I wanted to write this after seeing this tweet from Rich Hill.
I feel like the Cleveland Browns are red paperclipping the NFL and I absolutely love it.
— Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) August 29, 2016
For those not familiar with the Red Paperclip strategy , it began when a Canadian blogger, Kyle McDonald, bartered his way from a red paperclip to a house in 14 trades. Amazing. We’ve seen this idea in sports, recently with former Sixers GM Sam Hinkie, who was unceremoniously fired after 3 years of racing to the bottom accumulating assets all the way. The point of his strategy was to win a trade with no eye on the present success in pursuit of the accumulation of more valuable future assets.
Enter the 2016 Cleveland Browns who are fire sale-ing anything not nailed down in an attempt to acquire assets, using a largely analytical approach. In a piece in the Cleveland.com, Dan Labbe made the correlation between the Hinkie’s plan and Sashi Browns, urging fans to be patient with “The Process”.
Like Rich, I’m a big fan of this. NFL teams as a whole are so risk-averse that many teams stave off championship potential by keeping also-rans at QB, who have no real chance at competing on a championship level. (See: the AFC East). So in light of this process, the Browns traded their excellent All-Pro punter, Andy Lee, for a 4th rounder next year, while giving up a 7th and receiving some punter named Kasey Redfern. If you said, oh Kasey Redfern, sure, he played the Panthers last week, he was good. His only notable stat is that he’s been waived three times in the last few years.
So they massively downgraded at a position that’s not particularly important when your team is shedding as much talent as it can and acquiring a useful asset (likely a late 4th Rd. pick). In next year’s draft, the Browns now own 13 picks, including five in the first three rounds. They will ‘control the draft’, as idiots like to say. Anyway, it seems smart, right?
A bit too smart, he said wryly.
For years, Belichick employed a similar strategy, exploiting teams “win now” attitudes during the draft, often increasing a full round by stashing picks for the next year. It pissed off so many Patriots fans that had fallen in love with various college players, but it was smart.
Let’s be honest, it was brilliant. The Browns are trying to take the Belichick exploitation to a much larger scale, analytical-style. And I think the NFL needs teams like this, but I’m skeptical about its success for a few reasons:
Losing in the NFL is painful for players who are increasingly putting their lives/livelihoods on the line.
One reason why it worked for Belichick and I’m skeptical it will work here is that Belichick had a competitive team consistently. Whether it was Bledsoe or Brady, he always had a “Franchise” QB. The Patriots haven’t needed the kind influx of talent from the draft the way the Browns will in the coming years. Hue Jackson is an excellent coach and one that smart people believe can fill Belichick’s shoes some day (Side note: hyperbole is sports, so relax, it’s a compliment, an admittedly dumb one though). And RGIII initially flashed all-pro level ability.
And according to new Patriot Bartavious Mingo, it sounds like Jackson and his coaches are creating a strong locker room, but winning in the NFL is often just as much about effort as talent. And when you’re front office waives the white flag by trading strong talent away for a rookie next year, it’s a short leap to realize you’re only playing for a paycheck. That type of situation is common in the NFL where a dozen or so teams are non-competitive all year long. It sours quickly and players become focused on personal goals rather than team goals, CYA isn’t a great gameplan in an 11-man team game.
Ownership Trust.
As of right now, Jimmy Haslam says all roads go through his GM. Trust. Great! One catch, he’s said that before he overruled Pettine and insisted on drafting Johnny Manziel, he’s fired his head coach 3 times in 4 years, so he’s meddled. He’s a meddler.
Fans and Television.
Losing in the NFL is bad for any fanbase (I still remember Rod Rust). Cleveland has extremely loyal fans, despite an otherworldly track record of disappointment, like having your team stolen in the middle of the night. But there’s one thing that I think probably undermines a fanbase more than losing. The ability for a local market to actually see the team.
NFL blackout rules require that games sellout in order to watch a local broadcast. If Hue Jackson’s team struggles and that’s at least a possibility with reclamation project RGIII, the Browns may not air their games in the Cleveland area. Maybe super nice guy/fraudster Jimmy Haslam buys the extra tickets and gives them to charity. Are fans or even Haslam going to be sticking out a long rebuild process? I’d be surprised. But my biggest concern if I’m the Cleveland Browns is…
Roger Goodell and the league’s most ardent anti-evolution owners.
Who’s more meddlesome, NBA owners or NFL owners? Off the top of your head. I’m not even going to mention Deflategate, look at the spat over the Los Angeles bids. And now looking at what happened to Hinkie is especially important, before installing Colangelo, here was the tenor among ownership, according to Brian Windhorst:
Owners routinely complained about the economic drag the 76ers were inflicting on the league as the revenues of one of the largest-market teams — a franchise expected to contribute more robustly to league revenue-sharing — sagged. For many teams, games featuring the starless and woeful 76ers as the visiting team have been the lowest-attended of the season, sources said.
The NBA stepped in and helped the 76ers install Jerry Colangelo as the President of basketball operations, an NBA heavy for decades, who ultimately replaced Hinkie with his son, Bryan. Adam Silver isn’t nearly as heavy-handed as Rog or the NFL owners. How long will Rog and the trifecta of tone-deaf employers of wife beaters (The Jerras and John Mara) let Haslam drag the bottom line of the NFL down?
Anyway, I’m rooting for them because Belichick needs a few more chess players to compete, but if there hasn’t been a phone call, I’d expect on in New York asking if the Browns need a visit from the ‘competition committee’.