:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/33119487/20140105_jla_al8_040.0.jpg)
After signing wide receivers Miles Austin and Earl Bennett to deals this week, the Cleveland Browns made it clear that they anticipated Josh Gordon to be suspended for most, if not all of the 2014 NFL season.
That, and they're finally through with Greg Little, who's been a bust to this point after being the 59th-overall pick of the 2011 NF Draft.
Little has now been released, and he joins fellow '11 draft pick Brandon Weeden as Browns players to be cut just three years after being drafted so high that year.
Browns have now released two players (Brandon Weeden, Greg Little) of five drafted in Falcons Julio Jones trade. Eeesh.
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) May 16, 2014
Phil Taylor only #Browns player left from trade of Julio Jones pick in 2011 draft. #wreckthisleague
— Tony Grossi (@TonyGrossi) May 16, 2014
Greg Little has a -28.1 @PFF grade in his 3 NFL seasons. No other WR was worse than -17.4 in that span.
— Pete Damilatis (@PFF_Pete) May 16, 2014
#Browns plan at WR this year: https://t.co/X7hiQOiwcF
— Sigmund Bloom (@SigmundBloom) May 16, 2014
The Browns had the 28th and 59th pick after making a deal with the Atlanta Falcons that allowed Cleveland to move back in the '11 draft, while allowing Atlanta to move up and select Alabama's Julio Jones with the 6th-overall pick.
The Falcons really wanted a receiver in the first round because they were eager to move up from the 27th spot. It was a blockbuster deal. In exchange for getting the sixth pick, Atlanta gave the Browns five draft picks: their 1st- (27th overall), second- (59th) and fourth-round (124th) picks that year, as well as their first- and fourth-round picks in 2012.
That trade has backfired badly in the face of Cleveland, while Atlanta has one of the best receivers in the game now.
Ironically, the Falcons were also trying to trade up with the Bengals that year, so that deal could be on Cincinnati was suffering the ill-effects of right now.