PFF: Browns are five players away from contention
January 27, 2015Colts promote Chudzinski to keep him in Indy
January 27, 2015The Cleveland Browns don’t have a quarterback firmly atop their depth chart right now. Brian Hoyer is a free agent, Johnny Manziel hasn’t proven worthy, and Connor Shaw projects as a Brian Hoyer sequel at best. Speaking of Brian Hoyer’s free agency, he looks to be one of the most attractive free agent quarterbacks available in a list of names that includes Jake Locker, Matt Moore, Christian Ponder, Blaine Gabbert and Mark Sanchez. So it’s with that in mind that I find every tidbit of news regarding quarterback movement in the NFL to be intriguing. Most notably, there are now rumors involving Nick Foles and Sam Bradford.
To be fair, there’s no actual rumor about Sam Bradford yet. But the rumors of the Rams’ potential interest in Nick Foles is a shot across the bow for Bradford. Foles is due to hit the cap in Philly for only about $815,000 in 2015. That’s not bad at all for any QB who is capable of starting games in the NFL. Foles didn’t have the same season he had in 2013 in 2014 and he missed time due to injury, but he’s still a guy with legitimate NFL starter experience at the age of 25 with a 6-foot 5-inch frame. And the fact that his frame carries 240-ish pounds instead of Sam Bradford’s oft-injured 220-ish pounds while costing significantly less must be appealing to the Rams.
To be fair, the Rams have said publicly that they want Sam Bradford back. At the same time, the papers carry rumors about how they want him to agree to cut his contract that is due to pay him $13 million in salary while contributing to a total cap number in excess of $16 million for 2015. The key number, and one that scares NFL players all the time, is the dead money if the Rams cut Bradford outright. That number is $3.595 million. That’s the key equation for any player in the NFL who’s future is questionable. Take the Cap Hit minus the Dead Money and the bigger that number is, the more likely a player is to get cut. For Bradford, that number is an astonishing $12.985 million. If you replace Bradford with Nick Foles who costs merely the numbers after the decimal, that means the Rams will give themselves $12 million in additional cap space to work with.
[Related: PFF: Cleveland Browns five players away from contention]
Where the Browns fit into this equation is unknown, but a team that has big question marks at quarterback should never not be paying attention to rumors involving quarterbacks, whether it’s Foles, Sam Bradford or even a guy like Jay Cutler.
Remember when we talked about the Browns and Jay Cutler? It was a rough year for the Bears and in a league where quarterbacks get a disproportionate share of the blame, Jay Cutler had a QB record of 5-10 on the season. It got so bad that head coach Marc Trestman benched Cutler for Jimmy Clausen. For Browns fans it became fashionable to think about Jay Cutler and whether he was going to be available in some way shape or form. Of course we should have known better. Talent wins out over coaches the majority of the time and the Bears fired Marc Trestman because Cutler’s “dead” money in 2015 would be $19.5 million and it’s easier to replace a coach than it is to find a quarterback of Jay Cutler’s abilities. Which makes it all the funnier that any Browns fans weren’t willing to consider Jay Cutler for the Browns.
All of this is just to say that I hope the Browns are involved in vetting every potential QB situation in the league. If a quarterback’s name comes up the Browns should be exploring it to see just how the pieces might fit to see if it could help land a quarterback in Cleveland. Maybe the Browns just bring back Brian Hoyer. Maybe they trade for a Nick Foles or a Sam Bradford. Maybe they sign Jake Locker or Ryan Mallett. I don’t even have much of a preference as of yet, because we don’t know all the different plans that new offensive coordinator John DeFeilippo has for the team. Maybe Flip will want to re-unite with Mark Sanchez. As long as they don’t hand the job to Johnny Manziel, I think I’m good. I’ll keep watching that carousel spin though, hoping the Browns find a seat.
25 Comments
I’d be happy to deal a second rounder (particularly with our two 1st) for Foles.
Bradford and Sanchez are much higher crap-shoots where you’ve gotta hope for a limited risk 2 year / $10M total dollars type deal.
