If Joshua Cribbs, the former Kent State quarterback, is the best player on your team, you don't have much of a team. Like it or not, that was the sad truth, among many sad truths about the Cleveland Browns. I'm really not trying to take anything away from the guy, nor do I believe I'm coming with a fresh concept here. At times, he sure was brilliant, and he may have won two or three games for the Browns in his eight seasons on the North Coast, but how much different would the fan experience of the Browns been, had Cribbs never suited up for the Orange and Brown?
Personally, I liked Cribbs, and it went far beyond the Kent State/Northeast Ohio connection. I thought he was a great addition to any team for his work on special teams, but I was always a bit skeptical about what he could actually contribute to the game from the line of scrimmage, where most of the game is played. Look, there's an understanding that a good return man can certainly make things easier for an offense in a game that's about field position, like the NFL, opposed to the arena game and a lot of today's college games that are more about possessions. Cribbs came to the aid of more than a few inept Cleveland Browns offense, either by awarding them a short field or putting points on the board himself, thus eliminating the charade of Brian Daboll and Pat Shurmur's Red Zone gameplan.
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