Skip to main content

The Sashi Wars

Who gets credit for the recent (semi) success of the Cleveland Browns?  It's a radio topic more common than, "Whose better, MJ or LeBron?" at least in the Cleveland area.  You're either pro Sashi or anti-Sashi, with nothing in between.  Here, I have compiled a list of all the major events that took place at the time that Sashi held the general manager position of the Browns.  He occupied the position from January 3, 2016, to December 7, 2017.

I did not count the hire of head coach Hue Jackson, as that was the choice of Jimmy and Dee Haslam, which is I know, shocking, given their track record.

Here are the notable moves Sashi Brown made as Cleveland Browns GM:

2016 FREE AGENCY

Notable Additions:

Terrelle Pryor:  Technically, the Browns had Pryor in 2015, but he was waived before later being re-signed at the end of the season.  But this class had no major additions, so I had to put something here.  Sashi was tearing this thing down to the studs, and if we're being honest, there weren't even studs in place.  It was more like those wooden roller coasters that remain at Cedar Point.
GRADE: B:  Low risk, high reward.  Pryor turned down a multiyear offer from the Browns at the end of the season, only to totally fuck himself over and sign with the Washington Redskins for one year.  Hard to believe that didn't work out, free agents that go to Washington usually pan out.

You almost forget that Pryor had over 1,000 receiving yards in 2016.  Callers of 92.3 The Fan wanted to give him a 30 year, $5 billion contract after that.  Losing Pryor was the start of Sashi's downfall in public image to the fans (no, seriously).

GRADE: A:  I'm the lenient professor curving the score of the exams because everybody else failed.  Yes, Pryor was a good player, but the Browns fell ass backwards into him.  Hell, they even cut him the year before.  But, they never gave up, and if Mighty Ducks taught me anything, it's that you never give up.  You know who else never gave up? Emilio Estevez, that's who the fuck who.



Robert Griffin iii: LOL Hue called it one of the best workouts he'd ever seen by a quarterback.  God I fucking hate him.  That's the extent of my analysis.

GRADE: C+: For tanking purposes, this one really worked out, salvaging Sashi's GPA, as RG3 got hurt after the 1st game and only started 5 games, almost averaging half a touchdown pass per game.

Notable Subtractions:

Mitchell Schwartz:  The first sign that something was off in the Sashi regime.  The Browns had obviously offered their rising right tackle a contract at season's end, but Schwartz preferred to test the free agent market, as is his right as an NFL player.  He ultimately decided to come back and accept the Browns offer, BUT WAIT, it was no longer on the table!  No, they hadn't signed a replacement right tackle and yes, they still had plenty of cap room.  So, what the fuck happened?  Turns out the Browns were taking a "no nonsense" approach to free agency and had offered Schwartz a "take it or leave it" deal.  Basically, this was Sashi throwing his dick on the table.  Schwartz signed with the Chiefs and continued to make Pro Bowls, where he currently plays and excels as a member of the NFL's most exciting offense.

GRADE: F:  A huge mistake at hindsight, and a giant, "what the fuck?" at the time.  This move made no sense.  Schwartz was a blossoming right tackle, was homegrown, and was young enough to carryover through a rebuild.  Colossal mistake.  It's 2019 and the Browns still have not found a suitable replacement.

Alex Mack:  To be fair, Mack hit the road at the end of the season faster than OJ in a white bronco.  Too easy?  Maybe, but it gets my point across.  I think the Browns could've offered him a stake in the franchise and he still would've turned it down.  I think I can speak for Browns fans everywhere when I say I saw him in the Super Bowl for the Falcons and said, "Good for you, A-Mack."  Am I the only one that called him that?  Also, I realize that that sentence sounds a little weird, but it's 1 am and I'm on my 4th glass of $3.79 chardonnay, so it'll do pig, it'll do.

GRADE:  Incomplete:  If you'd held a gun to Mack's head and told him he had to remain a Brown or die, pretty sure he would've shrugged his shoulders and pulled the trigger himself.

That's it for the meaningful free agency period.  The Browns unceremoniously cut ties with Johnny Manziel as soon as possible, whom I'm pretty sure Mike Pettine will eventually run over with his car one day and we'll all think, "Good for you, Mike."  Harsh?  Fuck Johnny, it was all good until he beat his girlfriend.  We've had plenty of flops, so it's no big deal, but you mean to tell me you're gonna be a bust and beat your woman?  Who do you think you are, Tyreek Hill?

OVERALL FREE AGENCY GRADE: C:  Yeah, I know, a 'C' is a cop out.  Not a good grade, but not a terrible grade either.  Just admit you don't have a fucking clue, Nick.  OK, the reason for the C is that the team wasn't trying to compete, so obviously they were gonna suck.  I can't fault them for sticking to a plan.  But ultimately, letting Schwartz walk for nothing but pettiness brings them down a letter.