Jay Cutler? Uh… where’s the How About No bear?
Ugh God no might as well tank a year with Manziel while you build up the rest of the team with free agents and draft picks.
I’m sure Kelly would want a first rounder maybe two in order to move up to get Mariota. No thanks.
I am pretty sure Craig just said Cutler is off the market due to his dead-cap number of ~$20M
2 first rounders for Nick Foles? That’ll be the day.
I mean, hey, Kelly might *want* that, but I’m talking about what he can realistically get.
taking the opportunity to provide a positive Browns-related GIF 🙂
http://cdn2.sbnation.com/assets/3722531/cutlerint.gif
Sadly, the issue goes beyond QB. Obviously, we need to figure out QB. Perhaps, Locker, Mallet, Bradford, Foles, or Sanchez can fix our issues there, but it seems unlikely.
Also unlikely to help is that we could be turning over almost half of our roster again this offseason. DPD did an article where they go over the roster likely returnees. I do not agree with all of it, but they have 30/53 guys returning, which means 23 new players (even if we re-sign another 3 players, then that is 20 new players to add). Thankfully, it is mostly depth that is being replaced. But, replacing 23 players is still a huge under-taking for one offseason.
http://dawgpounddaily.com/2015/01/18/browns-roster-composition-important-piece-puzzle/
I don’t want Foles so…
This just proves how lacking the talent was on the roster from top to bottom. Honestly Pettine did a very good job given that and all of the rest of the issues starting with QB (of course), Gordon, Gilbert and all of the injuries.
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Lack of talent top to bottom? I will greatly disagree here. We have a talented roster. Our problem is that talent isn’t especially deep and it doesn’t include a few extremely important positions (QB mostly, but NT, OLB, and one very good WR or TE).
Really, really good
JoeT, Bitonio, Mack
Haden, Gipson, Dansby
Good
Hawkins
Whitner, Kruger
Good Enough
Greco, Schwartz/Bowie, Crowell, Dray, Barnidge, Gabriel, Cameron (gone?)
Kirksey, Skrine (gone?)
Flashes, but not consistent enough yet
West, Hoyer(gone?), Austin(gone?)
Mingo, P.Taylor, D.Bryant, A.Bryant, Poyer, K.Williams, Hughes, Robertson, Solomon, P.Desir, Winn
I’d like to see Austin back. Man, he was great on 3rd down.
I completely disagree what is a roster size 53? Six out of 53 are really, really good? Not even close to what it takes IMO. Good, good enough and showing flashes don’t instill me with much hope either. If you watched the playoffs and saw the teams who have advanced the Browns are so far behind it’s not even funny. Add in the lack of a QB still and it’s even worse.
This team needs a serious infusion of talent via free agency and the draft. They have money and they have draft picks. They better make both count especially the draft where they need to end the streak of three years of first round pick busts!
Besides the need for a QB they need IMO at least two DL I’m talking impact not depth potential, they need at least one athletic bigger LB, another secondary guy as well as two WRs & two OL. I think they can get by with the TEs if they can find two solid WRs.
Oh and they need a kicker.
and skrine
He can go and so can Sheard.
according to PFF, it is more than most teams.
and I disagree. the Browns at their best this year were right with Indy, Pitt, Balt, and Cinci who all made the playoffs. we gave the Ravens a run in a game they desperately needed and we were starting a bunch of roster flotsam.
the woe-is-me, I am Browns fan routine is played out. yes, it’s going to be tough to find the QB and w/o the QB things will be difficult. but, we have legit talent (for once).
Uh okay if you say so.
https://38.media.tumblr.com/b04651773e6a31ba2b04fd04fc9bc2b1/tumblr_mzvo9gG8OX1torq82o1_500.gif
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/nswgo.gif
I would take Locker, Clausen, or the San-chise before Hoyer.
we can draft Mallet this year, right?
Marcus Mallet is not really draftable, but we did once spend a 2nd round pick on Veikune, so anything is possible.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/whid.gif