It's a new day for the NFL's Cleveland-based franchise. Yet again this offseason - the third time since he took over - Browns owner Jimmy Haslam decided to tear down his front office and coaching staff and start anew. It's now the Hue Jackson-Sashi Brown-Paul DePodesta show, which, considering Jackson's no-nonsense reputation and Brown and DePodesta's background in analytics, presumably means a change in overall approach and a refreshing and revamping of the Browns putrid standing around the league.
And yet, less than three days into the latest league year, much about the new Browns looks far too familiar. And while offseason championships rarely translate to on-field success, the talk that the new Browns look a little too much like the old Browns has to be troubling to the Cleveland fanbase.
But through it all - through the "nonsense" with Mitchell Schwartz and the apparently complete disinterest in re-signing Travis Benjamin and Tashaun Gipson - there may be a silver-lining of sorts for the new Browns brass.
Quarterback Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers, the embattled former Super Bowl signal-caller who lost his job to first-round Jaguars bust Blaine Gabbert last year, reportedly wants to play for Jackson in Cleveland. Kaep apparently has a high opinion of Jackson and respects the grizzled veteran playcaller-turned-Browns boss.
And while that doesn't mean a deal will go down, it sure sounds like the Browns may have something of a leg up on the competition when it comes to acquiring Kaepernick's rights. The other teams said to be involved in the bidding, the New York Jets and the Denver Broncos, likely represent desirable options for Kaep as well. And there's no telling who will be willing to pay the reported asking price of a second-round pick to the Niners, but options certainly abound for Kaepernick in a quarterback-starved marketplace.
New York has well, everything that comes with playing in New York, along with a strong defense and a weapon like Brandon Marshall who manages to make just about every quarterback he plays with look good. Last season, catching passes from the limited, but effective Ryan Fitzpatrick in Chan Gailey's creative offensive scheme Marshall logged his eighth-career 1,000-yard season. Overall, the job that Jets head coach Todd Bowles and GM Mike Maccagnan did in Year One with the Gang Green crew was impressive, very much giving New York the look of a team on the rise.
But the Broncos are the Broncos. They boast not just a strong defense, but an imposing and ultimately intimidating one. It's far and away the best in the league - so good, in fact, that it nearly won them Super Bowl 50 single-handedly. Broncos GM John Elway also just so happens to have a serious need at the quarterback position after Peyton Manning's retirement and Brock Osweiler's sudden and expected departure. If Kaep landed there, he'd have the opportunity to play with targets like Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, not to mention operating opposite that nearly unstoppable Denver 'D.'
But the Browns are an interesting case themselves. Yes, they've lost much of their starting offensive line after Schwartz and Mack followed the trail of money elsewhere, and Benjamin, one-dimensional talent though he may be, was the Browns' best pass-catcher in 2015.
The franchise though, is trying to turn the page. On offense, they're set to see the return of formidable but frustrating wide receiver Josh Gordon and re-upped with breakout tight end Gary Barnidge. They've also drafted well at running back in recent years and look to have a healthy stable of ballcarriers with Duke Johnson and Isaiah Crowell, Jr. leading the way.
Guys like Andrew Hawkins, Brian Hartline and Raheem Mostert represent talented back-ups with the ability to possibly handle more should the situation call for it.
Really, the Browns approach to free agency has been an odd one thus far, but it's likely that Jackson, Brown and the rest of the Cleveland decision-makers know that it's not just about collecting talent, it's about building a team. If Schwartz wanted to be in Cleveland, he'd have taken their initial offer instead of shopping it around and then returning to the franchise that drafted him only after exhausting all other options.
The lack of action on guys like Benjamin and Gipson is surprising, but not altogether unexpected. Benjamin's best season came during a contract year, always a red flag, and Gipson's production and health have been in decline since 2013.
Jackson and Co. need to change the mindset of the entire team. For far too long, that mindset in Cleveland has been a losing one. Bringing in guys who have won elsewhere and who want to be in a Browns uniform is the surest way to make the transition to a winning era a relatively smooth one.
Landing Kaep, should they be able to pull it off, would be a nice start. But it would still be just that - a start.
