May 25, 2013

Browns TJ Ward tweets about Cleveland’s lack of activity at start of free agency

March 13, 2012 by 84 Comments

The first hour of NFL free agency has had it’s moments. DE Mario Williams and WR Robert Meachem arriving in Buffalo to speak with the Bills. Pierre Garcon announcing through Facebook that he’s signing with the Redskins. Report after report of players visiting with or talking to certain teams. What hasn’t been reported is even a rumor of a player visiting or talking with the Browns.

And that’s just fine with TJ Ward-

“We obviously are developing our team through the draft. Big name free agents can be good but often aren’t the solution.”

Talk about toeing the company line.

Building primarily through the draft is necessary. Some would argue the Browns have more holes than draft picks though. Hope that when Ward becomes a free agent someday he will still be toeing the company line…

[Related: One area the Browns need to improve through free agency]

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  • MrCleaveland

    It’s hard to hold them accountable when they are so oblivious to the fans’ obsession with everything they do or don’t do.

    I have no doubt that Holmgren et al care about what they’re doing. It’s just that they have ZERO savvy when it comes to public relations. They haven’t figured out yet that we need constant reassurance.

    (Good God, listen to me. I might as well buy a box of Malley’s, rent a Hugh Grant movie, and have a good cry.)

  • JoshKess

    Oh goodie Matt Flynn who had 1 good game with an already good offense. Hey Matty good luck throwing to Mo Mass & Greg Little & dealing w all these ignorant fans who will be no doubt calling for your head as soon as you go 11/21 2 INTs week 1. Add him to the list.

  • Max

    I said in an earlier thread that there is no longer room in my discretionary entertainment funds for any Browns tickets, parking, merchandise etc until things change. I’ll root for them, but I will no longer pay for the beating.

  • cmm13

    I wouldn’t cash those chips just yet. Not even Pittsburgh sources are reporting Hillis is in the Steelers plans.

    Steelers are salary cap strapped and will most likely not be looking to splash on Hillis.

    I’d be keeping my eye in KC or NE for Hillis landing spots.

  • cmm13

    The doom and gloom on this comment board is really running rampant.

    Honestly if the offseason haul shapes up as Matt Flynn and Eric Winston with the top three draft picks being Trent Richardson, Kendall Wright and Courtney Upshaw you can put me square in the happy camp.

    Anyone else happy with that list?

  • Lyon25

    amen.  he’s my #1 target right now.

  • BuckeyeDawg

     I would be quite happy with that.  Flynn is obviously far from a sure thing, but you can say that about any QB that you draft as well. 

  • cmm13

    Agreed. Flynn definitely may not be your franchise elite QB but neither is Tannehill or Wheedon and the most important thing is he doesn’t cost you a draft pick.

    It’s been twelve years of waiting…what’s another 1 month before we start to officially call this offseason a dud?

  • ThisIsGetting Sad

    I love how we keep hearing about who the Browns are not interested in when it comes to free agency.  Is this when the front office goes on vacation?  I know don’t blow the cap, but come on.  This is starting to become a joke.  Show some effort.

  • PleaseHelpUs

     I agree.  This is one area we have to have an impact now.  Get the right side solid, then we can move on.  Show us some form of life.  If you keep building through the draft, the 3 to 4 years it will take to build players will result in another turn over of management.

  • PleaseHelpUs

     This is year 3 of Holmgren.  Where is the improvement?  All he cares about is going on Seattle radio.

  • nxmehta

    You’re absolutely right.  The key to building a championship team is having the fans stop spending money on the Browns.  THAT will motivate the front office.  It’s not like they actually care about winning- I mean, Mike Holmgren and Tom Heckert has just spent their entire careers in football for the cash, not because they want to win.  In fact, I doubt there’s a single person in Berea who actually cares about winning- they just care about the money.  Take that away and THEN they will start doing the jobs they are paid for.  I bet they just play Angry Birds all day.

    And look at all the NFL champions in history- the Pats, the Giants, the Steelers- they were ALL built by fans throwing hissy fits and holding front offices “accountable”.  Yes, the Steelers only really got good when people from Pittsburgh walked out of the stadium on game day with paper bag on their heads.  That’s what led to their championships.

