Four ex-Cleveland Browns offensive linemen earn Super Bowl rings

Although the Cleveland Browns have struggled on the offensive line, several former Browns linemen just won a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Cleveland Browns gift wrapped no less than four offensive linemen for the Kansas CIty Chiefs, each of whom played more than 50 percent of the team’s snaps in 2019: All-Pro right tackle Mitchell Schwartz, center Austin Reiter, guard Andrew Wylie and tackle/guard Cameron Erving are all getting Super Bowl rings. Congratulations, guys. However, as for the Cleveland Browns coaches responsible for the development of young linemen, it’s an embarrassment that offensive linemen consistently play better when they leave Cleveland.

Schwartz was first team All-Pro in 2018, and had the second longest consecutive snap streak in NFL history with an amazing 7,894 snaps, trailing only Joe Thomas at an unheard-of 10,363 snaps. Though Schwartz had his snaps streak broken this year, he still only missed five snaps this year, and has never missed a start. He did not make All-Pro this year, but Pro Football Focus lists him as the second highest graded tackle in the NFL. Schwartz was allowed to leave as a free agent in 2016, probably because Sashi Brown was determined to right the financial ship and eager to both cut payroll and “help” the team qualify for a top draft pick.

Two doors down, center Austin Reiter also made 99 percent of the Chiefs snaps, including the Super Bowl. PFF ranked him 22nd, or about the level of an average NFL starter. Nobody knows why he was cut in 2018. Guess the Browns were just so loaded with talent that he could not make the team?

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Guard Andrew Wylie was on the Browns’ practice squad for most of 2017, but cut at the end of the year. Kansas City signed him in 2018 and moved into the starting lineup after an injury to Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. Wylie won the 2018 Mack Lee Hill Award for the team’s best first-year player. He had an injury late in the 2019 season and was not on the active roster for the Super Bowl. He has had 21 starts over the past two seasons. This year, PFF ranked him 21st in the NFL among guards, and so based on 64 nominal NFL starters, he was significantly above average.

Cameron Erving has started 25 games for the Chiefs since the Browns traded him in 2017. Cleveland was totally indecisive about where he should play. They tried him at left tackle, left guard, right tackle and center, and he flopped at all positions. However, he continued to slowly improve throughout the entire process and never really plateaued. If you believe in the Pro Football Focus grading system, he is 80th overall in the NFL at tackle, which would make him a valued backup, but perhaps not someone who should be a full-time starter.

Fans, this is ridiculous. If the Browns have problems on the offensive line, and they do, it is not because of lack of scouting. It is because the Browns have not been able to develop young linemen. In addition to the four ex-Browns on the Kansas City Chiefs, there are others around the league, including potential Hall of Famer Alex Mack, Austin Corbett (who, in case you missed it, started the last seven games for the Rams after being a pariah in Cleveland), Earl Watford (started for Tampa Bay), Roderick Johnson (starting tackle for the Texans), Shon Coleman (49ers), Spencer Drango (Rams). No doubt there are a few others, and readers are invited to post about them in the comments section below.

The last draft choice to make it as an offensive linemen for the Browns was Joel Bitonio, who was drafted back in 2014.

The Browns either have not been able recognize talent on the offensive line when they have it, or else they have not been able to develop it. That is on the coaching staff, not the scouting staff, and it is a reason why it was so important to obtain the services of Bill Callahan, an established offensive line coach with experience as a head coach in the NFL, as well as the Big Ten (Nebraska). If there is one guy that can relate to young offensive linemen, it would be Callahan.

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So heartfelt congratulations to the ex-Browns who earned Super Bowl rings. As for the Browns’ coaching staff, you need to improve, at least in this fan’s opinion, because it is downright embarrassing how much talent has been shooed away from Cleveland on the offensive line. This is a cold-weather, outdoor, natural turf team, and the offensive line needs to be a centerpiece of the team.

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