GOOD MOVE, BUT WHAT ABOUT KEEPING BAKER UPRIGHT?
By STEVE KING
Browns General Manager John Dorsey has pieced this thing together over the last nearly two years, and as such, it had to be tempting – very much so – to keep from swinging a big deal with the Washington Redskins before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline to get Trent Williams.
After all, Dorsey knows full well – as does everybody else — that the Browns need a good, ready-to-play-right now left tackle in the worst way. And if they don’t get one soon, then Dorsey’s franchise quarterback, Baker Mayfield, the key to this whole effort, runs the risk of getting hurt at some point. If that happens, then everything is ruined.
But the Redskins were asking way, way, way too much for Williams. It would not have been worth it. It wouldn’t have been even close to being worth it. The Browns, who are reeling with three straight losses to fall to 2-5, thus putting them into a situation where they are hanging in the playoff race by a thread, if that, have too much ahead of them with Mayfield and company to mortgage their future by giving away great NFL Draft picks for a guy who is starting to get up there in years and would stay for only a short time before leaving in free agency.
OK, now that that’s done and it has obviously been decided that their No. 1 need in the offseason will be to get a talented young left tackle, the Browns – and Dorsey, specifically – are faced with the daunting task of making sure that Mayfield stays upright – and off the injury list – for these final nine games of the season. It won’t be easy.
The way to do that would be to copy the game plan from last Sunday’s 27-13 loss to the New England Patriots and run Nick Chubb – and Kareem Hunt, when he’s ready to return — early and often, inside and out, until they have no juice left. Then take them out of the game for a play to give them a blow and put them back in.
A healthy running game keeps the defense – with its pass rush – honest, and that equates to a healthy Mayfield.
The plan has holes – certainly – but it’s the Browns’ best shot going forward. And that best shot includes, in addition to protecting the quarterback, winning games.
That – winning games — is what all of this is about in the first place, right?
