5 worst moves of the Cleveland Browns 2021 offseason

The 5 worst moves of the 2021 offseason for the Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns are Super Bowl contenders thanks to a great 2020 season and a strong 2021 offseason.

The team has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few months because of the front office’s ability to find value at nearly every spot.

However, not every move the team made (or didn’t make) improved the team Here are the five worst moves made by Cleveland.

5. Cutting Sheldon Richardson

Moving on from Sheldon Richardson and his high salary was a necessary evil, but that doesn’t mean the team is better for it. A quality player for the past two seasons, we weren’t able to see Richardson at his best because he was forced to take on more responsibility than planned.

Both Richardson and Larry Ogunjobi were better suited to play as three-techniques, but because of injuries and a lack of depth at the position, Ogunjobi had to play the one-tech, and struggled mightily. That was supposed to be Andrew Billings’ spot, but he opted out of the 2020 campaign.

Was Richardson worth his cap hit of around $12 million? Probably not, and Cleveland needed to keep a healthy amount of rollover cap space moving into 2022, which made moving on from a high-priced veteran necessary. But while the defensive tackle depth chart is now much better than it was last season, it now lacks a player as good as Richardson.

There were other ways to create space, other veterans to move on from, and restructuring and extending Richardson also seemed like a potential avenue, but one that the team ultimately did not take.

Swapping Richardson for cap space (and thus the ability to extend core players while retaining the flexibility to keep the rest of the team together) was for the best. The impact of Richardson’s loss, however, will still be felt.