Jarvis Landry, after leading the league in catches last season, is headed to Cleveland. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
It’s easy to make fun of the Cleveland Browns.
And it has been fully justified.
They have been very, very bad for a very, very long time. And they have been particularly pitiable of late, with a grand total of one victory over the last two seasons. Their on-field follies during a winless 2017 season were accompanied by their botching of a trade-deadline deal for quarterback AJ McCarron, after they failed to turn in the necessary documentation to the league office in time, rendering their swap with the Cincinnati Bengals null and void.
Their sorry state is as sorry as it gets.
But now there is an honest-to-goodness football grown-up in charge, with John Dorsey on hand at general manager. Dorsey has resources at his disposal, and he is wasting no time turning the Browns — yes, the Cleveland Browns — into a team with some possibilities.
The Browns agreed Friday to trade two draft choices to the Miami Dolphins for Jarvis Landry, the franchise-tagged wide receiver who led the NFL with 112 catches in 2017.
Suddenly, it appears that new offensive coordinator Todd Haley might have plenty with which to work. The Browns can pair Landry with Josh Gordon at wide receiver (if the often-suspended Gordon can remain eligible to play — admittedly a significant if). They have a promising young tight end in David Njoku. They have an all-around running back in Duke Johnson. They have a Hall of Fame-bound left tackle in Joe Thomas, assuming Thomas opts against retirement.
And there is plenty more to come. With the free agent market scheduled to open next week, the Browns are estimated to have more than $100 million in available salary cap space. With preparations for the NFL draft intensifying, they possess six of the first 65 picks, including the first and fourth overall selections.
Dorsey can do just about whatever he wants.
The conventional wisdom says the Browns will sign McCarron, now an unrestricted free agent, as a temporary starter and then draft a franchise centerpiece-to-be. With the No. 1 pick, they could have their choice of the prized quarterbacks in this draft, a group that includes USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Wyoming’s Josh Allen and Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield.
But what if Dorsey wants to make a break-the-bank play for free agent Kirk Cousins? He has the cap space to do it and now, he has a bolstered set of receivers to offer as an added inducement. Some within the league are convinced that Cousins is headed to Minnesota. Could Dorsey and the Browns jump in and do something to change that?
And what if the Browns, on draft night, opt to go with Penn State running back Saquon Barkley with the No. 1 selection? They no longer would have their choice of the available quarterbacks. But they still would get one of them. And Scot McCloughan, the former Washington Redskins general manager now serving as a consultant to the Browns, has expressed his football affinity for Mayfield, the polarizing Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma. Mayfield is likely to be there at No. 4.
That might be a risky, particularly for a franchise that passed up opportunities to take Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson in the last two NFL drafts. But those gaffes weren’t Dorsey’s, and he is a respected front office decision-maker.
No one should expect too much, too soon. After all, going 1-31 over a two-season span is quite a distance from respectability. But the first steps are unusually promising, and there should be plenty more to come.
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