How Jimmy Haslam and the Cleveland Browns Wasted 4 (Potential) Hall-of- Famers
- Fred
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Back in 2016, Smart Jimmy Haslam hired Smart "Moneyball-Guy" Paul DePodesta to be the Chief Strategy Officer of the Cleveland Browns. They had a genius idea: "We're going to be smarter than everyone else and use one of those fancy COMPUTERS to win a Super Bowl.
Acting like no one had ever heard of analytics before, they pressed on with their strategy.
Now DePodesta's experience with computers was in Baseball, a sport where, for the most part, whoever has the most money wins. DePodesta's claim to fame was making the Oakland A's one of the Top 5 to 10 teams in baseball while having one of the lowest payrolls in the league.
The 2002 A's, for example, were 103-59 and had the 28th highest payroll in MLB. They lost in the playoffs to the New York Yankees in the ALDS 3 games to 2. The Yankees had the highest payroll in the league. The A's, under DePodesta, never made a World Series, but were very good, you do get credit for that.
Now football has revenue sharing, almost every team makes about the same amount of money. That fact seems to have eluded Jimmy Haslam, right from the beginning.
So DePodesta's Plan was to strip the Cleveland Browns down to the studs, stock up on high draft picks, then in 3-5 years, the team would compete for a Super Bowl. In the NFL, if you make the right trades and decisions, you can turn around a team in 1-2 years. You say that's not how the NFL works? What are you talking about?
2024 Season:
Cleveland Browns 3-14
New England Patriots 4-13
2025 Season
Cleveland Browns 3-12
New England Patriots 12-3
Let's review DePodesta's Reign, once again. He gutted the team and in 2016 & 2017, the Browns went a combined 1-31, the worst stretch of football in NFL history.
Then from 2018 to 2024, the team moved from abysmal, to average, to good. The team that should have competed for the Super Bowl was the 2022 Browns with 4 (potential) Hall of Famers on the team:
DeShaun Watson (QB)
Nick Chubb (RB)
Joel Bitonio (OT)
Miles Garrett (DT)
At the end of 2022, it was absolutely Super Bowl or bust for the 2023 Browns. DeShaun Watson wasn't playing so good, but that was attributed to rust...and stress. Those high draft picks were finally paying off: Watson (Texans pick - 1st round, pick 12), Chubb (2nd round, pick 35), Bitonio (2nd round, pick 36) & Garrett (1st round, pick 1). All they had to do was play better and gel as a team.
What happened? LET ME TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENED!
The Browns had bet the farm on DeShaun Watson. They put all their metaphorical eggs in one football basket and sent away most of the draft picks they had accumulated and made the worst trade in NFL HISTORY. Jimmy Haslam would argue the organization made the right move trading for a QB who had HOF talent and HOF numbers in his first 4 years. Without even mentioning the off-the-field allegations, Watson showed up in Cleveland, played like crap, and blew out his knee. His record since that 2022 season? 8-10, no season with over 1,200 passing yards since. Is he a Hall of Famer now? No way in hell.
Nick Chubb ran hard for 5 years, putting up borderline HOF numbers. He was a leader in the clubhouse and was a model citizen. In 2023, Chubb blew out his knee and when he returned, he wasn't the same player. He signed with the Houston Texans this year and will probably be looking for a new team next year. There are a ton of running backs who put up great numbers for a three year period, then their numbers fell off a cliff. Nick Chubb is in that category. Is he a Hall of Famer now? Sadly, no.
Joe Thomas made the Hall of Fame as an offensive linesman for the Cleveland Browns. Did you ever see any Joe Thomas highlights on SportsCenter? Sunday Night Football? No. Now I do remember Brown's mouthpiece Nathan Zegura praising Thomas after games "Thomas' scores at Pro Football Focus are off the charts. If you isolate Thomas in the post-game film, you'd see a Hall of Famer in action." With that being said, Joel Bitonio has also quietly put together an impressive resume. If he plays for the Browns for 2 more seasons at the level he's played for them for the past decade, he will have a solid argument for the Hall. Is he a Hall of Famer now? Maybe. (If he plays 2 more years like this year? Yes.)
Miles Garret is trying to break the NFL sack record in a season this weekend. If Miles Garrett retired now, he would still be a slam-dunk, first-ballot Hall of Famer. Is he a Hall of Famer now? Absolutely Yes.
Here's the problem. You go back to that 2022 roster and it had a lot of garbage on it. DePodesta, with his baseball background, drafted like he was an NBA GM. He found great players at the front end of the draft....
BUT HE WAS RUNNING AN NFL TEAM.
In the NFL, you have have to hit in key positions at the top of the draft, but then get players that make a difference in the low rounds. You also have to get lucky with a few undrafted free agents. The NFL has a 53 man active roster and the Browns' Drafts, at the bottom end, were still abysmal. You have to get late-round value.
That's why DePodesta left the Browns at mid-season and is headed back to baseball. I anticipate the rest of the Browns' front office will get blown out on Black Monday.
I saw a graphic last week that Joel Bitonio was playing great, and the other 4 offensive linemen were all backups, the starters were all on injured reserve.
Which sums up the Browns' fortunes this year in a nutshell. I expect another scrape and rebuild starting in 2 weeks, since the Browns' record is now 6-26 over the past 2 years. Will that work? Probably not, because you need a new owner, not a new GM, CEO, or whatever title Haslam gives the new guy. The Browns want to have a winner on the field when their new stadium opens its doors in 2029.
Good luck with that.
