Let’s give Kenny Britt a clean slate, if for nothing more than the sake of sanity

Not many of us have been fans of Kenny Britt’s lack of production since signing a 4-year, $32.5 million contract with the Browns. Coming off the first 1,000+ yard season of his career, Britt has just 2 catches for 15 yards through 2 games. In a season where fans have latched on to the likes of Myles Garrett, Jabrill Peppers, DeShone Kizer, the offensive line, and Gregg Williams for a sense of optimism, when the losses start coming, someone needs to be vilified and that has fallen on Britt’s shoulders.

Earlier this week, we ran a poll asking about the “Kenny Britt situation.” Here are the results:

I’m here to say that, even if its for the sake of sanity, we need to give Britt a clean slate with the Browns. Forget the inability to keep his feet in bounds in the preseason, the dropped passes, turning his back to reporters, the questionable effort, and his borderline social media trolling. It’s easy to think that Britt is Version 2.0 of Dwayne Bowe, but he’s not. Hopefully, Hue Jackson’s message to Britt resonated, as the Browns head coach talked about on Thursday:

“I have challenged our guys every day and I have challenged him that he needs to step up and make plays and I think he will, I really do. Again, this is where we are. We have to make some plays and we understand that these are the guys that we have and Kenny is the elder statesman in that room and I think he will raise up and help lead these young guys and we will go play good this week.”

Much like I broke down all 10 runs by RB Isaiah Crowell from the Ravens game here at DBN, Scott Patsko of Cleveland.com broke down a lot of plays of Britt to see if there really is an issue with him. You might change your mind after reading through it.

On Thursday, Britt was also asked about stepping up now that WR Corey Coleman is out, and it was encouraging to hear him talk about improving the details like “finishing plays out” and “bringing more energy on-and-off the field” to answer Jackson’s challenge.

On how he goes about stepping up as a veteran leader: “Doing the right things. Just doing all of the small things. And that is what has been killing us the last two weeks - the details, the days, finishing on certain plays and things like that. That is something that we have been doing since OTAs and camp. We took a step back from that, and we need to just get back.”

On Head Coach Hue Jackson challenging him to step up, and how he did that: “Man-to-man. To step up, let me get my energy into practice and the film room, on and off the field, and in the classroom because we are moving down a path that we don’t believe we were going to go. 0-2 is not where we wanted to be and it is not where we are going to stay. As long as we do the right things and do the small things that we have been missing the last two games, I believe that we can be contending in this league.”

Helping matters this Sunday is the fact that the Indianapolis Colts have one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL, so Britt’s opportunities could come early and often.