The genesis of the exodus

Safety Tashaun Gipson was all smiles telling the world why he was happy to leave the Browns for a big free agent payday in Jacksonville.

Attentive Browns fans shouldn’t be surprised that we’re now in the process of losing more free agents than we’ll sign. The time to lock up talent is a year or two before their rookie deals expire, not days before 32 teams can freely compete for prime veterans with an increased salary cap.

The dysfunction and discontinuity surrounding the Browns organization in the Haslam era makes agents and their clients leery. Money talks, of course, but in the aggregate it takes more of it to steer top players toward Cleveland. It’s all that much more impressive that Gary Barnidge actively sought and got a contract extension last fall rather than hit the open market in the afterglow of his breakout season.

Since there are no new Browns to introduce at this point, let’s take a comprehensive look back at players coming, going, and staying since the Haslams took over. Here’s a summary of all the significant moves involving at least third-year veterans. You’ll see a mix of good and bad transactions, some surprising, some inevitable. But on balance it’s painfully clear that the Browns in recent years have failed to honor their professed value of stability by allowing solid core contributors to leave, while cycling in a motley mix of largely older and/or replacement-level substitutes. That, combined with several awful draft misses, leaves Cleveland with the league’s worst roster as it stands today.

2013 Acquisitions (11)

2013 Retentions (2)

2013 Departures (19)

2014 Acquisitions (13)

2014 Retentions (4)

2014 Departures (14)

2015 Acquisitions (10)

2015 Retentions (7)

2015 Departures (14)

2016 Acquisitions (0)

2016 Retentions (1)

2016 Departures (8)

Pending