THE 2016 DRAFT:

I still get angry about this draft to this day.  The Browns held the #2 pick in the draft and desperately needed a quarterback.  There were 2 obvious franchise quarterbacks at the top of the draft in Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. To this day, it's not crystal clear what happened, but here's the jist of it:  The Browns really liked Jared Goff but were "ehh" on Carson Wentz.  So their only hope is that Goff falls to 2 so they can take him, right?  Wrong.  Holding the #1 pick was the Tennessee Titans, who had just drafted QB Marcus Mariota 2nd overall the year prior.  They were auctioning the pick to the highest bidder, which was about as well kept of a secret as the identity of Iron Man.  The Browns had the 2nd pick and were in prime position to move up.  I mean it makes perfect sense:  the Titans could've traded down to #2 AND THEN traded down AGAIN, making the same trade with the Philadelphia Eagles as the Browns did.  Hell, the Browns could have even offered less than the Rams.  Tennessee could've secured double the assets!  But alas, that is not what happened.  St. Louis moved up ahead of the Browns to take their franchise QB, and the Browns shrugged their shoulders and said, "welp, that's life for ya I guess."  Reminds me of the end of 'Dumb and Dumber,' when Harry and Lloyd send the bus full of models in the opposite direction as them.



So, the Browns traded out of the 2nd pick, and wound up picking Corey Coleman at 15.  They took Emmanuel Ogbah with the 32nd pick, with good offers to trade out of the pick, but Sashi had claimed that Ogbah was too good at that spot to pass on.  In 3 seasons, he has 12.5 sacks.  Myles Garrett had more than that last year alone.

The rest of the draft had a couple of sleeper hits, notably Joe Schobert in the 4th round.  Schobert was Pro Football Focus' #1 ranked pass coverage linebacker in 2018.  Rashard Higgins, a wide receiver taken in the 5th round, has also been a decent contributor.

However, this draft was mostly a failure.  Yes, the team managed to snag a future #1 pick as part of the Wentz trade, but they also let two franchise quarterbacks slip through their fingertips.

GRADE:  D+:  This draft should have been the foundation of a rebuilding franchise, but instead, the most important thing to come of this draft was a future #1 pick. For a team picking 2nd overall, in desperate need of a QB, that is simply unacceptable.  The team would go 1-15 on the season.  In October, they traded for linebacker Jamie Collins of the New England Patriots, giving up a 2017 3rd round pick.  For a team that needed talent anywhere it could get it, this was a decent move, although it didn't lead to more wins.

2016 GRADE:  D:  It wasn't so much that Sashi stripped the roster down, but it was the draft.  Failing to get impact players when in a position to do so, especially at quarterback.  Essentially, it was a wasted season.

2017 Free Agency:

Notable Additions:

Jamie Collins:  Acquired during the season, signed a 4 year, $50 million contract with $26.4 million guaranteed.  A bit of an overpay, but after giving up a 3rd round pick for a player on the last year of his contract, for a team going nowhere, it would've looked pretty foolish to let him walk.  Collins played in 2 more seasons for the Browns, never really making a big impact but never being awful, either.  For a team with a lot of bad football players, he was given mostly a pass for just being OK.  Still, for that kind of money, you need pro bowls.

GRADE:  C-

JC Tretter:  Signed to a 3 year, $16.75 million contract, a major bargain for the caliber of player.  He has outperformed his contract, still the team's starting center to this day.  Players of his caliber routinely sign for over $10 million per year annually.

GRADE:  A

Kevin Zeitler:  The Browns signed him to the largest deal a guard had ever signed at 5 years and $60 million.  Zeitler lived up to his large contract grading out as one of the NFL's best guards, particularly in the passing game.  Still, is it worth paying a guard $12 million a year?  Whatever the case, at least the Browns were finally flexing a little bit of their cap space.

GRADE:  B

Kenny Britt:  Sometimes, free agents are signed and as it turns out a few years later, they didn't work out.  Fans claim that they never wanted the player, which is total hindsight.  Britt was not one of those cases.  Failing to lock up Terrelle Pryor after the season, the Browns were in search of a #1 WR.  Kenny Britt, who was a solid, if not unspectacular, WR coming off a 1,000 yard season for the Rams, was a journeyman who had never maximized his potential with the Tennessee Titans.  His effort and locker room presence were also openly questioned.  The Browns apparently bid against themselves and gave him a 4 year, $32.5 million deal.  Like allowing Schwartz to walk the year prior, this was one of those, "what the fuck?" moments, and it sure did not disappoint.  Britt caught just 18 passes in 2017 and was more notable for dancing on the sidelines during practice, often getting so distracted that he did not pick up on the coaching staff bellowing out instructions at him.  I swear I am not making this up.

