Sans Josh Gordon, this is the group of wide receivers on the Cleveland Browns roster today: Miles Austin, Phil Bates, Travis Benjamin, Kevin Cone, Taylor Gabriel, Andrew Hawkins, Marlon Moore and Rodney Smith.
Take away Austin, who is headed to free agency, and the seven pass-catchers left have a combined 21 years experience.
They average for their careers 35 catches, 496 yards and two touchdowns. In 2014 alone, 121 receivers had more than 35 catches and 92 had more than 496 yards. Take away Hawkins, Gabriel and Benjamin and the other four have a combined 20 catches for 318 yards.
The NFL rookie receiving class in 2014 set rookie records. Eight had at least 50 catches, three had 1,000 yards and four had eight or more touchdowns.
The Browns drafted none of them. Their two first-round picks were used on Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel, both of whom enter their second season with serious question marks.
“The rookies this year -- phenomenal,” general manager Ray Farmer said two days after the season. “Great job by a lot of those guys. They were high-drafted or high selected oriented players on our board. I know I said I wouldn’t talk about our board but to that tune, they were high there as how we valued what they were capable of doing. But then again, can you piece it together? I think you most certainly can with guys that have traits that translate to the type of offense that you want to run.”
Despite the fact he said the rookie wide receivers were “phenomenal,” he had no regrets about not taking one.
“I know everyone says I’m stubborn,” he said, “or I’m going to be obstinate about this wide receiver position, but I just think that at the end of the day an offensive line(man) affects every single play of the game. A wide receiver may touch the ball 10 times if he’s having a great day so I just like the idea of ‘let’s get the guys that affect the game all the time and let’s try and get those guys and make a difference for our football team.’”
Farmer cautioned during the season against expecting too much when Gordon returned from suspension, and he was right. And there was a time before Gordon returned when the other receivers were a hard-working bunch doing things the right way -- and the Browns were winning.
“I’m a believer that this whole notion that you’ve got to have this one guy that’s the silver bullet is a myth,” he said. “I think it’s like trying to catch werewolves and vampires. They just don’t exist. I’m a big believer in it’s a team sport, and when we combine the requisite skill sets necessary to let guys have success we have that success. We saw that earlier this year that we were missing certain key components that people thought were high-value targets and assets for us, but we played team football. As a result of that, we were able to have success.”
The group the Browns had worked like mad. Hawkins, Gabriel and Benjamin may be small, but their hearts are large. Austin, too, played an important role. He was the bigger target outside, the guy who could be counted on to make the third-down catch. He led the team with 14 third-down catches in the 11 games he played. That was vital, because when Gordon returned he was not dependable and Austin’s absence to a lacerated kidney was noticed.
The Browns at present have two slot receivers (Hawkins and Gabriel) and one situational guy who can be very effective when used properly (Benjamin).
The team seems to have a glaring need for the starting type. There is time to try to bring back Austin, and free agency will provide players to peruse.
But the Browns have two first-round picks. Logic would say the receiver position has to be strongly in the discussion for one of the picks -- except Farmer doesn’t seem to buy into the conventional wisdom.
