Cleveland Browns make surprising stance at NFL trade deadline

The Cleveland Browns were rumored as surprise buyers ahead of the NFL trade deadline.

As it turns out, Browns general manager Andrew Berry only bought a late-round draft pick.

Cleveland’s only trade deadline activity was trading away outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and a seventh-round draft pick to the Chicago Bears for a sixth-round pick.

To be fair, Berry traded Week 1 starting quarterback and team captain Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals for a fifth-round pick. He also traded Greg Newsome to the Jacksonville Jaguars in a cornerback swap for Tyson Campbell.

But Cleveland’s trade deadline was symbolic of this entire season for the Browns – anticlimactic and miscalculated.

With a 2-6 record, the Browns were expected to be sellers. Veterans on expiring contracts including tight end David Njoku, defensive tackle Shelby Harris, offensive guard Wyatt Teller and defensive back Rayshawn Jenkins were all rumored to be on the move. Now, all of those players could test free agency after the season concludes.

The Browns are in a rebuilding phase, but the New York Jets beat them to the punch on that by trading cornerback Sauce Gardner for two first-round picks and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams for a first and second rounder.

But the Browns also did not buy, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter expected them to in his reporting on Saturday evening.

The team still has major holes at wide receiver and offensive line – and it will be increasingly difficult to evaluate rookie quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders with the lack of talent on this offense. The Browns spent all offseason telling the world that they were better than last year's three-win debacle. But looking at this roster, it's hard to find many players that are worth keeping around longterm.

While Berry has been known as an always-aggressive general manager when it comes to acquiring young talent, it oddly feels like the Browns lost this trade deadline.

Tanking teams like the Jets and Miami Dolphins both purposely got worse. They’ll be fighting the Browns for a top draft selection through the final weeks of the season.

The Campbell trade looks like an early success for the Browns, but Flacco’s excellence in Cincinnati almost contradicts it.

The Browns have an arsenal of useless, day three draft picks. But Berry usually tries to consolidate those late-round selections in order to spend his time during those rounds of the draft working phones with undrafted free agents.

The Browns made a bold decision to stand pat.

While the pressure mounds on head coach Kevin Stefanski and Berry with every single loss, the Browns certainly look like a directionless franchise that miscalculated where they were ahead of the season.