It's pretty clear from my posts that I have no faith in the coaching staff, but I have had faith in Heckert. That faith is fading. Fast. You can't build a winner in ONLY the draft. I understand you build your core from the draft, but in this era you need some semblance of free agent talent. You're going into year 3, it's put up or shut up time. And I'm beginning to believe we may have a worse offense in 2012 than we did in 2011. 2 months ago I didn't think it was possible, but...now...here we are.
Fix it.
I can't believe he hasn't filled all the holes in one day of free agency. I can't believe he didn't offer 4 first rounders for Griffin. I can't believe he didn't just pay a 31 year old guard coming off back surgery 6 million dollars rather than try to rework his contract. I can't believe he didn't pay an injury prone headcase RB 3 million dollars. I can't believe he didn't pay 6 or 8 million a year for a #2 or 3 receiver from a good offense and try to make them his #1 because that always works so well Alvin Harper says.
I absolutely agree with your points here. A lot of Browns fans panic way too fast when it comes to making moves for the team. I personally back H&H- it's gonna take time and we shouldn't be overpaying for guys. The WR contracts flying around are insane. And I don't think it would be smart to bring Hillis back, he's a nut.That said, as of today our team has noticeably less talent on the offensive side of the ball than the juggernaut offense that we fielded last year. We are creating holes, and I think there is a legitimate question as to whether it is possible to even fill the holes we are creating in this offseason, in addition to the ones that were there before. I think that warrants a little bit of worry.
Steinbach was coming off an injury but I reject the notion that he was "declining". Our OL helped Peyton have a huge year when the left side was healthy.
He's always been a above average guard- anyone with eyes could see the enormous dropoff between him and Pinkston. To call 31 years old for an OG is just flat out wrong- many of the top OL are solidly in that age range. That's just silly. Was he worth 6 million? No. But he was a grade A starting caliber guard, and those typically cost 1st/2nd rounders. Can we afford to spend one of those right now?
Now, if he's too injured to play, that another story, but personally I'm not a huge fan of his outright release. If he sucks this year then cut him next year. We already have enough to deal with right now...