The Cleveland Browns were hopeful that they could sneak 333-pound offensive lineman Greg Robinson past unsuspecting defensive coordinators, passing him off as a legitimate starting left tackle at the NFL level. That experiment has not been entirely successful over the course of the past two years.
Even less successful was Robinson’s hopeful ambition to sneak 157 pounds of marijuana across the US-Mexico border recently. The veteran lineman, along with NFL wide receiver Quan Bray, was arrested earlier this week for the attempt, according to the Department of Justice. The drugs were stored in several large duffle bags in the rear of their vehicle.
Was Robinson celebrating the anticipated scaling back of the NFL’s drug testing policy, getting a tad bit carried away? Who’s to say? One thing is clear, and that is that he won’t be playing football for a while. He is facing potentially decades in prison, charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.
The former second-overall pick, originally drafted by the St. Louis Rams, has spent the past two seasons with the Browns, and at least in the latter stages of the 2018 season, showed enough promise to their front office that they re-signed him to a new one-year contract.
Robinson is now scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent next month, but it’s fair to say that he may have other things on his mind right now. Reportedly, the Browns were not showing any interest in re-signing him anyway, though they don’t appear to have any strong options to replace him internally.
For a long time, left tackle was the strongest position on Cleveland’s roster, with Joe Thomas locking down the position for over a decade. A likely first-ballot Hall of Famer, he didn’t miss a single snap in his career until he was injured during the 2017 season, after which he retired. It’s fair to say the team’s blind side hasn’t been the same since then.
Which is a pretty big deal, now that they believe that they finally have a franchise quarterback in Baker Mayfield. Being unable to protect your franchise quarterback is the best way to ruin him, of course, and franchises like the Browns have ruined many a quarterback over the years.
Outside of Joel Bitonio at left guard and J.C. Tretter at center, there is no position along their offensive line in which they should feel overly comfortable, even at right tackle with former Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Chris Hubbard, who has been there the past two seasons.
