Anonymous executives trash the Browns’ investment in offensive line, and not flipping Osweiler

Over at ESPN (insiders), Mike Sando posted an article with an offseason report card for every team in the NFL, based on feedback from 15 executives. These things are always interesting to read, knowing that the cited quotes come from people actually working for other organizations.

While there has been quite a bit of praise for the Browns this offseason, this report card, in which the Browns received a C- (tied for 26th worst in the NFL), is quite negative. Let’s take a look at some of the anonymous quotes, starting with one coach from another team absolutely destroying the club for what they paid OG Kevin Zeitler:

"Zeitler won't have to do s--- for the Browns on a third of their plays because he's a guard and he'll be on air, and they paid him $12 million a year. It is like paying a defensive tackle. You don't do it. How many points did Zeitler have [in 2016]?"

That’s probably the first time I’ve heard anyone trash the signing of Zeitler, but to me it sounds like a coach who is more jealous than anything. Every Sando said, “That is a harsh assessment and not necessarily fair.” It didn’t stop there — an “evaluator” from another team said the following:

"Our fans are going apes--- that we haven't signed a bunch of offensive linemen. Our head coach believes we can just scheme around it."

I almost have to wonder if that came from someone in Cincinnati. Moving on to another topic, Sando says that the Browns’ inability to flip Osweiler since the trade “did not go over well.” Here is what one executive said on the situation:

"I think they still will flip him. I think they are going to pay even more of his salary where he is only, say, a $2 million player, and then they will trade him for something. This is Plan B. Plan A was to take his salary down to $8 million and trade him right away. Plan C is that he is on their team or they just outright cut him. That could very much happen."

There was one positive that Sando relayed, and that was the fact that the Browns hired Gregg Williams to be their new defensive coordinator.