Free Agency: Browns Sign WR Dwayne Bowe to Deal
Former Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, who was released earlier this offseason, was signed on Thursday by the Cleveland Browns, per a report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Rapoport broke the news around the lunch hour on Thursday via Twitter:
The #Browns are signing WR Dwayne Bowe, source said.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 19, 2015
Coupled with the signing of former Dolphins receiver Brian Hartline, at least the Browns have now compiled some veteran receivers for their quarterbacks to get the ball to. While Hartline is still relatively young, Bowe is going on 31 years old, and is pretty much on the last chance he’ll have in his NFL career.
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The former first round pick out of LSU did not score a single touchdown in 2014, and in fact hasn’t reached the end zone since December of 2013 when he scored against the Washington Redskins in a blowout win for the Chiefs.
So how does Bowe fit in with the Browns? Well, according to some supplemental reports in addition to his being signed by the team, the Browns apparently made bringing in Bowe a pretty high priority this offseason. That’s curious, considering it’s been four or five years since he had a 1,000 yard season or even played a full 16-game schedule.
For the Chiefs, Bowe was a big hit coming out of the draft and had three 1,000 yard seasons in four years. After that, it’s been all downhill. For poor Browns fans, they seem to be getting a player that is all bark, no bite.
Is that too far?
GRADE: C
I’m going to need to see specific financial details of this signing, but I’m okay with it. The cupboard was bare for the Browns at receiver, and now they have Bowe, Hartline, and Andrew Hawkins with which to work while they develop and draft some younger guys that can step into roles hopefully as the season progresses.
As long as this move doesn’t prevent them from drafting another couple of guys at the position, I think it’s fine and Bowe will be motivated to obviously play better than he did with the Chiefs, where he was cut due to not performing up to the contract he agreed to.
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