Just over one week ago—and exactly a week before the Cleveland Browns opened their 2015 regular season against the New York Jets—the Browns opted to trade 2014 Round 3 draft pick Terrance West to the Tennessee Titans for a conditional seventh-round draft pick in 2016.
Though the Browns traded up two spots in 2014 to select West—moving two other draft picks to do so—they determined that "because of his inconsistency on the field and immaturity off of it," in the words of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer's Mary Kay Cabot, it was time to move on from West after one season.
There's no need to keep a player around who takes more than he gives or requires more coddling and support than the team or his coaches are willing to give. Head coach Mike Pettine has long harped on West's inconsistency in performance and preparation, and he was benched by Pettine twice in his rookie season for these specific reasons.
But given the Browns' run-game performance in their 31-10 loss to the Jets on Sunday, might the Browns have been better off keeping West around for a week or two, especially given that they received so little in return from the Titans? After all, if the Titans would give up a conditional seventh-round pick for West prior to the season's start, wouldn't the Titans, or some other team, be just as willing to give up the same compensation for West in Weeks 3 or 4?
The answer is no.
Though the Browns totaled just 104 rushing yards on 28 attempts—with a combined 58 of those yards coming from quarterbacks Josh McCown and later Johnny Manziel—and averaged only 3.7 yards per rush, West's presence would not have helped matters much.
It's just the nature of the Jets defense that the Browns were facing. Last year, the Jets ranked fifth in rushing yards per game, at 93.1. Though former head coach Rex Ryan is out, replaced by Todd Bowles, the personnel tasked with stopping the run hasn't changed significantly or declined in talent. It's something Pettine, via the Browns official website, acknowledged postgame, saying "Their defense is built to defend the run."
Cleveland's actual running backs—Isaiah Crowell, Duke Johnson and Shaun Draughn—combined for only 46 yards of rushing offense on 20 carries, and the Browns gave up trying to run in the second half as the points deficit mounted and the rushing became even more difficult. They had only nine yards on the ground in the final two quarters of the game.
West's presence would not have changed much, if anything, about the outcome of this game, nor about the Browns' rushing total. Nor would Robert Turbin—whom the Browns brought aboard last week, though he'll be sidelined for up to six weeks with an ankle sprain--have suddenly made the run game's performance that much better.
As Pettine noted, the Jets' success against the Browns run game was simply a byproduct of the scheme they run and the players tasked to run it, as well as mistakes the Browns made, including, "blocking at the point of attack."
Pettine continued, "Our pad level wasn't great. We were getting knocked back at times... overall we didn't do a good enough job of blocking their front in order to sustain any type of rushing attack. I also think the circumstances of the game got away from us a little bit in the second half. That kind of took us out of wanting to run the football." West could not have fixed that.
And besides, the Browns were done with West. The trade compensation they were willing to accept for him speaks to this. West probably would have been released outright if the Titans didn't make an offer. This was a matter of a roster mistake the Browns were looking to correct rather than thinking about who can or cannot help them run the ball against the Jets' stout defensive front in Week 1.
The good news is that it will take until Week 5, when the Browns face the Baltimore Ravens, for the team to see a rushing defense as good or better than the Jets'. That gives them ample time to bounce back behind Crowell, Johnson and Draughn. And Turbin will eventually make his way back to the field, something Pettine is excited about.
The Browns might have been thin at running back on Sunday following the trade of West, but that wasn't the reason for the lack of rushing production. West's time in Cleveland simply ran out. And the Jets defense did what it is known to be good at doing.
via http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2566588-should-cleveland-browns-have-waited-to-trade-terrance-west
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