GRADE: F

Notable subtractions:

Joe Haden:  Went on to sign with the Steelers and prove that he could still play. Remains a starter to this day.

GRADE: D

Josh McCown:  Up until Baker Mayfield, McCown was my favorite Browns QB.  Underrated as a player and a helluva competitor.  I love this guy.  No grade assigned, he was just a backup at this point, but I just want to show off my Josh McCown love.  The Browns had Luke McCown, Josh's younger brother, during the 2004 season.  How many franchises have had 2 brothers start for them at QB?  I'm not gonna do the research, but it's a cool question.

OVERALL FREE AGENCY GRADE:  B-:  Finally opening up the Haslams' checkbook, Sashi solidified the line and brought in some outside talent.  Britt was a total disaster, however, which can't be ignored.

I'm also factoring in a trade here, when the Browns acquired a 2nd round pick, as well as Brock Osweiler's contract, from the Houston Texans.  It was a savy move by Brown, essentially buying a 2nd round pick for $16 million.  This may be the Sashi's finest moment.  The pick was later used by John Dorsey to draft RB Nick Chubb.

2017 DRAFT:

OK, here's the thing:  rumors have swirled that the Browns really liked Patrick Mahomes.  Like, a lot.  So much so that Chiefs GM John Dorsey traded up from 27 to 10, leaping the Browns at 12, to secure Mahomes as the future QB of the Chiefs.  The Browns would have taken Mahomes at 12 had he been there, so the legend goes.  If that is the case, why not take him at 1?

This may seem like revisionist history, but it is not.  It's a simple formula:  If you need a QB, and evaluate a QB that is worthy of a top 10 pick, then you do everything you can to get him.  Don't get cute and worry about "value."  Fan backlash?  If you're worried about that, you're in the wrong profession.  Grab your Harvard educated balls and tell the fans who is in charge.


Of course, Myles Garrett is a tremendous talent, so it wasn't a complete disaster.  But can you imagine if Baker Mayfield wasn't available in the 2018 draft?  With Mahomes already an MVP, an in line to become the NFL's highest paid player ever next year, this would be the greatest 'what if' since passing on Ben Roethlisberger. And Mahomes hasn't even raped anybody (that I know of).

So I'll give the Myles Garrett selection a B, but that has nothing to do with Myles.  It's once again, liking a QB, but getting cute with the draft process and trying to get value with all your picks.  You think a guy is a franchise QB, I don't care what you have to do, you get him if possible. 

With the 12th pick, local fan favorite safety Malik Hooker was on the board from Ohio State, along with reigning national champion, QB DeShaun Watson of Clemson.  Sashi instead traded down, picking up an extra 1st round pick from Houston in the process.  They dropped down to 25, where they would select Jabril Peppers.

THE TRADE: A:  Tremendous value in dropping down 13 spots.  They had to have known Houston would take Watson, why else would a team give up a future 1st round pick in that scenario?  Supposedly, head coach Hue Jackson really liked Watson, but wanted Malik Hooker with that pick.  Basically, Hue wanted everybody in the entire draft.

THE PICK: B:  Peppers came onto his own in his second year, grading out at PFF's 16th best safety in 2018.  Maybe if Gregg Williams hadn't played him in the punt formation, he would've had more of an opportunity to showcase his strength:  playing in the box. 

Sashi would go on to trade up and select tight end David Njoku at the end of the 1st round, a raw but talented pass catcher from Miami.  Njoku has shown flashes of brilliance and inconsistency, but ultimately has played well and is one of the top 10 pass catching tight ends in football, with much room to still grow.  Still, it hurts that just one pick later, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected younger brother of JJ Watt, TJ Watt, who has made the Pro-Bowl and has 20 sacks in his first 2 years.  

Larry Ogunjobi was taken in the 3rd round and has shown flashes of dominance, albeit inconsistently, on the defensive line. 

It should also be noted that the future 1st round pick that the Browns received from Houston ended up becoming Denzel Ward.

MID-SEASON MOVE:  DYING FOR OUR SINS

The Browns were floundering towards another terrible, cut your grass on Sunday afternoons instead, seasons, when they brain trust came up with a brilliant idea:  Why not AJ McCarron?  I'll tell you why not:  it's because the man is best known for his hot wife and not his ability to throw a football.  

