Cleveland Browns have not developed an O-Lineman since Joel Bitonio
What happened in 2019?
Making a long story short, general manager John Dorsey threw a huge pot of money and draft choices onto a wall to see what might stick.
He drafted Austin Corbett with a second-round pick and Drew Forbes with a sixth-round pick. He traded a fifth and a sixth for Wyatt Teller, the current incumbent. He signed Eric Kush (now a Raider). Tackles Chris Hubbard and Kendall Lamm were signed as tackles, but with Jack Conklin and Jedrick Wills on the team, they could be candidates for that right guard position also.
Last year, no one really stepped up to replace Zeitler though Teller who played okay. Austin Corbett, as mentioned above, was banished to the Rams last season, where he came in game nine due to injury and missed zero snaps the rest of the season, 541 consecutive snaps for the Rams, versus one for the Browns. That is pathetic. But not only did the Browns blow the pick, but they also spent over $4 million in salary before making up their minds.
Last season Zeitler ranked seventh in the NFL by Pro Football Focus, which is borderline Pro Bowl; Kush was 76th, which is a high second string, i.e., using 64 starting guard jobs in the NFL. Teller was 58th and Corbett was 65th.
For those interested in examining the financial carnage, here’s a list of the key pieces that general manager John Dorsey moved around in order to replace Zeitler.
Due bills
Value of blown second round pick: $8,055,848
Value of traded sixth round pick: $3,000,00
Money spent on Austin Corbett: $4,027,924
Money spent on Eric Cush $2,075,000
Total money that is gone: $17,158,772
Still on the team:
Wyatt Teller, 2019-21 $2,240,000
Drew Forbes (6th round) 2019-2022 $3,085,512
Chris Hubbard 2020-2021 $10,637,500 (two years only)
Kendall Lamm 2019-2020 $5,237,500
$21,200,512
Total replacement cost: $38,359,284
Drew Forbes is the only player signed through 2022.
The amount of money spent trying to replace Kevin Zeitler is laughable or frightening depending on how seriously you take football. Some $38 million was spent and he has been gone only one year, and we are not sure who the starter will be this season. Wow.
Hopefully, it’s obvious to casual fans that it’s not possible to operate the salary cap by this kind of sledgehammer approach. Last year the salary cap allowance was $188,200,000, and Dorsey and the Browns spent a total of $212,753,859, or in other words, they overspent the annual cap allowance by more than $24.5 million. Dorsey was able to cover that using money previously saved by the Sashi Brown regime, but it is horrible to overspend on a losing team. It usually gets the GM fired. Come to think of it, that’s what happened.