PUTTING THE RIGHT PIECES TOGETHER ISN’T EASY AT ALL
When NFL free agency began in 1993, the teams had absolutely no idea what they were doing.
They treated it like fans do with their fantasy football teams. That is, they built their roster without any regard for how the players fit together. Needless to say, most teams’ plans blew up in their faces. When they came back and tried to do it again, they corrected a lot of their mistakes and performed much better. But, all these years later, what we know is that it’s still difficult to piece a team together.
The Los Angeles Rams, with the help of the Browns, of course, are trying to do the same kind of thing by trading for superstar end Myles Garrett and pairing him with former superstar tackle Aaron Donald, who became so intrigued with the possibilities that he came out of retirement and rejoined the club to see if it would make for a super defensive line, a super defense overall and, just maybe, a Super Bowl victory.
Will it work as planned? Who knows? But it’s worth a shot, right?
The Browns have tried a number of times in their history to put together a special team for a special run.
In 1962, head coach Paul Brown, liking what he saw of the Green Bay Packers’ two big running backs in Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung, tried to replicate it in Cleveland. So, then, in an effort to pair Jim Brown with another big back, the coach traded Brown’s running mate, Bobby Mitchell, a smaller scatback-type runner, to Washington for the rights to the then Redskins’ No. 1 overall pick in the 1962 NFL Draft, Ernie Davis. It might have looked good on paper, but we’ll never know because Davis was stricken with leukemia and never played a down for the Browns. Mitchell went on to have a Pro Football Hall of Fame career as a wide receiver in Washington. Jim Brown always maintained that it wouldn’t have worked with him and Davis in the same backfield, because they were both big backs and teams would have had a much easier time preparing for the Browns instead of having to get ready for two different types of back in him and Mitchell.
In 1979, the Browns traded with the Denver Broncos to get a star defensive end in Lyle Alzado. It worked as it gave the Kardiac Kids a much-needed pass rush and a tough, winning attitude.
The same was true for the offense in 1980 when the Browns acquired Hall of Fame guard Joe DeLamielleure from the Buffalo Bills. It gave the club six guys who could come in and start and play well along the line..
In 1995, the original Browns franchise, in its last year in Cleveland, went out on a limb and got standout wide receiver Andre Rison. it was a disaster, a huge distraction, becsuse the guy didn’t seem to want to be in Cleveland.
You can say the same thing for the Browns’ acquisition of another talented wide receiver in Odell Beckham Jr. in 2019. He spent parts of three seasons with the Browns and created more controversy than he offered production. He didn’t jell at all with quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Steve King
