Cleveland Browns: 5 Ways Haslams can best help the team
4. Scouting Depth Needs to be Improved
The Haslams needs to direct the front office to determine how to augment the personnel talent evaluation and scouting, which continues to limit the ability of the team to improve.
On the positive side, general manager John Dorsey is damn good at making major decisions, both for free agents and in the NFL draft. He got it right on Baker Mayfield, Denzel Ward, Nick Chubb, Olivier Vernon, Sheldon Richardson, and OBJ.
Not everyone has been totally healthy, notably OBJ, but the talent is there and so is the desire to win. They are good players and positive influences as teammates.
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However, Dorsey cannot do everything himself, and there needs to be extensive scouting to back him up, especially in the late rounds of the draft and with undrafted free agents. No team wins without quality depth. The Browns, however, do not have quality depth.
Browns scouting has not been effective in the late rounds of the draft and with college free agents. This year the Scottish Hammer, Jamie Gillan, is their best rookie. He was the only undrafted rookie of any immediate impact in this year’s draft class.
None of the Browns 2019 draft picks have yet established themselves as threats for the NFL All-Rookie team, although Sheldrick Redwine and Sione Takitaki, in limited snaps, have received decent grades by the independent graders at Pro Football Focus.
Thus they have some results from rookies, but not enough to sustain a good team. They still have time to develop, but no standouts have emerged yet. College scouting has not been able to bail the team out of trouble, which is part of the reason why John Dorsey elected to trade draft picks to plug holes on the offensive line. There were no undrafted rookies to bail the team out of that jam.
The Haslams will need to obtain inputs from personnel guru Eliot Wolf, as well as vice presidents for player personnel Alonzo Highsmith and Ken Kovash. What is necessary to bring this part of the organization to a world-class level?
Do they need personnel changes? Additional scouts? Better analytics? Can it be corrected with additional scouting resources? What do the Patriots have that the Browns do not?