The Cleveland Browns are having a perplexing off-season, and it’s even unsettling some of their biggest supporters.
Hanford Dixon, a two-time All-Pro with the Browns, took Browns management to task for their decision to release EDGE Ogbo Okoronkwo earlier this week.
Okornkowo played each of the past two seasons in Cleveland, recording 54 tackles and seven-and-a-half sacks over 30 games and five starts. He was released by the Browns on June 26 while also signing kicker Andre Szmyt.
Why Are Browns Fans Upset That They Released Ogbo Okoronkwo?
The Browns’ decision to cut Okoronkwo caught everyone off guard, since he has been a useful player for their defense since coming to Cleveland as a free agent March 14, 2023.
“I was really surprised,” Dixon said on his weekly podcast “The Hanford Dixon Show.”
Okoronkwo picked up a 45.3 grade from PFF, which ranked 192nd of 211 defensive ends last year, but he was only slated to spell Defensive Player of the Year favorite Myles Garrett and second-year EDGE Isaiah McGuire, who was graded 83.3 by PFF a year ago.
Okoronkwo was set to enter the final year of his three-year, $19 million contract, and the Browns will be on the hook for about $2.6 million in dead cap space this year and $4.75 million next year. He was slated to have a cap hit of about $5.3 million.
“A lot of people would say that was pretty much all about money and how much he was going to make this year,” Dixon said. “I thought they really depended on Ogbo. I thought he was going to be a major, major part of that defense, especially of that defensive line.”
Who Is Hanford Dixon and Why Does He Care About The Browns?
Dixon was a starter in the Browns’ heyday of the 1980s, where they went to the AFC Championship Game in consecutive seasons and three times in a four-year span under Marty Schottenheimer and Bud Carson.
He made the Pro Bowl in three straight years between 1986-88 and was an All-Pro twice. He has hosted the podcast for the past two years alongside Cleveland-based reporter Gabrielle Kreuz.
What Does Hanford Dixon Make Of The Browns’ Off-Season Moves?
Dixon tried to make sense of the Browns’ decision to part with Okoronkwo and how that move relates with the team’s No. 5 overall pick defensive tackle Mason Graham from Michigan and EDGE rusher Alex Wright.
“He’s a guy that’s going to step right in,” Dixon said. “I guarantee you’re not going to make him wait [to start]. He’s got to step in; he’s got to start right away, and I think he’ll be OK.
“We’ve got a kid Wright, Alex Wright. He’s another one that I think is going to be OK.”
Yet, Dixon’s belief in Browns management far exceeds that of fans and pundits, who are still trying to make sense of their decision to pick two quarterbacks, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, in the QB-light 2025 NFL Draft.
Dixon believes in Sanders and even went so far as comparing him to Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens and Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals.
“[Sanders] is the guy we have been looking for,” Dixon said on his podcast recently. “We could be talking about him on the same level as Jackson and Burrow and those guys in the AFC North.”
