Analyzing the construction of the Browns wide receiver room

How the Browns added to their WR corps

This offseason has seen the Browns take a comprehensive multi-faceted approach into addressing their wide receiver room. The easiest way to add talent is in free agency. However, Berry and company recognized that wide receiver is often the most overpaid and underperforming position in free agency.

Furthermore, the 2023 wide receiver free agency class was severely uninspiring but that was not going to mean the price was not going to be top of the market. So, the Browns let the first wave of free agency crash into the shores without signing a receiver to the team and instead opted to go another route first.

For the second year in a row, they turned to the trade market to bolster the wide receiver position. The Browns were able to strike a deal with the New York Jets to acquire Elijah Moore and pick No. 74 in exchange for the 42nd overall pick. The trade for Moore gave Cleveland an ascending talent that provides the receiver room with both dynamic playmaking ability and positional versatility to play the slot or on the outside.

Then, after the first wave of free agency, the Browns signed veteran speedster Marquise Goodwin to a one-year deal. The addition of Goodwin gives the Browns a proven speed threat that defenses will have to respect when he is on the field. Their ability to stretch the field is no longer ‘in theory’, and with the additions of Moore and Goodwin the Browns have the ability to attack every level of the field.

But the Browns were not done adding to the room, with the 74th overall pick they added Cedric Tillman out of the University of Tennessee. Tillman is a big-bodied receiver, 6-foot-3-inches and 213 pounds, that gives the Browns another boundary target with a ton of upside, with the potential to develop into a starter down the road.

Now these additions don't mean that a player like David Bell is going to just be buried on the depth chart with zero chance of seeing the field. But what it does mean is that Bell, along with any other pre-existing member of Cleveland's wide receiver room, will have to fight and claw to see reps in 2023. Stefanski and his staff will have no issues with playing the players that earn their snaps, which is a luxury the depth of the roster did not afford them last season.

When you take a step back and look at how the Browns completely revamped the dynamics of the wide receiver room, it is hard not to be impressed. They essentially used the 42nd pick to add Elijah Moore and Cedric Tillman and then signed Goodwin to a veteran salary benefit deal.

So, the Browns still have Cooper and DPJ in place, and then added Moore, Goodwin, and Tillman for less than five million dollars against their cap in 2023. For a team that's strapped for cap space, this is nothing short of brilliant roster maneuverability.