3 reasons the Cleveland Browns are crumbling in front of our eyes
By Greg Newland
No. 2 – Player Evaluation
As fans, you are all aware that the Cleveland Browns have always struggled to bring in talent. The first guy that was willing to overpay to force guys here was John Dorsey. And while he left the Browns in a horrific place from a cap perspective, he at least put Cleveland on the map as a destination.
Andrew Berry has been the hybrid of Dorsey and the old general managers which was necessary. He’s bringing in good talent and appears to be drafting well, but he’s not overpaying and giving the Browns the ability to be competitive for years and years.
At this point though, we must ask if he truly is a good evaluator of talent. I’m not saying he can’t make some mistakes, but he must learn from them. This is now the second year in a row that the Browns have had zero depth at wide receiver, and zero talent at defensive tackle. Amari Cooper is fantastic, but when he’s the only guy you must cover, it can be done.
Berry has made some progress as he moved on from the first player that he drafted. I know the NFL is an analytics game and I have no issues with the Browns using that model. But if you can’t stop the run, and you struggle to throw the ball, you aren’t going to be able to win games.
This is by no means a call to fire Berry; I think he has done a good job for the most part. But if the Browns continued to be hyped as a great team and the roster is completely overvalued and they struggle, you are going to see some internal collapses happen.