D.C. United season review: Deshorn Brown

There’s no big surprise that little worked right for D.C. United during the 2017 season, but after a game that nobody expected them to win (a 3-1 road win over Atlanta United), the goals dried up, but fast. Patrick Mullins (whom we’ll discuss later) just returned from injury, Jose Ortiz was in the midst of finding his form which was clearly not up to MLS level competition, so the Black-and-Red needed some offense before the MLS secondary window opened in July, and after 1 goal in six league games after the Atlanta win, they needed them fast.

That’s where Deshorn Brown came into play. Brown scored double-digital goals in back-to-back seasons with the Colorado Rapids before transferring to Norway, where he scored 13 goals in 37 games with Valerenga before being sold to Shenzhen in the China First Division, where he scored 7 in 14.

He started to experience problems in the league to the point where he returned home, playing for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the first half of 2017 and scored 3 in 14 before the Black-and-Red pounced, giving up $100,000 in targeted allocation money (TAM) for the rights to acquire Brown. Immediately the production wasn't bad, as he scored goals in his second and third starts.

After that? Not so much. Brown started the next 4 games and was subbed off in the last two (including a 37th-minute disappearance against Real Salt Lake). Disappearing would presumably be a pattern of Brown’s 2017, with 6 shots in his final 257 minutes of play, half of which coming in a late September 2-0 loss to Columbus Crew SC, which came a week after Mullins’ dazzling 4 goal performance in a win over the San Jose Earthquakes. Writing, wall, etc.

Brown turns 27 a few days before Christmas and his speed is still present enough that it’s valuable in MLS, and the contract he signed with D.C. was one of low-risk (for the remainder of 2017, with a club held option for 2018). However Brown seemed to bank on his past performance and its impact for the future, with 4 months of Brown’s service costing $265,000 of base salary (and $337,000 of guaranteed compensation), and were he to be re-signed for 2018, further use of TAM may be in order.

So, in absence of everything else, let’s ask the question: