and only three remain on the roster as of today – Tramon Williams, Josh McCown and Andrew Hawkins – and nine of the 15 are out of the NFL, according to Terry Pluto at cleveland.com.

Even by the Browns low standards that is one for the record books.

While there is nothing wrong with starting over with an abundance of young players, the moves don’t come without risks.

For starters, the Browns are very likely going to be bad this year, at least in terms of their final record. The team may be watchable, especially on offense, and should get better as the season goes along, but a team with more than half of its roster being filled with rookies and second-year players is simply not going to win in its first season together.

So it may be for the best for fans to curb talk of challenging for a playoff berth or even approaching a .500 record.

More from Dawg Pound Daily

• How the Browns could maximize Nick Chubb in 2023
• Can Deshaun Watson get to Patrick Mahomes level for Cleveland Browns?
• 3 Cleveland Browns who should see an expanded role in 2023 and 1 who should not
• Is Marcus Davenport on the Browns radar in 2023?
• 5 Free agents from Super Bowl LVII Cleveland Browns should target

The second, and probably more concerning, risk is that once losing sets in it can be hard to break the bad habits that come along with it. If Cleveland’s struggles extend for to long, the losing can become contagious and can be hard to get rid of, no matter how well the front office and coaching staff does its work.

But that is a discussion for another day. For now, it’s time to buckle in for the 2016 season and see what Jackson and his staff can do with this new roster.

“We knew heading into this that we could be young,” head coach Hue Jackson said. “I think Sashi and his staff have done a great job of positioning us for several years in the future but I think he’s also positioned us for our football team right now to have an opportunity for some young guys to make an impact.”

The roster also remains fluid as the Browns will be busy working the waiver wire and building their practice squad.

As of this morning, here is how the 53-man roster looks, according to the team’s website:

Offense (25)

Quarterbacks: Robert Griffin III, Josh McCown, Cody Kessler; running backs: Isaiah Crowell, Duke Johnson Jr., Raheem Mostert, Terrell Watson; fullback: Malcolm Johnson; wide receivers: Terrelle Pryor, Andrew Hawkins, Corey Coleman, Ricardo Louis, Jordan Payton, Rashard Higgins; tight ends: Gary Barnidge, Randall Telfer, Seth DeValve; offensive line: Joe Thomas, Joel Bitonio, Cameron Erving, John Greco, Austin Pasztor, Shon Coleman, Spencer Drango, Alvin Bailey

Defense (25)

Defensive linemen: Danny Shelton, John Hughes III, Stephen Paea, Carl Nassib, Xavier Cooper, Jamie Meder; linebackers: Christian Kirksey, Demario Davis, Tank Carder, Dominique Alexander, Scooby Wright III, Emmanuel Ogbah, Nate Orchard, Cam Johnson, Joe Schobert; defensive backs: Joe Haden, Jamar Taylor, Tramon Williams, Trey Caldwell, Tracy Howard, Ibraheim Campbell, Rahim Moore Sr., Jordan Poyer, Derrick Kindred, Don Jones

Next: The road ahead for Josh Gordon

Specialists (3)

Kicker: Patrick Murray; punter: Britton Colquitt; long snapper: Charley Hughlett