The Cleveland Browns have been a difficult team to trust in the last few years. The ever-changing front office and coaching staffs have often operated with just one hand clapping.
It’s early, but thus far the new regime of GM Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski are joined in hand. Even better, they have proven that their words mean something.
Unlike when Freddie Kitchens would gruffly state he’s not answering any questions on a topic and subsequently spend the next 10 minutes discussing said topic, or when Sashi Brown would tell players they were more than numbers before treating them exactly like a faceless number, the new Browns regime is backing up its words with actions. Picking up the fifth-year option on tight end David Njoku’s contract is a great example.
The Browns exercised the option on Njoku’s contract on Monday. Even after the first reports of the action started to leak out, skeptical fans and media wondered if it was legit. The team signed Austin Hooper in free agency to the richest deal ever signed by a tight end, then drafted promising young Harrison Bryant over the weekend.
Would they really keep three prominent tight ends? Are they still confident in Njoku, who has occasionally flashed greatness but largely underwhelmed in his first three seasons?
Berry and Stefanski both insisted to the skeptical masses that they did highly value Njoku. It wasn’t just diplomatic speak. They proved it by exercising Njoku’s option that will keep him in Cleveland through the end of the 2021 season.
Think of what that means to a player like Njoku, still precocious at just 23 years old. Think of what it means to the locker room, telling players that they’ll get the chance to prove themselves and won’t get thrown away hastily.
Men of their word. That’s a refreshing way for the Browns to conduct business.