The Browns: Quiet in Free Agency

The Browns are talkin' bout replacing Peyton Hillis with first rounder Trent Richardson

The Browns, who haven't made the playoffs in a decade and haven't won more than 5 games since 2007, were relatively quiet in free agency this year.  Most of the Browns' buzz centers around their 2 first round draft picks, Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden.  Our take is that they pretty much blew the draft, but the potential exists for those players to be upgrades at offensive skill positions.  In free agency, they were far more quiet, and as we see below, may have upgraded slightly at DE but nowhere else.

The Browns released or lost 7 players with positive value (see our post on the Bills for methodology) in free agency and another, Scott Fujita, will miss the first three games due to his role in Bountygate.

	Player	Value	Position	New Team
1	Peyton Hillis	32	RB	Broncos
2	Scott Fujita	28	LB	Suspended 3 games
3	Mike Adams	23	DB	Broncos
4	Jayme Mitchell	21	DE	Free Agent
5	Tony Pashos	15	OT	Free Agent
6	Eric Steinbach	14	G/T	Free Agent
7	Artis Hicks	11	G/T	Dolphins
8	Steve Vallos	2	C	Eagles
Total		123		Includes only 3/16 of value for Fujita

The Browns signed just 3 free agents with positive value:

	Player	Value	Position	Old Team
1	Juqua Parker	21	DE	Eagles
2	Frostee Rucker	18	DE	Bengals
3	Stanley Daniels	4	OG	Broncos
Total		43

Our observations:

1. Strictly by the numbers, the Browns got 80 points worse; they lost 123 points of value and gained 43 (worst of the three teams we've profiled so far)

2. At defensive end, they seem to have gotten stronger.  Adding the aging Juqua Parker and up-and-comer Frostee Rucker (his real first name) seems to more than offset the loss of Jayme Mitchell, who started 13 games last year, his season of note.

3. RB Peyton Hillis goes unreplaced.  Hillis only started 10 games last year thanks to an injury, but the Browns are counting solely on Richardson and those behind Hillis -- Montario Hardesty (6), Chris Ogbonnaya (9), and potentially Brandon Jackson (19), who last year on IR.

The Madden curse struck again with Hillis -- an injury forced him out of 6 games,
and Browns fans saw him leave for the Broncos in the offseason

4. As does FS Mike Adams.  Adams started all 16 games at safety last year.  TJ Ward (23) will presumably move back to the SS spot after finishing last season on IR, leaving some combination of Usama Young (14), who started 8 games last year at FS, and Villanova product Ray Ventrone (5), who started none, to fill the void.  No help here via the draft, as the Browns didn't take a DB until Trevin Wade in the 7th round.  More of Cleveland's problems came against the rush than the pass -- they were an average team against the pass last year (17th of 32 according to Football Outsiders) -- but their depth leaves something to be desired.

Clearly, the Browns will need to improve from within if they're to have any hope of removing themselves from their rut of recent years.

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