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Making little sense
Well, it appears as though Orson Charles was not fired by
the Browns after all. Not if you buy General Manager John Dorsey’s reasoning
behind waiving the tight end/fullback. He explained to ESPN Cleveland’s Tony
Grossi the other day.
“I thought this was one of the times, being realistic, you
ask, ‘Is Orson going to make the team?’ “ he said. “As things were unfolding,
maybe he wasn’t. Then you acquire a player like Rico Gathers. Why not take a
shot at him and see what he has because he’s a young man that’s skilled with
developmental upside.”
The way Dorsey rationalized it, he cut Charles because he
wasn’t going to make the team, anyway. So why waste time keeping him around,
right? Following that line of thinking, why stop at Charles?
There are plenty of others on the current rooster who have
no chance of making the final 53, so why keep them around? Of the 90 men still
around, 37 will receive a visit from The Turk, the employee tasked with
informing them the coach wants to see them . . . and bring your playbook.
Let’s see if I get this right. Charles, a four-year veteran
journeyman who was not exactly chopped liver as he filled the fullback role
last season and played well on special teams, was swapped out for a raw tight
end who is a project at best.
So why Gathers? At 6-6 and 280 pounds, he is three inches
taller and 30 pounds heavier than Charles. The Dallas Cowboys tried to turn the
former college basketball player (Baylor) into a football payer, a la Antonio
Gates (a future Hall of Famer) and Jimmy Graham.
Gathers, at 25 three years younger than Charles, is so
“skilled” that three years after drafting him, the Cowboys finally gave up and cut
him loose a week ago when he was unable to fend off several other candidates to
back up the unretiring Jason Witten.
He finally suited up last season and caught three passes for
45 yards. He has no chance of making the final roster. Repeating: He is a project. This is nothing more than a swap of bodies with some weird reasoning used to explain
it. He is the seventh tight end in camp with a team that most likely will keep only three.
Bottom line: Charles, assuming no one else picks him up, was waived for a player who will join
him on the unemployment line in about a month. Unless, that is, Dorsey signs him to the practice squad.
If Charles isn't likely to make the team, then what have you got to lose looking into a younger player who has what Dorsey calls 'developmental upside'? This is the same Dorsey who has proven to be an exceptional evaluator of NFL talent - I'm willing to roll with his judgment on a personnel call like this near the bottom of the roster.
ReplyDeleteDW
I don't think you're getting my point. Dorsey used very weak reasoning for cutting Charles. It wasn't the trim so much as it was the thinking behind it.
ReplyDeleteThere are many, many others on the roster like Charles who, according to Dorsey, "wasn't going to make the team,
anyway" or words to that effect. Why are they still around?
As for Gathers, look up what he has done in the last three seasons and you'll see he was a bust for a team searching for the ultimate successor to Jason Witten. He was a spectacular failure.
I, too, have great respect for Dorsey as a personnel evaluator but I don't give him carte blanche on everything he does. He does have some misses (Austin Corbett and Chad Thomas appear to be the latest).
I think he blew this one. If Charles had no chance of making the final roster, why was he even invited to training camp? The Gathers signing is a mere guess on his part.