Roster thoughts

With all the roster massaging he engaged in over the weekend, it sure looks as though John Dorsey isn’t quite satisfied with his Browns entering the 2019 season.

The Cleveland general manager picked up a handful of darts and commenced throwing them at a board in hopes of (a) solidifying the bottom of the roster, most notably special teams and (b) all but admitting he needs help on his offensive line.

It sure looks as though he is not sanguine at all with the guys in the trenches, the ones (save Joel Bitonio and JC Tretter) he is counting on to help his fabulous array of skilled players.

The result lies within the roster, where five guards have taken up residence. That’s Bitonio and a quartet vying for the starting spot at right guard. Right now, Eric Kush will start the season opener Sunday against Tennessee.

After that, it’s anybody’s guess what next week will look like for the second game, a nationally televised Monday nighter in New Jersey against the New York Jets. Dorsey had so much confidence in Kush, he went out and got Wyatt Teller and Justin McCray, who have joined underachieving Austin Corbett at guard.

The guess here is Teller is the odds-on favorite to eventually supplant Kush, who won the starting job pretty much by acclamation because no one else stepped up and really challenged him. Teller’s learning curve will dictate when the change eventuates.

Now let’s see how long it takes before Dorsey grows dissatisfied with his two slow-footed tackles, Greg Robinson and Chris Hubbard, human turnstiles against speed rushers.

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A lot of people were surprised when the Browns chose rookies Austin Seibert and Jamie Gillan to handle the kicking game this season. I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if special teams coach Mike Priefer made that call and head coach Freddie Kitchens and Dorsey went along with it.

Kicker Greg Joseph pretty much took himself out of the running with a relatively lackluster training camp. He did not seem to take the challenge of the club’s fifth-round draft selection and blow everyone away.

Seibert wasn’t that great, either, early on, but came on strong when the coaching staff showed confidence in him and he rewarded them with near perfection in the final two exhibitions.

Gillan was much more versatile than incumbent punter Britton Colquitt. His strong left leg could also possibly be put to use on kickoffs and field-goal attempts from distances Seibert could only dream about making.

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It’s clear Dorsey loves speed over actual pass catching ability, keeping Damion Ratley, dropping Derrick Willies to the practice squad and picking up Taywan Taylor and KhaDarel Hodge over the weekend.

The latter two are fast, but have a reputation of not being consistent with doing what they are supposed to do – catch the football. Willies, who played well in limited reps before he got hurt last season, had similar problems toward the tail end of the exhibition season this year and was cut before landing on the practice squad.

Chances are quite good that one of the newest Browns wideouts, probably Hodge, will become a free agent when Antonio Callaway returns after serving a four-game suspension.

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For all the stats geeks, here ya go . . .

The final (maybe) roster, or at least the roster that will dress for the opener, averages 25.38 years, the second youngest team in the National Football League behind the Miami Dolphins.

Six rookies including Gillan made the cut. It would have been seven, but the club placed offensive tackle Drew Forbes on recallable injured reserve.  The only other draftee in the seven-man class who did not make it was cornerback Donnie Lewis Jr., a seventh-round pick.

There are 17 players in their second season and seven more with only two years’ experience. That adds up to 30 on the 53-man roster, or 56.6%. Sixteen men (30.2%) have at least five years’ experience.

The roster is split down the middle with 25 men on offense and 25 on defense in addition to the three kicking specialists two of whom are rookies.

The offense has one center, five guards, three tackles, three running backs, three quarterbacks, four tight ends and six wide receivers. The defense has four ends, four tackles, seven linebackers (Genard Avery is a hybrid linebacker/defensive end), five cornerbacks and five safeties.

The shortest Brown is Seibert at 5-9. Tight end Demetrius Harris is at the opposite end at 6-7. The lightest is cornerback Greedy Williams at 185 pounds; Greg Robinson takes heaviest honors at 330 pounds. Linebacker Mack Wilson is the baby of the team at 21, born on Valentine’s Day in 1998, 2½ months after Williams. Backup quarterback Drew Stanton is the graybeard at 35.