    WAKE UP- building a championship NFL team isn’t as easy as the fans getting “upset” and then a winning team magically being built.  I’ve always hated this ridiculous line of reasoning.  Building a winner is hard.  They are doing their best.  If they fail, someone else will try again.  If it was easy then every year there would be 32 NFL champions instead of one.

  • Toldyouso

      It’s all too apparent the stubbornness of those “expert” football knowledgable yahoos running the Browns.   Ya they have a plan, ya they are solid on there ideals, it’s apparent to all of us they are living the FANASTY FOOTBALL Dreams!
    Everytime they aren’t doing clearly shows us is a pipe dream that is stuck in both the mud, and blind to their own ideals. 
      Being stubborn surely isn’t going to get one into the end zone, before your opponent!  Before anyone running/ ruining this team thinking spending on free-agents is wasting valuable moneys, PLEASE THINK about the heffy sum of change you collect for doing nothing!

  • Toldyouso

      Of the culture of lossing surely isn’t totally attractive to any free-agent!  Why waste one career here, and be damaged by train wreck leadership, and lack there of desire of any winning!  The damage done by lack of efforts last year will continue to haunt this team!!! 

  • porkchopexpress

    Can you name those free agents, and do you have some working knowledge of the contributions they made.  Or are you just assuming that they did sign free agents and that those persons did in fact make significant contributions.  Because I’m going to go ahead and assume you don’t know whether they did, or those players did.

  • porkchopexpress

    That Holmgren is such a yutz, not even contacting free agents. 
    I wish he was the kind of GM that made a BIG MOVES.
    He should have gone out on the first day of Free Agency and commited 20 some million to offensive linemen to shore that position up.
    Then he should see our weakness on the D-line and trade a pick and a player to shore that up.
    Finally he should get aggressive at the draft and trade away all our picks up to the 4th round for a “franchise QB”.
    Thats what Holmgren would do if he was a winner.

    Wait…. Thats what Phil Savage did?  That can’t be right we all trashed that guy for setting the franchise back years with unwise contracts to free agents, trading draft picks, and bad trades.  Mangini’s whole purpose in trading down in the Sanchez year was to start undoing the damage of an overly aggressive GM. 

    Well thank God we are all going to recognize the terrible, incompetent decisions made by several other front offices and give this one a chance to build a team the way a team is supposed to be built.

    Naw, I’m just kidding lets run these guys out of town so we can get  another aggressive pick trading, “top” free agent signing guy in here.

    Seriously you pitchfork carrying fire this regime fans are next to Einsteins theory of insanity in the dictionary.

  • porkchopexpress

    Just to keep hammering the point, V Jackson just signed with equally as bad as the Browns, or nearly equally as bad Tampa Bay, for 55 mil, and this year and next are set at 13 mil.  He’s 29, are they going to win the Super Bowl this year or next?  Would any of you like to put a years pay on whether they do?  So then he’s 31 and they’ve dumped 26 mil on him and they’ve stunted the growth of younger players.  So where do they end up? Either trying to draft his replacement or overpaying for another Free agent.  My only regret in life is that I will never have enough money to fund a study that shows how bad of a deal free agency is for teams in capped leagues or poor teams in baseball.   

  • porkchopexpress

    No offense but Vrabel was a cast off when the Pats signed him, it worked out but not a major free agent signing.  Harrison was a twice thrown away by the Ravens, not a free agent signing.  Farrior I’ll give you, but Pierce is the guy who proves how you should use free agency.  Undrafted guy who starts to make a name for himself, and peaks right after signing free agent contract.  If his equivalent was the big sign for the Browns this offseason people would not be happy. 
    Woodson played 5 years with the Packers before winning, I believe the pitchfork crowd doesn’t want to wait that long.

  • porkchopexpress

    Point being free agency is just as risky as the draft only it costs more money, especially now with the salary scales

  • Mark

    The other issue with Pierce was the Skins couldn’t afford to keep him because the were in salary cap trouble from…wait for it…signing too many high priced free agents. Shocker.

