daveR said:
Does the team's record more reflect the coach or the historically inept drafts? The 0-16 team was so bad that only 16 players remain from that roster.
Coaching. This was not a one win team in 16, nor was it a 0 win team in 17, and a 2 win team halfway through 18.
Players from Sashi Brown's inherited roster that are still starters in the league on other teams - Mitchell Schwartz, Alex Mack, Cam Erving, Joe Haden, Taylor Gabriel, and Josh Gordon*. That's it. Mack wasn't coming back and Gordon didn't leave via Sashi, so literally the only players that could have been retained and contributed here are Schwartz (Sashi screwed this up), Erving (don't blame him), Haden (I don't feel strongly either way), and Gabriel (everyone but Shannahan missed this imho).
His method to correct what ailed the roster was unorthodox and required painful patience. But the biggest problem with its setup is that it put QB acquisition in Hue's hands. That's a Jimmy thing; not a Sashi thing. From above, you look at what the Browns did from when Sashi got here to when he got fired and what do you see? A terrible job at QB and WR, not enough speed on defense, and a job well done just about everywhere else.
There are 3 players that remain on this roster pre-Sashi - Bitonio, Duke, and Kirksey. That's how bad it was. He added 10 starters and 3 contributors in addition to the haul of picks he had waiting in the 2018 draft. And most importantly, every single one of those players is under team control through at least 2019.
That said, this team is almost certainly better off with Dorsey going forward than it would have been with Sashi. Professional sports isn't ready for a guy like him or Hinkie - maybe it never will. And he had some blind spots that got exposed in some of his moves, but the foundation was laid in those 2 years. Then Dorsey fixed the biggest problem (QB) and addressed the speed issue on the defense, but the newly developed hole at offensive tackle couldn't be addressed this offseason and unfortunately fixing the WR room appears to be a 2 year process. Back to that whole painful patience thing again.
And I'm not going to pretend to know how many games this team would have won with a better structure around QB decision making and if Hue never came here, but ultimately those were the two biggest issues in 2016 and 2017 - and due to the latter why 2018 will ultimately fall short too. This was an awful team that literally needed years to rehab. Should have it been 4? Probably not, but there were more wins on each of those rosters if Captain Sabotage wasn't the one steering the ship. And thankfully we can all finally move on.
