Cleveland Browns need somebody to be a leader in the locker room

The Cleveland Browns have lost three games in a row and are in third place in their division. If somebody doesn’t change the mindset of this team things could go south in a hurry.

No matter what the goal is, any good team has a good leader — a person or player that everyone can look to when things aren’t going right. That’s something the Cleveland Browns are severely lacking right now.

They have lost their last three games and now the frustration is starting to set in. This is a team full of talented but very emotional players.

Odell Beckham Jr. may be the most emotionally unstable player on the team and he let it show on Sunday after their loss to the New England Patriots. He questioned the team’s willingness to challenge coverage down the field.

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Then head coach Freddie Kitchens replied by saying they threw Beckham seven passes and he caught five of them, then right after that he said he wasn’t replying to that.

Kitchens hasn’t shown himself to be the leader this team needs, it’s his job to put out the fire but his comments always seem to fan the flame. It’s his first year as a head coach so he gets somewhat of a pass as he tries to figure out how to be the leader of this club.

He has a great example in his division, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. Tomlin hasn’t had a losing record since he was hired in 2007 and they have had their fair share of issues especially last season.

But they came through all of that drama and now they have a better record than the Browns after they lost Ben Roethlisberger for the entire season.

Something that cannot be ignored is that Cleveland is playing without linebacker Christian Kirksey who was a big leader for this team. Kirksey is a veteran who everyone respected and listened to.

They don’t have a player who has won a Super Bowl or been had sustained success in the NFL. They don’t have guys like Tom Brady or Drew Brees, all of their stars are young and are not established as alpha dogs in a locker room.

Cleveland needs somebody to make them believe that they are a good football team and that they just have to keep working to improve. But the way things are looking right now, they aren’t going to get that.

It’s not impossible and there are several candidates to do it. Joel Bitonio has spent all six seasons with the Browns is highly respected, he just may not be very vocal. A player who is very vocal is Jarvis Landry.

We all saw what kind of leader Landry is last season on ‘Hard Knocks‘ when he went on a passionate rant about the effort of wide receivers in practice. Maybe that’s what Cleveland needs right now, or maybe they need the more mild Bitonio to send a message.

Whatever needs to happen it needs to happen now because the Browns are entering the easiest part of their schedule. They need to rally the troops and put together a winning streak should they want to salvage what started out as a promising season.