3 Players that benefit from Cleveland Browns recent departures

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CLEVELAND, OH – OCTOBER 07: David Njoku #85 of the Cleveland Browns celebrates a play in the first half against the Baltimore Ravens at FirstEnergy Stadium on October 7, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /

3. David Njoku, Tight End

We can just go ahead and call this one as it was — John Dorsey was not a big fan of players not brought in by John Dorsey. He came to Berea and immediately said he would get ‘real’ football players, totally discounting the work done by the previous regime.

While Sashi Brown and his group deserve some criticism, they were actually stockpiling assets, and Dorsey benefited by having a ton of cap space and draft picks handed to him. And he dismissed that, putting all the credit on himself from the beginning.

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From there, he drafted and signed the guys he wanted and dumped many players who were there before him. Gone were guys such as Danny Shelton, Jason McCourty, Jabrill Peppers, and Kevin Zeitler.

As for the ones that stayed, he wasn’t always the friendliest. Ask David Njoku, who was called out publicly by Dorsey ahead of the season.

"“I challenge him here today, you know what, improve your run blocking.” — Dorsey on Njoku"

There’s truth to what he said, that Njoku needed to be a better blocker. But to do so publicly was unnecessary. And from there, Njoku became a forgotten man.

A broken wrist sidelined him early in the season but then he barely saw the field after returning in Week 14. In all, Njoku had five catches for 41 yards and a touchdown. This was a far cry from his output in the prior two seasons.

Had Dorsey and Kitchens stayed, Njoku surely would have been out the door. And the Browns would have looked bad because another team would have used him in the passing game and found ways around his blocking issues. Now, there’s a chance he could return to being a mismatch for linebackers and safeties over the middle of the field.

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