Berea (92.3 The Fan) - For the first time since 2007, the Cleveland Browns need a left tackle for the upcoming season.
A day after their perennial Pro Bowler and presumed future Hall of Famer announced his retirement, the life goes on reality of the NFL kicked in again as general manager John Dorsey and head coach Hue Jackson look to fill mighty shoes vacated by the great Joe Thomas.
“I don’t think you fill that spot. Somebody has to go play left tackle, there is no question, but do you really replace a Hall of Fame player in the organization? We hope to go draft another Joe Thomas someday, but Joe Thomas is not in this building and he is not coming back," Jackson said Thursday.
The Browns already know it's not going to be easy replacing the 10-time Pro Bowler and 8-time AP All-Pro that played 167 consecutive games and 10,363 consecutive snaps.
"We are going to play somebody at left tackle, and we are going to give some guys opportunities to do it, but I hope nobody thinks the next Joe Thomas is fixing to go play over there this season," Jackson said. "We have to go find that guy, just like anything we find. We are going to play some guys, and they are going to play their tails off. There is no question in my mind. We have some athletes here that we think can play. We are going to play the best five guys, but obviously, somebody has to start over there first."
Shon Coleman, who spent 2017 at right tackle where he started all 16 games, will get the first opportunity to move to the left side. The addition of Chris Hubbard from Pittsburgh frees him up.
In what should come as no surprise, Thomas has already been tutoring the 2016 third-round pick.
A day after Thomas announced that he was done playing football, Dorsey spotted him working with Coleman inside the the Casey Coleman Fieldhouse.
"They were working on stuff already," Dorsey, who discribed the scene he saw as "neat," said. "You can just see that Shon is committed and he is looking forward to the challenge. That is all you could ask for.”
Spencer Drango and Donald Stephenson, who just signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract, will also get an opportunity to audition this offseason.
"We are not going to be the same line without Joe Thomas. There is no question about that,” Jackson said.
New quarterback Tyrod Taylor was unaware Thomas intended to hang them up, until Wednesday afternoon when he found out like the rest of us.
"Of course, I want him out there, but ultimately, you respect his decision," Taylor said. "A great player, a great person who means a lot to Cleveland and means a lot to the NFL.
"He will definitely be in Canton soon. Hats off to his career."
The Browns won just 48 games and lost 119 when Thomas was on the field. Nationally, that's all they're talking about - his greatness playing for an awful team.
And that's unfortunate.
Thomas embodied everything the Browns should've been for the 11 seasons he took the field. He was powerful, yet flawless.
"My disappointment is we never got him to winning," Jackson said. "This guy is going to be and was a Hall of Fame player who hasn’t won a lot of football games. That is unfair because I don’t people truly understand how good Joe Thomas is as a football player, as a person, as a person within the community and the whole nine yards."
Although the business of football rolls on for the Browns, Jackson wanted it known what Thomas really meant to him and the organization and because of that he will dearly be missed - on and off of the field.
"I am going to miss Joe, but as I told him again [Thursday], I am going to always reiterate to him, this is still his football team," Jackson said. "He still has a [key] fob that gets in the door. His locker will stay the same. It will be in the same place. His place on the plane will be the same if he wants to go. That is how much I think of Joe Thomas. He will be missed.”
