Cleveland Browns: John Dorsey’s 5 worst player additions

The Cleveland Browns have made major strides forward with John Dorsey as general manager, but for all of the good moves, he’s had his share of misses.

There’s no question that the combination of the previous regime and now John Dorsey, the Cleveland Browns are substantially better in 2018 than they were in 2017. The arrow is pointing up and the future is bright, but with the successes, there have been a number of missteps of varying size.

Most of the moves had good intentions and some grounding, but simply haven’t paid off for the Browns. It happens. At least one was caused in no small part to desperation and a lack of options. There are a couple moves, unfortunately, where they didn’t make any sense in the moment, had foreseeable issues and have been every bit as bad as expected.

The money is a minor deal, save some tiny salary cap implications. The more unfortunate issue is the moves cost a combined two third round picks, a fourth and seventh round pick. With all of the great moves by Dorsey, it’s disappointing to think he might have been able to better employ those assets to continue to build the team.

5. Signing Chris Hubbard to a five-year, $37.5 million deal

A lot of this can be blamed on a lack of options. With the retirement of Joe Thomas combined with a relatively weak offensive tackle class in the 2018 NFL Draft, the Browns found themselves needing two tackles in one offseason. They appear to have relied on Todd Haley’s recommendation in signing the Pittsburgh Steelers’ undersized swing tackle.

Two big problems became apparent when the season started. Hubbard didn’t have Mike Munchak, his old offensive line coach and he didn’t have the best part of Pittsburgh’s protection in Ben Roethlisberger.

Hubbard’s lack of size has proven to be problematic as he’s been getting pushed into the quarterback’s lap all season. The nature of the AFC North made this signing all the more confusing. Everyone just employs very big, strong defensive linemen.

For the Steelers, it’s Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt as well as having guys like T.J. Watt off the edge. The Bengals, who the Browns will face twice, have Carlos Dunlap, Michael Johnson and Jordan Willis. The Ravens might have the smallest group with Terrell Suggs and Matt Judon and neither is small.

It’s already become painfully clear the Browns need to be in the market to upgrade the right tackle position and sooner than later. The contract for Hubbard looks uglier than it is, though Hubbard still gets paid handsomely considering his performance this year. They can get out of his contract cleanly after the 2019 season having paid him $15.5 million. And given their cap flexibility they can afford to keep him as a swing tackle if they’re so inclined.

Additionally, they could also hold onto him and hope that an offensive line team comes calling and potentially trade him. The fact of the matter is there are simply not enough linemen to go around in the NFL so even mediocre blockers have value. Hubbard has been a little better as of late and the hope is that continues over the last six games to at least increase his value if not his viability.

Hubbard hasn’t worked out well and is nowhere near worth the money he’s getting paid, but it’s understandable why the Browns went this route given the options available. It’s a little surprising just how bad it has been at times, but they could getting some value out of this move in the end beyond having a body play right tackle for a season.