Cleveland Browns: Andrew Berry head-to-head with Eric DeCosta

The Cleveland Browns edge the Ravens in the 2021 off-season

Yeah, yeah, it’s the offseason and no real games have been played yet, everyone is 0-0 and the Browns always look great in the off-season, and the season is a marathon rather than a sprint, blah, blah, blah. We get all that, but we are going to do a deep dive on the off-season anyway. This season, events are trending differently than they did in the Ozzie Newsome era.

Let’s start with the Ravens 2021 draft, which continued the trend of more and more wide receivers with Rashod Bateman in Round 1, and Tylan Wallace in Round 4. What in the world is Baltimore doing? With Lamar Jackson as the quarterback, what was wrong with 3,000 yards on the ground behind two tight end formations? That stuff was working and did not need to be fixed.

I am not saying the wide receivers are untalented. Rather, I am saying the opposite. The Ravens are over-invested in wide receivers. They have two first-round draft picks from the past three drafts, plus they drafted four other guys, and they signed Sammy Watkins.

Baltimore fans are licking their chops, dreaming of multiple wide receiver formations and a Mike Martz run-and-shoot offense (also known as the chuck-and-duck).

They also decided to trade Orlando Brown, Jr., who was crabby because he wanted left tackle money. So they traded away a 25-year-old, six-foot-eight, 345-pound Pro Bowl tackle and sign 32-year-old Alejandro Villanueva, at six-foot-nine and 277 pounds. They hope to improve the running game by giving up seven years and 68 pounds. I don’t think the Steelers offensive line was really so great last season.

I think Ben Roethlisberger could take the ball seven yards deep and fling it so fast there was not enough time to sack him. Plus even as he prepares to collect Social Security, the old boy is still strong as a bull elephant, so he can throw the ball away with three guys hanging onto him. That’s why his sack totals are so low and why the Steelers O-Line looked great on paper last season, but I am not a believer. I do not believe Villanueva replaces Orlando Brown.

For some reason, Ravens fans like to read my stuff, and so I will leave it to them to provide a perfectly logical explanation. Maybe six or seven wide receivers is exactly what the Ravens need, and they do not need to address linebacker, the offensive line, or other personnel groups.

To me, however, this is reminiscent of the Browns teams that used to draft 3-4 defensive personnel for 4-3 defenses and vice-versa. The Ravens just seem to be supplying personnel for the wrong offense.

Baltimore seems to be providing run-and-shoot personnel for a two-tight-end, run-first team.

They also drafted Ben Mason, a fullback, despite having Pro Bowler Patrick Ricard on the roster. So, do they intend to keep two fullbacks on the roster? Or do they want to cut the veteran to save cap space? Ricard’s cap number is $3.9 million but they can recover $2 million by cutting him.

Until 2020, Richard was a two-way player, playing 140 snaps on the defensive line in 2019. The Ravens did not use him on defense in 2020, however. It would be awesome to swap the 255 pound Mason for the 311 bone-crushing Ricard. That’s 66 extra pounds we really don’t need to see, on top of the 68 they already lost at tackle when Villanueva went in for Orlando Brown, Jr.

That would be 134 fewer pounds of meanness and aggression. Go for it, Ravens!

This fan was perplexed by the Round 1 selections of wide receiver Rashod Bateman and Odafe Oweh. Nothing against Bateman, but their wide receiver room was already looking full with the likes of Sammy Watkins, Marquise Brown, Miles Boykin, Devin Duvernay, Tylan Wallace, and others.

Oweh is a converted basketball player and Pro Day superstar who achieved zero sacks as a defensive end last year. On the other hand, he weighs 257 pounds and he clocked an astounding 4.36 in the 40-yard dash at his Pro Day. Is his job is going to be to neutralize Travis Kelce and the other new mutant tight ends that have emerged in the NFL?

Whatever, Oweh was a player this fan specifically thought the Browns should not take with their first-round draft pick. The size and speed are incredible, but zero sacks doesn’t make any sense. How do you draft a defensive end with zero sacks in the first round? Is it possible that Oweh is really a tight end?

It also might be pointed out that Pro Bowl edge rusher Matthew Judon has left Baltimore for New England. Can he be replaced? There is a certain amount of truth to the notion that in this season’s uncertain rookie talent pool there could be a Pro Bowl talent lurking on someone’s roster where you least expect it.

The Ravens have extremely sharp scouts who might turn up that kind of talent from out of nowhere. But to think that you can just automatically replace someone of Matthew Judon’s talent is a bit presumptuous. There was a reason he was selected for two straight Pro Bowls.

Baltimore seems to be getting away from the dual-threat Lamar Jackson attack that brought them to where they are. They have added to the speedy wide receiver room (which fans always like, but analyst experts are less thrilled with), but they have weakened the offensive tackle position and edge rusher positions.

This is similar to the John Dorsey plan in which he too spent big bucks on wide receivers (Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham, Jr) and was willing to take a hit on the offensive line (Kevin Zeitler).

It’s definitely better to have a superstar wide receiver on the team, but a great quarterback can make it work with a receiver who does not have fantastic moves or super speed.

We shall see, and perhaps it will work out great for the Ravens and they will go 15-2 this season thanks to their speedy wide receivers. However, they may find that they will miss Pro Bowl edge rusher Matt Judon as well as the bully offensive lineman Orlando Brown, Jr.

I just think the Browns moves make a little more sense this offseason.