What a time to be a Cleveland Browns fan, amirite? Your franchise edge rusher wants out, you don’t have the franchise quarterback you’ve been searching decades for and now you’re potentially losing your running back too?
It couldn’t get worse, right? Well, maybe if Andrew Berry and Jimmy and Dee Haslam keep running this franchise into the ground, it might reach new depths. But for now, this has to be as bad as it gets. I’ll try to keep the hyperbole to a minimum, but things haven’t felt worse.
To make matters worse, there is absolutely no confidence the Browns will even begin to move in the right direction in the NFL Draft. They haven’t tipped their hat on what they’re going to do? Will they take a chance on Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward? Will they look to get Myles Garrett’s replacement in Abdul Carter? Or will they opt to trade back?
It feels like they don’t even know what they’re going to do with two months until they’re on the clock. And that doesn’t give the fan base any confidence moving forward. Nonetheless, here’s where the Browns are ahead of some of the most important decisions, as their busy offseason just got even murkier.
Andrew Berry doesn’t intend on trading Myles Garrett, but will it ultimately be his decision?
Andrew Berry addressed media members during the NFL Combine on Tuesday and the biggest thing he had to address was the Myles Garrett situation. Berry stood firm that he doesn’t intend to trade Garrett.
But is that decision really his to make? As he said in a video posted to BIGPLAY’s X platform account, his job is to make the best decision for the Browns. This decision doesn’t seem like it’s in his control, though.
Just because he decides not to trade Garrett doesn’t mean he’ll play for the Browns in 2025. If Berry royally screws up this offseason and draft, he might as well get ready to add the Garrett situation to his long list of mistakes he’s made with this franchise.
Garrett has made it clear what it would take for him to stay with the Browns. He wants Cleveland to head toward a winning direction. Nothing Berry has done in the second stint with the Browns has validated that.
Berry’s stance on Garrett might not have changed. Yet, unless he makes urgent moves to drastically improve this roster, it won’t matter what he wants to do.
Nick Chubb to test free agency market, putting his Browns future in jeopardy
Not only is Garrett fed up with the Browns’ struggling ways, so is star running back Nick Chubb. If he wasn’t, he would have no problem returning to Cleveland, especially coming off his second straight season that was shut down to injury.
According to ESPN Cleveland, Berry said Chubb plans to test the market. Which is odd for a player that just had a second-straight season halted to injury. It makes me believe Chubb is in the same boat as Garrett and wants to win.
Both players got a taste of the playoffs, but haven’t made it past the divisional round. To see teams like the Philadelphia Eagles knock off the Kansas City Chiefs and the Bengals do it in 2021 to reach the Super Bowl is hope.
It’s hope for every other team that the Chiefs are beatable. And it’s a glimmer of hope for players like Chubb and Garrett that they can be part of it.
The good thing with this news is the Browns needed to utilize a deep running back draft to get another back, so they were probably leaning toward that anyway. With Chubb missing the better part of the last two seasons, they needed to find reinforcements.
If Cleveland decides to trade the No. 2 pick, it could be made as late as on draft day
Among the litany of other questions Berry had to answer he had to address what to do with the No. 2 pick. He mentioned that right now, “the trade market at the top of the draft hasn’t revealed itself” Berry said, per Andrew Siciliano’s X platform account.
This might be the most believable thing he’s said. Which is also why it should be a surprise to see the Browns hold on to that pick as long as the day of the draft. This draft is more unique than most of the recent ones.
While most of the teams in the top 10 of the draft could use an upgrade at quarterback, there’s a lot of hesitancy in drafting one; at least that feels like the initial thought. That’s why the market for top picks hasn’t been established yet.
Some teams like maybe the New York Giants or the Las Vegas Raiders may be interested in moving up for Sanders or Ward. That said, they could also address their quarterback needs in free agency.
Doing so would make teams like the Browns’ No. 2 pick less valuable. Which means the Browns are unlikely to trade the pick before then. That pick has way too much value to them to force a trade when they could have a much higher haul on draft day.