Cleveland Browns: Injuries and suspensions prove John Dorsey was wrong to trade Emmanuel Ogbah, Genard Avery

John Dorsey traded away two capable edge rushers and now the Cleveland Browns are struggling to field good players at the defensive end position

John Dorsey has done a lot of good for the Cleveland Browns since taking over as the general manager in 2017, but he hasn’t been perfect. In the draft, he whiffed on Austin Corbett with the 33rd overall pick and spent two fourth-round selections to move up for Antonio Callaway despite his lengthy list of off-field concerns.

Both of those players are already gone, which makes it easy to see they should have never been drafted. What hasn’t been as easy to see is the mistakes Dorsey made in two of his trades this year.

The first was when he decided to trade Emmanuel Ogbah to the Kansas City Chiefs for safety Eric Murray. Once Dorsey landed Olivier Vernon, he decided the former starter was no longer needed, which left them thin at the position.

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Ogbah never met his potential with Cleveland but he was a capable starter with 12.5 sacks in his first three seasons. Making matters worse, Ogbah is having the best season of his career as he entered Monday night with a career-high 5.5 sacks and also has a forced fumble and three batted down passes.

He also hasn’t missed any games this season whereas Vernon has been out the past two weeks due to injury. On top of that, he has just three sacks on the season despite so much attention being paid to Myles Garrett.

As for the compensation, Murray has been fine but is also out as he had to have knee surgery. There were also rumors that the Chiefs were set to release him anyway meaning there was a chance to add him while keeping Ogbah.

Even with that move happening, the Browns still had a capable edge rusher in Genard Avery. The 2018 fifth-round pick had 4.5 sacks and 40 tackles as a rookie. But then he simply never got a chance this season.

Avery was active for just one game before being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles — and as fate would have it, he recorded a half-sack on his very first snap with his new team.

Now heading into Week 12, these moves look even worse. Myles Garrett is suspended indefinitely and Vernon is hopeful to get back but there are no guarantees.

That leaves Chris Smith and Chad Thomas as the likely starters. Neither players are bad, and Thomas has taken huge steps forward this season. However, they’re now one snap away from playing Bryan Cox, Jr. at defensive end, a player who was just signed on Nov. 13.

With both Avery and Ogbah on rookie deals, neither move saved the Browns money. Instead, it just cost them two edge rushers who entered this season with 45 career starts.

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That kind of experience would be great to have as they look to replace Garrett who was playing out of his mind this year.

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