Open Rants by RantheFan

    Yesterday, March 12, the Browns agreed to make a trade with the Giants that gave them wide receiver Odell Beckham. In return, the Browns are giving the Giants their first and third round draft picks, and versatile player Jabrill Peppers, a player who was drafted in the 1st round of the 2017 NFL draft. All over the internet I am reading about what a good move this is for the Browns, how amazing this deal is, and I personally just can't figure out why.

    There are a few reasons I just can't believe this was a good move for the Browns, but first and foremost is the draft capital sacrificed to make this move. Every team in the NFL should be hoping to build a team that wins not once, but continuously. Look at the Patriots, rarely big players in free agency or on the trade block, but always looking to compile draft picks. Why? Because Bill Belichick knows that to have long standing success, you need to constantly be adding young talent, and not overpay for players who are replaceable. On the opposite end of the spectrum, look at the team I have rooted for since I was a child, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have been unable to figure out the draft, and now have one of the NFLs smallest salary cap spaces, and one of the NFLs first 5 draft picks. The Bucs overpay unnecessary players, like durable but ineffective tackle Donovan Smith, or, until he was recently traded, wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who was unable to build chemistry with Jameis Winston, one of the most turnover prone quarterbacks to ever play the game of football. The Browns should be avoiding monster contracts like Odell's, and should be looking to use their draft picks to continue adding young, talented players to the roster, rather than giving their picks away. Getting stuck in salary cap hell like the Bucs can be easily avoided by instead drafting and not resigning expensive and unnecessary players, getting the benefit of having them during their inexpensive rookie contracts, and then letting other teams overpay them in an attempt to replicate your success.

    Next on my bash professional general managers rant, why do teams like the Browns continue to overvalue the wide receiver position? In a league where the one and only goal is to win a Super Bowl, how often do teams with top wide receivers getting paid monster contracts actually win the Super Bowl? The most recent one I can find is on the 2010 Green Bay Packers, if you count Greg Jennings as a top wide receiver, which I would, but I'm also sure he wasn't making nearly what Odell Beckham is. For arguments sake, lets see how many star wide receivers have even made it to the Super Bowl in the last 9 years. Receivers must make 12 million to qualify, and that is still only going to be just over 70% of Odell Beckham's scheduled cap hit of 17 million in 2019. In 2016, Julio Jones made just over 15 million. The 2015 Broncos had Demaryius Thomas under contract for $13 million. Those are the only 2 wide receivers to play in the Super Bowl while making over $12 million over the last 9 years. I'm not saying that wide receivers are worthless, but I just want to point out that they are very likely overpaid, just look at Antonio Brown's tenure with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Despite having several years with a solid team as well as being widely considered the best wide receiver in the NFL, Brown still only made it to the Super Bowl once, which was during his rookie season where he only had 167 total yards through 10 games. My point is that wide receivers are not quarterbacks or even star defensive players that can carry their team to the Super Bowl, so not only do I think paying any wide receiver 17 million is too hefty a price, but also giving up draft capital just seems like a terrible decision.

    So now that we've covered the fact that the Browns are giving up their future for a player in a typically easy to replace and overall less important position, I'd like to throw out the idea that not only did they overpay because of what position Odell Beckham plays, but also because he is overrated at that position as well as a general pain to deal with. I assume you are already planning to berate me in the comments section for saying Odell is overrated, something along the lines of "Did you see that catch you moron?!" and yes, I did see the catch, did you see that Beckham pushed off and knocked down the defender, prompting penalty flags to be thrown as he made the catch, which was very impressive, so much so that the officials decided they had to call the penalty on the defender, who even the referee who missed the pass interference in the Saints Rams game would have been able to tell definitely didn't commit any pass interference on the play? Now that I have that off my chest, let me explain to you why I believe Beckham is overrated. First and foremost, the disruption he causes. I am not saying that players shouldn't be allowed to have a voice, but in the end the NFL is a business, and no employee should be more important than the business as a whole. Lets just look at Antonio Brown once more, who just strong armed his ex-team, the Steelers, into a horrible deal where they are being forced to pay his over $20 million cap hit, and only getting a 3rd and a 5th round pick in return for sending him to the Raiders. Odell Beckham, if anything, might even be a bigger diva than Brown, and basically if the Browns do not cater to his every demand or smoothly design his contract so it is easy to dump him off in the future, they could be stuck in a similar or even worse situation than the Steelers were in if Beckham decides he isn't happy with his pay, with his team, or with anything else. Beyond that, Beckham is consistently touted as a top 3 receiver, and I just don't agree. One stat that can be easily overlooked is availability, and Odell has missed a lot of games over the past couple years, only appearing in 16 games total through the 2017 and 18 seasons. Also, when he's on the field, his stats don't jump out at me any more than those of underrated receivers like TY Hilton and Mike Evans, just to name a couple. Neither Evans or Hilton are locks in the top 10 of wide receivers, much less the top 3, but yet when taking the best 2 of their past 3 seasons you get this: (Odell Beckham - Yards: 2,419, TDs: 16, Rec: 178, Y/C: 13.6), (T.Y. Hilton - Yards: 2,718, TDs: 12, Rec: 167, Y/C: 16.3), (Mike Evans - Yards: 2,845, TDs: 20, Rec: 182, Y/C: 15.75). Looking at these stats, I don't really see anything that would make me think Odell Beckham is better than either Hilton or Evans, in fact the only stats that really stand out to me are that Beckham has less yards, and that his yards per catch is more than 2 yards below that of the other two receivers, which to me says that he is more of a possession receiver, and that makes me value him less than both Evans and Hilton, who were paid $18 million and $13 million respectively last season. Now, the argument could be made that Odell Beckham looks worse because he had worse quarterback play, and while nobody is going to argue against Andrew Luck obviously being better than Eli Manning, it would take a lot to convince me that Jameis Winston is much better than Manning, if he is at all.

    No matter what people say, no matter whether you believe it was a bone-headed decision or a stroke of brilliance, the Browns have given up quite a bit to acquire Odell Beckham from the Giants. Plenty of speculation will be done on how this might change the Brown's offense, but until the regular season begins we won't know how much Beckham will bring to the table. And maybe, just maybe, a year or two down the road I'll look back at this and think that I couldn't have been more wrong, but for now, I just don't see how this trade could be viewed as anything other than a mistake by the Browns.