It is rumored that General Manager Ray Farmer may be the odd man out if the Browns decide after the season to keep only one of their top two football people.
And if that occurs, then he has no one to blame but himself.
It is the GM’s job to acquire talent, and Farmer has not done that. That is all well-documented.
But here is what you may not have considered, and it makes you think that in addition to being a poor judge of talent, he is also not the brightest bulb in the pack, so to speak. Either that, or he is so egotistical that he is willing to cut off his own nose to spite his face. Or maybe both possibilities.
Farmer traded up in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft to No. 22 overall to take quarterback Johnny Manziel. But he refused – very publicly so, and very proudly and demonstratively so — to pick some wide receivers at the top of that draft, and again in the 2015 draft, so as to give Manziel some weapons.
Farmer’s explanation? That you can get good wide receivers later in the draft, and that players at that position aren’t important in today’s NFL because they touch the ball “only a couple of times a game.”
Hmmm. You don’t say?
Is Farmer watching the same NFL that everyone else is watching, the one in which passing is the preferred mode of moving the ball? Is he aware that the best teams have not only great quarterbacks, but also great wideouts catching those passes?
Farmer will be judged for the most part by his ability to find a franchise quarterback. All GMs of struggling teams without their franchise quarterbacks are evaluated in that manner.
So Farmer takes Manziel and then doesn’t give him the means by which to be successful?
It just doesn’t make sense. Farmer is cutting his own throat.
Is he – how do I put this? – too dumb to realize that? Or is he just too proud – too egotistical? Or both?
Only Farmer can answer those questions and, if the rumors are true, he will soon have plenty of time to do just that.
So Farmer gets his comeuppance. That’s great – that is, until you realize that his ignorance, ego or a combination of both, served to really stunt the Browns’ development, and greatly reduced their chances to win, during his tenure.
That was never more evident than it was in last Sunday’s 17-13 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. With the Browns having no timeouts in the final minutes and thus needing to move down the field in chunks in order to score the game-winning touchdown, it was imperative that Manziel be able to pass effectively. But he couldn’t do so because there were no real playmakers among his wide receivers.
Even the 9 Million Dollar Man, wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, the plum of Farmer’s free-agent signings last offseason, was unable to help.
Can you imagine that?
As such, the Browns lost the game. And you can pin that defeat squarely on Farmer for not giving the team the tools to win in that situation – and in many, many other situations as well.
Wonder if, during that final drive when Manziel was not able to find open receivers consistently and a victory slipped through the Browns’ fingers, Farmer second-guessed what he did – and didn’t do – in procuring talented pass catchers?
Knowing how smug Farmer is, and how he thinks he is always the smartest guy in the room, even when he never is, it probably never crossed his mind that he had made mistakes. He never makes mistakes, right?
Yeah, right.
Speaking of mistakes, the Browns made a big one in hiring Farmer. Now they need to correct that error, and it sounds as if they may do just that in about a week.
