Cleveland Browns year in review: The first quarter
By Thomas Moore
Once the calendar turned to February it was time to start thinking about free agency, especially how the Browns could bolster their roster while simultaneously hurting their AFC North rivals.
It wasn’t just within the division, however, as a talented list of players were potentially set to his free agency.
There was also renewed hope that a unified front office and coaching staff working together could finally turn around the fortunes of the team.
Even though the draft was still a couple of months away, the Browns quest for a quarterback left several mock drafts, including an early one from ESPN’s Todd McShay, to send Cal’s Jared Goff to Cleveland.
The Johnny Manziel saga continued to spiral out of control as Manziel reportedly ruptured his girlfriend’s ear drum during a fight and talk continued to circulate that the team covered up for Manziel after he showed up for practice still drunk from the night before.
Manziel wasn’t the only player making headlines for the wrong reasons, however, as linebacker Armonty Bryant was indicted on felony drug charges stemming from a traffic stop on a Cleveland-area highway on Christmas morning.
Drafting has long been a problem for the Browns, no matter who is making the selections, a point driven home when Pro Football Focus’ took a look back at the 2010 draft.
The league office was taking its time making a decision on Josh Gordon’s future, leading to questions about what Gordon’s role would be in Jackson’s offense.
In a somewhat questionable move, Jackson announced that he would be open to taking the advice of Jim Brown.
“I’m looking forward to finding out as many things as Jim Brown knows that can help our football team be the best that it can be,” Jackson said at the time. “We’re talking about a guy that did it as well as anybody ever, so it would be really smart on my part to sit and talk to him and have him tell me the things that he sees and that he’s felt.”
In related news, the Browns announced that they were planning to honor Brown with a statue at FirstEnergy Stadium.
Befitting a team that was beginning a total rebuild, the Browns had several roster holes to fill but there were plenty of dangers to avoid in free agency.
After an up-and-down season in 2015, it was fair to wonder if quarterback Josh McCown was still an option to start a game in 2016.
One day it seemed likely that the Browns would resign wide receiver Travis Benjamin, then suddenly contract talks broke off – even though Benjamin would have been a nice player to retain.
In the latest sign that Manziel’s time was done with the Browns, Hue Jackson let everyone know he was done talking about Manziel and said that the team would be selecting a quarterback during the 2016 NFL Draft.
Even though there was still no word from the league office, the Browns were taking a positive approach to the Josh Gordon situation.
The annual NFL Scouting Combine gave Browns fans an early chance to start scouting (and possibly over-hyping) the group of players entering the draft.
Finally, as the month drew to a close and free agency loomed, the Browns were facing some hard decisions along the offensive line.