Editor's note: Tony Grossi covers the Cleveland Browns for ESPN 850 WKNR.
Takeaways from the day after the Browns lost their first game under interim coach Gregg Williams, 37-21, to the Kansas City Chiefs …
Changes brewing?: One of the revelations of the game was that the Browns may have been languishing their best offensive tackle all this time on the bench.
Veteran retread Greg Robinson filled in for rookie left tackle Desmond Harrison, who was ill, and caught the attention of two important people – quarterback Baker Mayfield and coach Gregg Williams.
After the game, Mayfield, who was sacked only two times and not hit nearly as much as in the previous four games, gave two unsolicited shout-outs to Williams as being one of the positives of the game.
On Monday, Williams said of Robinson, “Played well, didn’t he? It was good to see.”
Williams was defensive coordinator with the Rams when they made Robinson the second overall pick of the 2014 draft. For various reasons – pressure of the moment, injuries, bad scheme fit/coaching, immaturity -- Robinson never lived up to that lofty billing. But that was the Rams’ and Robinson’s problem.
That was then and this is now. The fact is the Browns’ offense – and Mayfield – have suffered the needless force-feeding of Harrison at the uncompromising left tackle position.
The Browns have been enamored with Harrison’s nimble feet and athleticism and the thought of having their left tackle-of-the-future dropped in their laps as an undrafted free agent.
But it’s fairly apparent that Harrison was not ready for the heavy responsibility of protecting the blind side of the rookie franchise quarterback.
One of GM John Dorsey’s failings this year was not reacting adequately to the retirement of Joe Thomas. The Browns should have known Thomas was done even before his torn triceps injury last October. For at least a year, it was obvious Thomas was having problems making it through the practice week because of chronic knee and back problems. Yet Dorsey made no major acquisition at left tackle, and set up a training camp competition among Shon Coleman, Harrison, Robinson and rookie second-round draft pick Austin Corbett.
Robinson fell behind two weeks with a concussion. Coleman played his way off the team. Corbett confirmed pre-draft evaluations that his future was inside. An experiment of Joel Bitonio at left tackle and Corbett at left guard looked to be the way to go, but was scuttled after two weeks. That left Harrison standing at the end, and the Browns rushed him in two weeks before the season opener.
Now it’s time to correct that mistake. Harrison may have a terrific future. But what’s the hurry?
Part of the reason the Browns went 1-31 the previous two years was because they played too many rookies who had not earned their jobs. This new regime has committed that error with Harrison, and – for that matter -- with wide receiver Antonio Callaway.
The Browns have asked too much of Callaway. The fourth-round pick did not even play football in 2017, yet somehow was bequeathed the No. 2 receiver role after injuries and the trade of Josh Gordon.
I would replace Harrison with Robinson and Callaway with Rashard Higgins immediately.
The Collins dilemma: Because of injuries to Joe Schobert, who missed his third game in a row, and Christian Kirksey, who had to leave the Chiefs game with a hamstring injury, linebacker Jamie Collins played all 64 snaps on defense against the Chiefs. It didn’t appear that he was happy about it.
A widely circulated video on the Internet showed Collins giving little effort on Kareem Hunt’s 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. For the record, Collins unofficially led the Browns with seven tackles in the game, but there were plenty of tackles to be had as the Chiefs racked up 499 offensive yards and eight plays of 20 yards or more.
In his role as defensive coordinator, Williams has consistently defended Collins. After the game, Williams defended Collins for filling in for the injured Kirksey – and Schobert before him – as the defensive player responsible for receiving the calls from the sideline and transmitting them to the defensive unit.
On Monday, Williams again was pressed to respond to questions about Collins’ effort.
This is what he said:
“I will say this, and it has come across my desk a couple times here today. We have to play better on defense. That is what we have to do. When all of a sudden all of the dominoes start hitting around him and all of the things he is saying and doing to everybody else just to try to get them lined up, sometimes there is a lot going on. We have to play better on defense as a whole. It is not him. I have to coach better. It is not him. I have to coach better. All of us have to play better on defense. When we understand that, then you understand the importance of playing as a team. We have to tackle better. Not just him, we all do. Those things are addressed daily, and we have to practice better in those kinds of things and we have talked about it. As a team on defense – not just one guy – we have to play better. I have to coach better.”
It has been widely reported that the Browns were receptive to trading Collins prior to the Oct. 30 league deadline. But injuries to Schobert, Kirksey and since-waived James Burgess, along with the preseason contract termination of Mychal Kendricks after an FBI indictment for insider trading, made a trade – or release – of Collins self-defeating.
Collins’ $10.65 million base salary is the highest on the team. He was the first veteran player the old Sashi Brown regime invested in via trade and a $50 million contract over four years. He has two years left on the deal. Collins was the player the Sashi regime acquired to announce it was ready to add – rather than to subtract – players.
Now Collins is the last vestige of that failed regime who will probably be removed by Dorsey in time.
Too easy: It’s hard to block a punt even when a punt-block formation and play is on.
A punt block should not occur when the receiving team is setting up a return. But that’s exactly what happened when the Chiefs blocked a Browns punt in the third quarter.
The Chiefs lined up their return formation, and the Browns allowed the one Kansas City rusher – Damian Williams – to block Britton Colquitt’s punt. Derrick Kindred lost that one-on-one battle.
“Technique … technique,” said Williams. “It was a punt return – only one rusher. You send one rusher, you better make sure you are blocking him. That guy was probably shocked he blocked a punt because it was a punt return, a special teams core guy. We gave too much ground and can’t let that happen.”
The block gave Patrick Mahomes the ball at the Browns’ 21-yard line. It took Mahomes two plays to get the ball in the end zone for the Chiefs’ last touchdown.