Hue Jackson demanded McCarron, his former backup in Cincinnati, and surmised a proposal to send the Bengals a 2nd and 3rd round pick(!!!!!!!!) for the career, Jamie Moyer tossing backup QB. "Complete the trade, Sashi," they said.  Sashi had his Dexter Morgan moment, feeling the need to let his dark passenger take over and sabotage the plan.  The Browns waited until the last moment, as good organizations tend to do, to decide to invest their future in THE FUTURE FREE AGENT QUARTERBACK WHOM THEY WOULD NOT NEED TO GIVE ANYTHING UP FOR IN MERE MONTHS.  Sashi "butchered" the paperwork and failed to execute the trade, deciding it was worth getting chewn out rather than being the dumbass behind signing off on the dumbest trade ever. Did Sashi think this was something to be fired over?


GRADE:  A++++++++++++++:  This move alone deserves a statue.  Likely contributed into him getting fired, but hey, fuck it.  Sashi is Doc Ock in Spiderman 2, sacrificing his life to stop the monster that he created.  Tearfully, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for this, Sashi.


2017 DRAFT GRADE:  B-:  Sashi made some decent picks in this draft, but it seemed as though better picks were hiding right around the corner from him at all times.  Plus, for the 2nd consecutive year, they had an opportunity to take a QB that they considered to have franchise potential, only to let somebody else take him and become a playoff contender. 

And that is ultimately Sashi Brown's legacy as Cleveland Browns general manager. The utmost function of an NFL talent evaluator is identifying and selecting a franchise QB.  Sashi allegedly deferred to Hue on some of the QB evaluations, which Sashi apologists are quick to bring up.  But I ask you:  Do you really want a GM that can't decide when to pull the trigger on a QB?  Imagine John Dorsey asking for Hue Jackson's opinion on ANYTHING.  Hue didn't even know the pick was Baker Mayfield until minutes before the selection!  Jimmy Haslam, what the fuck were you thinking? 


The Browns backed into Baker Mayfield being available in 2018.  You don't pass on franchise QBs in the hope that other, better ones are available the next year.  This isn't Madden.  Wasting 2 seasons, without a QB in development and loses piling up like dominoes, alienated the fanbase and had talk radio host blowhard Tony Rizzo threatening to run people over with his car at the "Perfect Season" parade.  The Browns almost made the man go to jail for murder, for Christ sake.  Well, at least that would've been a win.  






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NICE JOB YOU FUCKING KICKER

HOW ARE WE NOT ON HARD KNOCKS EVERY YEAR: If you don't think the last 18 hours don't represent everything that the Browns choose to be, then I really don't know what to tell you. Is there a more comically inept franchise in the history of sports? Where else do these stories happen?  Linebackers arrested for insider trading, receivers with more talent than God that can't lay off drugs meant for college freshmen, OUR PETS HEADS ARE FALLIN OFF!  Hard Knocks needs to have the Browns on speedial the way Leonardo DiCaprio has 19 year old models on his. Josh Gordon is like George Costanza when he tried to get fired from the Yankees, dragging the World Series trophy in the parking lot and spilling spaghetti sauce all over a vintage Babe Ruth jersey.  Over the past few years, I'm convinced Gordon could've walked right into the general manager's office, shit directly onto his desk, and they would've retaliated by... firing the head coach.  "Let'

The Cavs, football picks, and why I'm Rocky getting his ass kicked by Apollo Creed

The Cleveland Cavaliers are back in the news again.  It's oddly the first thing that has happened to the Cavs since they played in the 2018 NBA Finals and nothing has happened since then and nothing you can say will change my mind. Kyrie Irving called LeBron (like really, do I need to include his last name for you to know who I'm talking about?  LeBron... Smith?) and apologized.  Since the Cavs apparently don't play basketball anymore, I'm gonna talk at nauseam about it. The first thing I honestly thought about were all the people on Cavs Twitter that are always, "It'S tIme TO mOvE oN, LeBroN DoEsn'T plAY HeRE anYmoRe."  Oh for fuck sake.  The Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that used to wear THESE JERSEYS made the NBA Finals FOUR CONSECUTIVE YEARS. They just had a team with 3 future Hall of Famers, with arguably the best player of all-time and inarguably the best player of the generation.  So yeah, the city is gonna dwell on that for some ti

Screw Bud Light, I'm a Great Lakes man anyways

A TIE?!? How, in the world of professional sports, is a tie even possible? It feels like when on the first day of class the professor asks, "What's your favorite movie?" (as if that's a way to ever get to know a person) and there's always one person that goes into WAY too much detail and say "ummm I really don't have a favorite, it's between blah blah and blah..." How can you not have a favorite? How can you play a game and there NOT be a winner? Do they all just get participation medals? On one hand, I think it's funny to look at it from a Pittsburgh perspective and realize, that's a team fighting for a #1 overall seed in the AFC and they have to get out of Cleveland extremely disappointed. How many times do we have to see the headline, "Ben Roethlisberger is the winningest quarterback in First Energy Stadium history," like great! Hey while we're at it, how many different Browns QBs have there been since 1999? I won