Joe Schobert took his talents to Jacksonville after the Browns said 'thank you very much.' (usatoday.com)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Joe Schobert epitomized the Browns, for good and for bad.
Unheralded his whole athletic career, he was planning to walk on to University of North Dakota until an 11th-hour invitation to walk on at Wisconsin by former Badgers head coach Bret Bielema kept him in-state. Three years later, he was B1G Ten linebacker of year, team MVP and All-America.
Drafted 99th overall in the fourth round in a Browns draft otherwise known for whom they passed on, Schobert became the jewel of Sashi Brown’s first draft – the only one of 14 selections to eventually earn a Pro Bowl appearance.
He suffered through three defensive coordinators in four years, made a position switch, logged more snaps than anybody on defense, led the team in tackles twice and tied for the league lead once, and then led the team in interceptions – all the while uncomplainingly mentoring two rookies whom he knew would eventually replace him.
Unflashy and too slow, Schobert succeeded on Sundays by using his head – the way it was intended.
“Probably one of the best linebackers in the league right now in how he is performing,” former coordinator Steve Wilks said after Schobert’s second straight two-interception game at a critical juncture of last season. “He is a leader for us. He commands the defense out there, getting everybody aligned and things that we ask of him.
“We always talk about the formation is talking to you, and you have to listen with your eyes. He does some great things in regards to that pre-snap/post-snap play, and he puts himself in position to make plays.”
And then, just as Schobert was expecting to cash in with the team with which he had emotionally bonded, and experience the joy of helping a team turnaround, he was thanked for his services and shown the door.
This has become the Browns Way, no matter the regime or the coach du jour.
Thank you very much
The odd thing was this particular regime change should have saved this from happening. New GM Andrew Berry was alongside Brown when Schobert was drafted, and saw him develop over the next three seasons.
Schobert could sense that former GM John Dorsey wasn’t bringing him back. Dorsey drafted Mack Wilson and Sione Takitaki last year. When Schobert made inquiries about extending his contract and forgoing free agency, Dorsey kept putting him off.
“For me, I realized [leaving was inevitable] during the season when we were trying to talk contract extension and never got an offer, never got a proposal,” Schobert said Wednesday in an appearance on The Really Big Show on 850 ESPN Cleveland.
“Then, obviously the change in staff happened. There was a little bit of optimism, but then nothing materialized after the combine.”
Before meeting with Schobert’s agent at the combine, Berry told reporters, “Joe is a good player and an even better person. He's obviously earned the right to test the market if he deems that appropriate. But it's one of those situations where we like Joe. It obviously has to work for both sides. It has to work for us from a cost perspective with our long-term roster strategy, and obviously it has to be a fit for Joe and his family as well.”
Schobert and his agent had a goal of $10 million a year in free agency. Berry’s number was substantially lower. This week, Jacksonville and Cincinnati offered pretty much the same, Schobert said, and he agreed to sign with the Jaguars for a reported $53.75 million over five years ($10.75 million average), with $22.5 million guaranteed.
The Browns stuck to their guns and let their quarterback on defense walk.
Win the negotiation, lose the player. We’ve seen it before.
What makes a team
I thought Berry would be different this second time around because he was in charge, not Brown.
At his introduction as GM, and at the combine, Berry recited three key lessons learned last season at the side of Philadelphia Eagles GM Howie Roseman.
Berry talked of “the value of getting to know your locker room at a personal level. And … the difference in accumulating talent versus actually constructing the team, making sure you have the right mix of skill sets and people in the locker room that ultimately drive toward championship-level football.”
It seemed for those two reasons alone, Schobert was worth exceeding whatever financial limits chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta and Berry attached to Schobert’s middle linebacker position.
Asked what the Browns need at the linebacker position now, Schobert lauded Wilson and Takitaki, but said, “I still think you need a veteran of significant amount of years who has seen the league, has seen winning, and can get in the room and help those guys along. Obviously, you need more than three linebackers, so you have to get a couple bodies in the draft, too.”
On Wednesday, Berry added a linebacker drafted 10 notches after Schobert in 2016, B.J. Goodson.
Goodson was drafted by the Giants and spent last season with the Packers as a two-down player. Goodson was on the field for 256 of the Packers’ defensive snaps -- 24.4 percent of the time. Schobert, typically, toiled for 99.4 percent of the Browns’ defensive snaps, 1,079 overall, sixth-most among NFL linebackers.
On RBS, Schobert was asked for his fondest memory of his four years with the Browns.
“I think my fondest memory would be the last half of the 2018 season,” Schobert said. “I pulled a hamstring and missed weeks 6-9. We were 2-6-1, and I came back and we won five of last seven games and got into the playoff hunt.
“You could feel the tide turning. You felt we were building something important here in Cleveland that was going to take off the next season. Everyone was excited. There was a lot of reason for optimism. It felt we were on the cusp of being a playoff team.
“Obviously, we didn’t live up to expectations last year. But we were still on that cusp. We didn’t take a step back, we just stayed the same. I feel the Browns are right on that cusp of being a playoff team and if they can figure things out it will be one more step forward to being in the playoffs, especially with the expanded playoffs.”
Schobert’s exit would have happened if Dorsey had stayed. Berry had the opportunity to rewrite the Browns Way. Unfortunately, he merely followed the script of his many predecessors and made change for the sake of change.
(Listen here for the full interview of Schobert on 850 ESPN Cleveland.)