CLEVELAND — Blow it up. Blow all of it up. Set fireplace to the wreckage, tip it into Lake Erie and let it float to Pelee Island or Buffalo or any level in between. The NFL’s most costly roster belongs subsequent to the opposite well-known shipwrecks on the backside, solely accessible with flippers and oxygen tanks.
Commerce Za’Darius Smith, Dalvin Tomlinson and Jed Wills. Chilly name contenders looking for a backup quarterback and ship them Jameis Winston for market worth (it gained’t be a lot). Elijah Moore can go along with him.
I’m undecided anybody right here is able to have the Nick Chubb dialog, however I additionally don’t consider he’d return a lot in worth anyway.
The bigger level is any participant who isn’t underneath contract past this season is free to go as a result of this factor goes to get so corrosive by January that nobody will survive.
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The NFL’s commerce deadline is Tuesday. This roster ought to look a lot completely different by Wednesday when common supervisor Andrew Berry has what is bound to be an ungainly dialog with reporters over the bye week.
That is about to be the Cleveland Browns’ model of a Presidents Day mattress sale. Purchase now, pay later. Zero % financing with accepted credit score.
Just a few gamers left the locker room after Sunday’s 27-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers with that zombie stare, uncertain of how they bought right here or what occurs subsequent.
“I’ve by no means been on this state of affairs,” one veteran mentioned on his means out of the locker room. “I’ve by no means been in a spot the place the season is over earlier than the bye week.”
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There may be by no means a nasty time for every week off within the NFL, however the Browns enter their day without work needing to get away from one another and cleanse. Exfoliate. Possibly get a pleasant foot scrub.
The Browns have invested $337 million in money spending on this roster, $15 million greater than every other group within the league. It’s not solely the most costly roster, it’s the most costly roster in NFL historical past.
They’ve two wins.
They blew up an offense and an offensive teaching employees that fought by unbelievable accidents and adversity final yr to succeed in the playoffs.
They’ve two wins.
Firing Alex Van Pelt as offensive coordinator was clearly an enormous mistake. It might have value them Invoice Callahan, too. The design and set up of no matter that is has been a catastrophe.
The Deshaun Watson commerce wrecked the franchise. There’s no different solution to body it. On the time of the deal, off-field baggage apart, Watson gave the impression to be the higher quarterback. But it surely hasn’t labored out that means. The cash they’ve paid him, the long run cap hits nonetheless looming, the commerce capital they despatched to Houston and Watson’s incapability to carry out and keep wholesome have slammed shut a competition window that hardly ever opened.
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The Browns tanked for 2 full seasons in 2016 and 2017 to win one playoff sport within the seven years that adopted. And now it’s over.
Joel Bitonio has a yr left on his contract however simply turned 33. Why would he need to return to this? Myles Garrett has two years left. At what level does he stroll upstairs and ask out?
Chubb is within the final yr of his deal. How a lot does he actually have left? How a lot endurance does he have left for a corporation that squandered the profession of top-of-the-line working backs in group historical past?
Your complete offensive line would possibly should be rebuilt. Those that will probably be shipped off by Tuesday will should be changed.
And all of it should be carried out regardless of Watson’s strangling cap hits, which nonetheless whole greater than $170 million. If there’s a worse mixture of roster forecast and future cap sheets anyplace in sports activities, I can’t discover it.
Winston threw interceptions to all corners of the sphere Sunday, the secondary can’t do easy issues like talk coverages correctly, and the particular groups are a particular catastrophe. Blocked kicks allowed. Large returns surrendered.
Jameis Winston right this moment
16-31
0 Move TD
3 INT
24.5 Move Ranking pic.twitter.com/ytYWdg8XgX— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) November 3, 2024
The Browns have been leaning towards Dorian Thompson-Robinson just a few weeks in the past. His promotion from scout-team quarterback to backup — despite the fact that nobody bothered to inform him — was imagined to be for multiple week. Then Thompson-Robinson harm his finger and the Browns in all probability figured they owed it to the veterans to play Winston.
Effectively, there’s nothing left to play for now. Garrett mentioned the Browns might nonetheless win out and go 10-7, which is the form of factor leaders are imagined to say from the lectern. The season is over, and the gamers all realize it.
This was so near being essentially the most Jameis Winston play of all-time pic.twitter.com/YopGOhepmh
— Soccer Digest (@FoootballDigest) November 3, 2024
Thompson-Robinson seemingly isn’t the reply. He’s too small and might’t keep wholesome. However popping out of the bye week, whether or not Winston continues to be right here or not, is the right time to begin him on the highway towards an equally awful New Orleans Saints roster.
Both DTR surprises everybody, or extra seemingly, the Browns will probably be unhealthy sufficient to draft one other quarterback in March and begin this depressing course of once more.
As for the destiny of the entrance workplace and training employees, something is feasible at this level. No one is secure. I assumed final yr examined the mettle of Kevin Stefanski and his means to carry the group collectively by a storm of accidents. He thrived within the second. This can be a utterly completely different problem. Guys don’t have anything left to play for besides their tape and subsequent contract.
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Because the protection was launched individually earlier than the sport, Smith jogged out of the tunnel in his No. 99 jersey blowing kisses to the gang. If this was his final day in a Browns uniform, that was his goodbye.
Who else will be a part of him?
(Photograph of Jameis Winston: Jason Miller / Getty Photos)
