Cleveland Browns Acquired Team Guys on Offense

Jeff Janis has only 17 catches in his career but is a special teams ace and valued backup.  

Drew Stanton's numbers are not exciting.  But he is a backup QB that has a habit of winning games.  

     The Browns have gone out of their way to obtain guys who are good leaders in the clubhouse, paying a steep price for "character guys" in each position group on offense, including quarterback Drew Stanton, OL Donald Stephenson, WR Jeff Janis.  These guys are not the necessarily the best available players but do stabilize an offensive unit that was essentially devoid of veteran leadership when Josh McCown was sent packing and Joe Thomas wound up on IR. You can see a plan emerging.  The team will have at least one sane voice in each meeting room during the week. 

Stanton, Stephenson and Janis do not have eye-popping scouting reports from Pro Football Focus, and in fact are each considered below average,  but they are all Coach-on-the-field type guys that will act as a bridge between the coaching staff and the young Browns players. None of these guys figure to be starters, but they are going to establish the right kind of leadership.

     Janis may be particularly important because the Browns' best receivers are not considered quite the bedrock of stabilty, with off-suspended Josh Gordon and protege Antonio Calloway.  Corey Coleman has also generated some minor off season drama with an alleged off-the-field altercation as well being called out for inadequate conditioning in 2016.  Hopefully Janis can help to stabilize these talented but possible troubled players.     

    The Cleveland Browns contemptuously trashed their veteran leadership last year.  Unquestionably the leader of the offense was Josh McCown, a guy who would do anything for the team, and supported the other quarterbacks no matter what.   No less an authority than the Browns' bad boy Johnny Manziel explained it thusly on Twitter: 

   "Draft a QB in the first round and put him into a toxic Quarterback room vs. what it was like my second year with [Josh] McCown,” Manziel said. “COMPLETELY different situation. It’s all about the right fit and mine in Cleveland wasn’t right. That’s just the facts. I also have nobody to blame but myself.”   

     Manziel's tweet was probably a bit ill advised, as even the mildest of controversy is not what his career needs right now, but nevertheless the salient point is that he articulated very well the need for sanity in the quarterbacks' meeting room. Josh McCown created a much better environment for the other quarterbacks as they tried to assimilate the complexities of the Browns' offense.  The quarterback room is like a war room, where plans are made up and plays are created and modified. Most of the burden falls on the Coaching Staff, but the players are part of that process also.  

     Browns GM Sashi Brown, on the other hand seemed determined to eliminate veteran leadership, for reasons that are not clear.  Perhaps he thought he could help to mold a new cadre of loyal Browns by relying on younger minds.  In any case, McCown was sent packing as well as the unquestioned leader of the defense in Joe Haden. Also sent packing were star linebacker DeMario Davis, S Jordan Poyer, CB Tramon Williams and other guys who have been around the league for a while.  

     This year, the Browns again ejected all quarterbacks including DeShone Kizer, Cody Kessler, Kevin Hogan.  But most importantly, future Hall of Fame lineman Joe Thomas is retired.  This presented the Browns with a leadership vacuum among the players if not a talent vacuum and that is probably why the Browns brought in Janis, Stanton and Stephenson.  Having veteran starters like Tyrod Taylor and Carlos Hyde is going to help also.      

       

     Veteran defensive starters Jason McCourty, Jamar Taylor, and Danny Shelton are also gone this year, despite seeming to have played well last year. In their place are E. J. Gaines, Demarious Randall and T. J. Curry. The Browns have addtional veteran presence on defense with former All Pro Jamie Collins, Jamie Meder, Chris Kirksey and perhaps Tank Carder, so on that side of the ball they were better off than the offense. 
     The Browns seem to have pursued a plan of acquiring not just talent but leadership on the offensive side of the ball.   My guess is that even if the box score doesn't mention guys like Stanton, Janis and Stephenson, their presence is going to be felt by the rest of the team.