Cleveland Browns: GM Tom Heckert Not Helping Fix Team's 0-3 Record

In the NFL, the only stat that matters is the number in the win column.

Right now, the Cleveland Browns have an 0-3 record, and some of the blame needs to fall on General Manager Tom Heckert.

We can sit here all day, arguing until we're blue in the face about the failings of the players and the coaching staff but at the end of the day, Heckert is the one in charge of the 53-man roster.

Before we get to Heckert, though, a moment to digress about the Browns coordinators.

While perusing various Browns related websites and digesting the different takes on the first three weeks of the season, several conclusions can be reached: the first being Offensive Coordinator Brian Daboll doesn't have very many friends.

Daboll's shortcomings as an offensive coordinator have been well documented by myself and others around here, so let's make sure this one point is on record: Daboll does not handle the pressures of the job during a game well at all. His offensive schemes are conservative and easily read by opposing defenses.

If things start to go wrong, Daboll panics and gets even more conservative, preferring to "play it safe" rather than give the ball back to someone who dropped a pass or fumbled a ball. He's not good at making adjustments and lacks imagination.

While there's another 3,000 words on the "Daboll Stinks and Should Be Fired" subject, let's bring this home to Heckert, who broke camp without any kind of star receiver on the roster.

None were drafted and he made no attempt to go out and get any in free agency or via a trade.

The Browns just picked up wide receiver Sam Aiken, but that's just feeding off of Bill Belichick's scraps, something that rarely ever works out for any team.

When Belichick is done with a player, 95 percent of the time it was for a very good reason.

Heckert knew coming in the only "veteran" wide receiver on the team was Chansi Stuckey. Other than that, there's Mohamed Massaquoi and Brian Robiskie, both of whom are entering their second year; only Massaquoi looks like he'll be any good, although his potential to be a star receiver is fading rapidly.

There's Joshua Cribbs, but he's become an all-purpose player and shouldn't be the team's No. 1 wide receiver.

If he's all they got, then great, use him, but Heckert hasn't done much to address the fact that without a deep threat, opposing defenses have a much easier day because they can just crowd the line and shut you down.

So what if Cribbs gets a couple of good catches? The other teams realize they'll just get us on the next play, and so far this year, that's exactly what has happened.

Turning to the defense, Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan loves to blitz, and it bit him in the behind this past week as Joe Flacco turned one ill-advised blitz into seven points.

Of course, Ryan also left Eric Wright on Anquan Boldin, even though Boldin had proved halfway through the first quarter it was a complete mismatch.

Once again, Heckert broke camp with only three defensive backs and 12 linebackers. So if one of our DBs has a bad day, like . . . say . . . hmmm. . . ERIC WRIGHT, there's not a heck of a lot the coaching staff can do about it because who else is there?

That's not to excuse the coaching staff, though, who should've changed the assignment in the second half, but the adjustments issue is another article.

Peyton Hillis had a great game, but to think the Browns will get a bruising performance out of Hillis like that every week is just silly. The Browns need a speedy running back to compliment Hillis' frontal attack, or Hillis, like the wide receivers, will just get shut down.

But Heckert decided to trade away three draft picks to move up from the top of the third round to the bottom of the second round and take a running back with a significant injury history, Montario Hardesty.

Hardesty already had torn one ACL and had two knee surgeries. He was healthy his senior year, so Heckert decided to take a chance. Why he felt the need to move up, though, is the problem. This team has drafted badly enough over the years that losing any pick is a bad move.

Plus, Hardesty wasn't going anywhere. Why Heckert felt someone else was going to take this guy, not projected to go any higher than the end of the third round, will probably remain a mystery.

Heckert isn't talking about it after Hardesty was put on the injured reserve list after tearing his other ACL after only running a handful of plays in the last preseason game.

This isn't meant as a knock on Hardesty, who we all hope can return and be good, but that's assuming he ever sees the field. Hardesty could end up being a complete waste of three draft picks and that's something Heckert is accountable for.

To sum it up: Heckert made some questionable moves on draft day, didn't do much to address the team's lack of wide receivers, and felt going into the season with only three DBs was an acceptable situation.

So this begs the question: is it any surprise this team is 0-3?