Browns Cut Best Receiver
Published November 12, 2003
Yesterday the Cleveland Browns cut Kevin Johnson from their roster. That's right. They flat-out cut him. They didn't trade him for a bag of balls and a kicking net. They didn't have him demoted to a kick returner. They cut him. Game over man. Do not pass go. Do not collect anything. Well, except the almost $400,000 the Browns owe Johnson for the remainder of this season. They will give that to him for not playing for them anymore.
It's no wonder that Johnson said he was "happy" that everything was going to "work out." Maybe for him it is. Is it working out for me as a fan of the Browns to see the most productive receiver on the team thrown away? Is it working out for the thousands and thousands of Browns fans out there who have to hear that the only guy who seemed to be able to catch the ball this year really wasn't capable, as coach Butch Davis said, to "accept the expectations we have of how the wide receiver position should be played?"
Based on whom Davis left on the roster I have a few ideas about how the wide receiver position should be played for the old coach. Quincy Morgan didn't get cut. He also hasn't made a decent cut all season with the exception of one game against Cincinnati when he turned a short screen pass (with good blocking) into a 71-yard gain. Oh yeah, and he is notorious for dropping the ball. The wide receiver's main function on the field is to catch the ball last time I checked. Not in Butch Davis' program apparently.
I don't have a problem with the other receivers on this team. I think Andre Davis shows a lot of potential. Dennis Northcutt gives the Browns the threat of breaking the game every time he comes off of the sideline. Aside from the gamebreakers though, it is very important to have the nice steady possession-type receiver who can have the ball thrown in his general direction twice every four downs and catch it even for the smaller 5 and 6-yard gains.
That was Kevin Johnson's role on this team. He was the workhorse like a running back for most teams. He usually caught three to five passes each game, usually in big situations for a team, which struggles big time on third down. Also, do I need to remind anyone which receiver caught 11 passes in the San Francisco game this year? He didn't get the TD in that game, but he helped put everyone in the position to win.
Craig Lyndall rants, raves and writes other stuff at FilteringCraig.com and at The Cleveland Sports Curse
- Browns Cut Best Receiver
- Published: November 12, 2003
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- Section: Sports
- Writer: Craig Lyndall
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Comments on this articleComments
It is starting to look bleek, but I want to see how they spin this today. How can the Browns possibly spin this move?
"it's best for all concerned"
"he wasn't happy in a reduced role"
"now we can all move on"
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Craig, don't you get it? They cut Johnson because they just don't need him. If my beloved Browns are going to lose, the running game will handle matters nicely. This is so typical of the New Browns.
When the Browns came back from the dead I actively rooted for them to suck because every losing season meant another top draft pick. I worked on the assumption that such a strategy would someday pay dividends. But now we're long past that honeymoon phase, and I'm starting to settle in for a long haul of lowered expectations.
Kind of like being a Cubs fan, lovable loserness is attractive. And kind of like being a Red Sox fan (which I am), self-flagellation is good recreation. The Browns make it easy to have it both ways. So anymore when a draft pick fails to pan out, or the Browns send their best players away, I can't work up much outrage. It's all typical of the team's self-defeating management style. At this point I would hardly be shocked if the Browns traded Couch and Holcomb for Kordell Stewart, brought Ryan Leaf out of oblivion as backup, sent their entire recieving corps to Pittsburgh in exchange for a kicker, and sold the team to the Heinz corporation.
It's not that a Superbowl bid would be unwelcome; I would probably have to be sedated for weeks. But man, the Browns organization are making it hard on the true believers.