Kellen Winslow-less Browns Are 2-0 Without Pro Bowl Tight End

When the Cleveland Browns traded up just one spot to get tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. in the 2004 NFL Draft, the landscape of both the franchise and the former Miami Hurricane were drastically different.

Back then, the Browns were a bunch devoid of talent and star power. They hadn't had a Pro Bowler in two seasons, a streak that would eventually reach five seasons until the '07 campaign sent six Browns to Hawaii.

Butch Davis was calling the shots, both on the sidelines and in the front office, and he knew that he needed to get a big name like Winslow, a guy he coached at "The U," to infuse some credibility into his star-less roster.

To say that Winslow's career has gone as planned since then would be like saying that Brady Quinn is content being the team's backup quarterback. Nothing could be further from the truth.

But it has been quite a ride.

The son of Hall of Fame tight end Kellen Winslow Sr. had an ugly contract holdout to start his career, broke his leg in his second game, missed the final 14 games of his rookie year, nearly killed himself in a motorcycle incident, missed all of his second season, tied the franchise record for receptions in his third, and made his first Pro Bowl in his fourth.

His knee operations since that motorcycle accident—four, to be exact—have increased whispers that Winslow will never, ever be the kind of player many thought he was destined to be when he was drafted.

And despite the fact that he is entering what should be, by NFL standards, the prime of his career at age of 25, his career may not have nearly as many years left as his young age suggests.

The latest incident has seen Winslow hospitalized at first with an undisclosed illness that turned out to be a staph infection, the sixth incident involving staph and a Browns player over the last several seasons.

The Browns' reluctance to disclose Winslow's status and inform teammates—as well as the frequency of the illness following the organization—saw the Pro Bowler boil over with frustration and anger when calling out the team and revealing the fact that he had asked General Manager Phil Savage to trade him before the NFL's trading deadline.

This incident came after a summer that saw the Browns deny Winslow his bid for signing a contract extension, and the five-year marriage between both the player and team has been far more tumultuous than it has been smooth.

For Savage and the Browns, it would probably be best to cut ties with Winslow sooner rather than later. And it has far more to do with what happens on the field than what happens off it.

After Sunday's 23-17 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Browns scored their second victory of the season without Winslow in the lineup. Both wins—the other being a 35-14 Monday night blowout of the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants—have brought out the best in the Browns' offense.

Cleveland has had, by far, their best offensive outputs in those two victories, posting 327 yards of total offense against the Jaguars and 454 yards against the Giants.

Similar statistics with Winslow in the lineup have been less than stellar. At times, they've been downright futile.

The Browns put up 205 yards of total offense in Week One against Dallas, where Winslow scored his lone touchdown of the season. Since then, Cleveland has put up 208 yards against Pittsburgh, 169 yards against Baltimore, 261 yards against Cincinnati, and 236 yards against Washington. Only the game against the Bengals was a win—an ugly one, at that.

And while the Browns seem committed to quarterback Derek Anderson, whom they signed to a three-year extension in the offseason, Winslow has always been on the record calling for 2007 first-round pick Brady Quinn to take over the offense. Winslow also favored the exiled Charlie Frye to Anderson before Frye was sent to Seattle, and it seems like Anderson and Winslow have never built a rapport in the year-and-a-half that Anderson has been under center for the Browns.

When the Browns displayed the fireworks of their passing game in 2007, it was all about the strong-armed Anderson developing a chemistry with deep-threat wide receiver Braylon Edwards.

Anderson nearly broke Cleveland's single season record with 29 touchdown passes and 16 of those were to Edwards. Despite the banner year from Winslow, the Browns' ability to put points on the board correlated directly with the connection between Anderson and Edwards.

That's not all. Big-time tight ends simply don't correlate with Super Bowls. The New York Giants began their late-season championship surge last season after Jeremy Shockey was injured for the season, and little-known Kevin Boss was sufficient enough to take an above-average Giants team at the time of Shockey's injury to a Super Bowl championship. Players like Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, and Jason Witten haven't even been to a Super Bowl, let alone win one.

Combine these facts with the improvement of Cleveland's offense when Winslow is out of the lineup, the dirty relationship between him and the organization, the questionable length of his career, and his health issues, and the Browns may be better off moving Winslow this offseason and using his value to add more parts to a roster that is definitely at no loss for holes.

Winslow's arrival in Cleveland signaled the addition of star power and a big-name player. Four years later, Winslow isn't even the biggest name on the team, buried in visibility behind Anderson, Edwards, Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas, 1,300-yard running back Jamal Lewis, and even backup quarterback Quinn.

These are different times in Cleveland. Unfortunately for Winslow, he probably isn't a part of the equation for the Browns' next step.