  • mgbode

    I agree and was hoping that someone would chime in.   Just showing that it is important to sign FAs and get key contributors out of it, while also showing that those are not always the most obvious names at the time.

  • mgbode

    I prefer different drafted names, but you hit all the key positions.

  • Tom

    thank you management for the upcoming 6-10 season (SAME OLD SH**)…2 times when you can improve your team…1)free agency and 2) the draft. I have already seen Cleveland’s drafting acumen…Hillis sees a sinking ship and is grabbing a life boat to Pittsburgh. This Browns’s fan of 43 years is about to start pulling for “the real browns” in Baltimore. Holmgren and Co…had their time in the 90′s…they are SO out of touch. You browns fans keep drinking the Kool-aid….

  • Garry_Owen

    Since you’ve been commenting on WFNY, you have posted nothing but common sense.  You might want to stop.  It will give you a headache.

  • Garry_Owen

    A thing of beauty, this.  I’ve been thinking about getting into the fray, but maybe I’ll just going to let you and a couple of other common sensers do my talking.

    Like you, I seem to remember a few years back when the Browns and Mr. Savage made big cannonball splashes in free agency.  We were all so delighted.

    Cue Rooster Cogburn (2010 version):  “Well, that didn’t pan out.” 

  • Garry_Owen

    Right, ‘cuz the Super Bowl was just there for our taking! 

  • Ritz

    Well it was not the fault of Savage that they players got injured.

    But, going after some reasonable priced free agents is OK, overy paying is not OK. Doing nothing is also not OK though.

  • Ritz

    Free agency is not some all or nothing proposition. Lots of comments here seem to be indicating that our choices are: Overpay someone old or mediocre or do absolutely nothing.

    But doing nothing (which the Browns are) is a questionable tactic. Not all holes can be filled through the draft over the next few years. The Browns can be active, sign needed depth, maybe get a few impact players and still not ruin the team and overpay.

    It’s one thing not to sign anyone. It’s another not even to talk to any elite or good free agents or have anyone come visit. No apparent interest in Winston, Nicks, etc. And yea, it’s still early, but not too early apparently for evey other team with cap space.

  • Garry_Owen

    True, but the fact of injuries proves that FA is not the panacea (and those injuries, when the come to FAs, are generally much more costly injuries than those to draftees).

    As Confucius might say, maybe we’ve done nothing so far, but we haven’t fully done “nothing” yet.  Patience, grasshopper.   

  • Ritz

    So therefore all free agents are overpriced and we should do nothing?

  • Jasonloz

    peyton hillis is a beast. weall saw it in 2010 but who’s it gonna be in the draft JB or TR both would make outstanding additions to our beloved dawgs.

  • http://twitter.com/rlinc2u rlinc2u

    I agree totally…this team seems to be going from bad to  SUPER BAD and I mean that in the worst way.
    I’m starting to wonder if Holmgren has seen his last days as football guru and Shurmur wont make it to the 3rd game of the regular season.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MBICMMXZIEDY6AZTJOVFKIJNQQ hollyw

    good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   we need leaders,winners,and people who are not scared to lead!!!!!!!!!!!!!   we don’t need pre madona’s like braylon edwards,william green,ect!!!!!!!!!!!!  WE WANT TOUGH MENTALLY AND PYHSICALLY PLAYERS TO BUST THE SNOT OUT OF SOMEONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WE WANT FOOTBALL PLAYERS TO JOIN US DAWGS AND FIGHT AND CHANGE OUR TEAM AROUND NOT CRY BABIES OR MENTALLY WEAK PEOPLE!!!   WE WANT SOMEONE THAT CAN LEAD A TEAM OUT OF THE SELLAR NOT A FRONT RUNNER THAT CANT DO IT WITH US DAWGS!!!!!!!   WE WANT DAWGS NOT PUTTY CATS!!!!!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MBICMMXZIEDY6AZTJOVFKIJNQQ hollyw

    i wrote the below message for the three top ten picks in 2012 draft that dont want to play for us and they transfered it to t.j. wards page here………………..ward is a heck of a player and a son to us dawgs who makes us proud!!!!!

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