Did Jarvis Landry actually change the culture for the Browns?

Jarvis Landry has done a lot of good since joining the Cleveland Browns in 2018, but did he actually change the culture as many have claimed? 

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Jarvis Landry set Twitter and the NFL world ablaze on Tuesday morning with a trio of tweets seemingly indicating he wants out of Cleveland. Now, he did say he wanted to stay in Cleveland, but the ball was in the Browns court.

Some of you who are reading this and have already seen the tweets will gravitate towards him saying he wants to stay in Cleveland and cling to that. What he said doesn’t quite read like that. He is basically absolving himself from actually saying he wants to find a new place to call home. If he wants out that’s fine, but just say that.

Now, this will be a tough pill for a lot of Browns fans to swallow as Landry is a beloved figure amongst the fanbase. Before this continues any further, I want to say that Landry is one of my favorite players and I would love to see him back with the Browns, but I also have to be realistic.

Landry will likely be a cap casualty as he is owed $16.3 million this season, but we should know a bit more next week at the NFL Combine when Landry’s representatives meet with the Browns front office. If he were to leave, he is confident that he can be healthy and help a team elsewhere to win a championship.

He continued to tweet out his frustrations and was not happy that anyone has ever questioned his toughness. Before the 2021 season which was riddled with injuries, Landry had never missed a game in his NFL career, despite battling nagging injuries all along. I don’t know of anyone that ever questioned his toughness and nor should they.

Did Jarvis Landry change the culture?

So let’s get to the question at hand; did Landry actually change the culture in Cleveland?

In the two years prior to Landry being traded for, the Browns finished a woeful 1-31. In the same year that Landry joined the Browns, the team was featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.” One of the episodes featured a very passion-fueled, expletive-laden speech from Landry saying that the culture had to change and that guys shouldn’t be missing time if they weren’t hurt.

Steven Ruiz of USA Today’s For the Win, at the time, said it did more harm than good. He said that the Browns didn’t go 1-31 because they didn’t play through training camp injuries. That is a good point, especially when you fast-forward to last season when Landry wasn’t always on the field during practices.

Back to the speech really quick. How much of that was genuine and how much of that was for show? After all, it was on a reality television program. We may never know, but it is something to ponder.

Let’s go to December of 2019. Mike Silver of NFL Network reported that Landry was one of several players who yelled “Come get me!” towards the Arizona Cardinals sideline.

Of course, Landry denied the allegations. Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported at the time that Landry’s best friend and Browns teammate, Odell Beckham Jr. told several teams to come get him.

Speaking of OBJ, he got his release from the Browns in the middle of last season in what is not considered an ugly divorce that just never seemed to work. After that occurred, Landry did not speak to the media and on Tuesday he said that was by design. He was focused on getting on the field as healthy as possible. Some might question the medical staff of the Browns, and rightfully so, but that is a discussion for a different day.

One of the only times Landry spoke was at his Thanksgiving charity event where he said he didn’t know why he wasn’t getting the ball more, seemingly a shot at quarterback Baker Mayfield, who played through a slew of injuries in 2021.

Dawg Pound Daily’s own, Joel W. Cade wrote on the tweet barrage and said that “Landry changed the culture, but the Browns need to change from what Landry turned it into.” That very well could be the case and it might be best for the two parties to part ways.

At the end of the day, Jarvis Landry did a lot to help impact the Browns and helped them get to the playoffs for the first time in 18 years and win a playoff game for the first time in 27 years. He had a lot of good moments in Cleveland, but he did not come without baggage.

The Browns went 32-32 over the past four seasons, which is a massive improvement from 1-31, but a true culture change isn’t one playoff berth in four seasons.

I wish Jarvis Landry all the best in wherever his football journey takes him next, whether that be one final year in Cleveland or elsewhere.