NFL Trade Rumors: Why Browns Would Be Beyond Foolish to Deal Peyton Hillis

There is all kinds of talk about Peyton Hillis possibly being moved by the Browns, that he’s out of favor in Cleveland and that a drawn-out contract confrontation is souring the milk.

The Browns say that, the rumor mill notwithstanding, they have no plans to move Hillis, and that point of view makes a lot of sense.

Hillis, who ran for 1,117 yards and 11 scores last year, is somebody the 2-3 Browns need if they are going to make a run for the postseason in the AFC North.

The 25-year-old running back isn’t off to the best start, admittedly. He has 211 yards and two touchdowns while playing about three-and-a-quarter of the Browns’ first five games. He came out of Sunday’s game against the Raiders with a left hamstring injury in the first quarter, and while he came back in for two plays in the fourth quarter, Hillis’ status for Sunday against Seattle is up in the air.

Let’s make this clear: The Browns need Hillis, a healthy Hillis at that, if they are to make a run into January.

Without his bruising runs, the Cleveland offense doesn’t have much of a ground game. With that being the case, it’s asking too much of quarterback Colt McCoy to carry the offense on his shoulders.

Hillis has said he’d like to be able to play his entire career with the Browns, and it seems odd that despite that he seems to have lost favor with Browns fans. It could have something to do with the fact that he has yet to get 100 yards in a game this year, but missing a game with strep throat and missing three-quarters of another with a hamstring injury are just blips in the big picture.

The 6-foot-1, 240-pounder is more than just a punishing runner. He’s adept receiver, too, and that kind of package doesn’t come around every day.

And without that presence, other teams are going to do with the Browns what the Raiders did—stack the defensive front and blitz, which allows a defense to shut down the run and harass the passing game of McCoy.