Browns Offer Ideal Opportunity for Dwayne Bowe to Rejuvenate NFL Career

It wasn't that long ago that Dwayne Bowe was considered one of the NFL's best young wide receivers. Three 1,000-yard seasons in a span of four years. Fifteen touchdown catches in 2010. A five-year, $56 million contract with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013.

However, three years of diminishing returns led to the Chiefs showing Bowe the door, and now the 30-year-old will try to resurrect his lagging NFL career with the Cleveland Browns.

As Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported, after visiting with the Browns earlier in the week and leaving town without a deal in place, Bowe and the Browns are on the verge of an agreement:

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, it's a two-year deal:

On some level, playing with the Browns should be a familiar feeling for Bowe. Just as he was in Kansas City, Bowe will serve as the No. 1 receiver for a team with all kinds of issues at quarterback.

With the Chiefs, it was luminaries such as Damon Huard, Brodie Croyle, Tyler Thigpen, Matt Cassel, Tyler Palko, Kyle Orton, Brady Quinn, Alex Smith and Chase Daniel. In Cleveland, it will be either Josh McCown or youngsters Johnny Manziel and Connor Shaw.

How many of those names would you say are even good quarterbacks? One? Two?

Granted, Bowe's struggles over the past few seasons can't be blamed entirely on the less-than-stellar signal-callers who have been throwing passes at his feet for eight years running.

Year	Rec.	Yards	Avg.	TD	PFF Rank	DVOA Rank*
2007	70	995	14.2	5	15	26
2008	86	1022	11.9	7	76	66
2009	47	589	12.5	4	83	54
2010	72	1162	16.1	15	19	18
2011	81	1159	14.3	5	12	52
2012	59	801	13.6	3	30	56
2013	57	673	11.8	5	48	61
2014	60	754	12.6	0	45	53

Since reeling in 81 passes for 1,159 yards back in 2011, Bowe hasn't cracked the top 25 wide receivers in a single season at Pro Football Focus. The past two seasons, Bowe has finished the year outside the top 40.

The DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) metric at Football Outsiders paints Bowe in an even less flattering light. Not since Bowe's 15-touchdown season in 2010 has he cracked the top 20 players at his position.

In fact, he hasn't cracked the top 50.

There's the 64 dropped passes over Bowe's career, per Pat McManamon of ESPN.com. In the last eight seasons, only Brandon Marshall of the New York Jets has more, and Marshall has over 200 more catches during that span.

Throw in a pair of league-mandated suspensions, and by no stretch of the imagination is Bowe's signing a "slam dunk" for general manager Ray Farmer and the Browns.

Still, it was a signing the Browns needed to make, and one that probably represents Bowe's last, best chance to recapture his status as a "No. 1" receiver.

Simply put, someone has to catch passes in 2015 in Cleveland.

Stat Category	Player	Stat
Receptions	Andrew Hawkins	63
Receiving Yards	Andrew Hawkins	824
Yards Per Catch	Jordan Cameron	17.7
Touchdowns	Travis Benjamin	3

No player for the Browns even had 850 receiving yards in 2014. As if that wasn't bad enough, two of the team's top four receivers (wideout Miles Austin and tight end Jordan Cameron) from last season are no longer on the team.

Yes, the team also added Brian Hartline earlier in free agency, but Hartline is much more supporting cast member than leading man. The same can be said for diminutive slot receiver Andrew Hawkins, who functioned as the Browns' de facto No. 1 in 2014.

That's no knock on Hawkins, but when your top wideout is 5'7" (in shoes—and on his tiptoes), your passing game is in trouble.

And that's where Bowe comes in.

Sure, Bowe may not be the player he once was. It may also be that Bowe wasn't ever quite the player we thought he was, that his gaudy numbers in 2010 (especially the touchdowns) were an outlier.

So Dwayne Bowe isn't an "elite" receiver. So what?

He's still bigger and more athletic than Hartline and easily the most accomplished receiver on the team's roster.

As McManamon wrote, signing Bowe also affords Farmer some flexibility when April 30 rolls around:

"

Bowe is 30, Hartline 28. Their ages mean that the Browns can’t and won’t ignore the receiver position in the first round of the draft.

Farmer goes by his “board,” meaning he takes the best player available. If it’s a receiver -- especially if it’s DeVante Parker -- he should be picked. The Browns talk about driving competition at every position, and adding another talented wideout would do just that.

However, if Farmer’s board points elsewhere, he now has the freedom to make that choice. Had Bowe not signed, receiver would have been a huge hole on this roster.

Now it’s not. That's the case on paper at least.

"

Make no mistake, even if the Browns do draft a wide receiver early, Bowe is in excellent shape to rack up the most targets in a Cleveland receiving corps that now has at least some semblance of the balance it was so sorely lacking a year ago.

And at that point, the biggest obstacle standing between Bowe and a career rebound may wind up being the same on the shores of Lake Erie as it was in America's heartland.

Because most of the time, a wide receiver is only as good as the quarterback throwing him the ball.

Gary Davenport is an NFL Analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter at @IDPManor.