Merry Christmas from WFNY
December 25, 2015
Kevin Love stars in State Farm’s “The Hoopers” (Videos)
December 25, 2015It’s never easy when you miss a talent like Joe Haden for the majority of a season. There’s no way for the Cleveland Browns to replace Joe Haden with available options on the roster. Still, coping takes on a variety of different looks and feels. Largely, the Cleveland Browns have opted for career special teamer Johnson Bademosi. None of this is to trash Johnson Bademosi, but in his fourth season in the NFL everyone pretty much knows that he’s not a starting caliber cover corner. That makes it all the more frustrating when Jim O’Neil and Mike Pettine run their gameday roster decisions on a weekly “tryout” where they wipe the slate clean before figuring out who is going to play. However that process works during the week, it’s problematic when the result is watching Antonio Brown or Doug Baldwin torch the Browns’ secondary featuring a guy like Bademosi who is a proven commodity. It makes sense that the media asks Jim O’Neil about this decision-making process, but he just continues to double down on delusion.
On goals for DBs Pierre Desir and Charles Gaines:
“Just continue to grow, continue to develop and continue to execute the techniques that we want on the field and make plays. That’s why we drafted them.”On deciding to play Desir, Gaines or DB Johnson Bademosi:
“We are a little limited at corner, obviously, with all the injuries, but each week, we kind of wipe the slate clean opposite of (DB) Tramon (Williams) and then when (DB) K’Waun (Williams) is healthy at nickel, we are going to roll with those two guys every week. We let those guys compete. At the end of the week, we talk about it as a staff on who we feel most comfortable with and we make a decision. Last week, it was Bade. They have all had their chances, every one of them. They have all had their chance to establish their position. None of them have been able to do that so each week, it’s who is going to earn it, who is going to practice better. That is who we roll with. If we come out the first couple series and they are not playing well, we go with the next guy. That’s kind of the mode we’ve been in for the past 15 weeks or whatever it has been.”
The results of the past 15 weeks are an issue. The Browns have given up the 11th most passing yards and the fifth most passing touchdowns this season. They also have only eight interceptions as a team this season and three of those were by Karlos Dansby who leads the team. None of this is to pile everything on Johnson Bademosi, but it is to point out how bad a season the Browns defense is having under Jim O’Neil. It also shows the stubborn consistency with which he and Mike Pettine appear to be operating as they continually waste reps that could be better used by a player that might have a future as a starting caliber cover corner like Pierre Desir or even Justin Gilbert. You have to balance between making guys earn their spots and placing the ceiling on your defense unbearably low.
Chances are this ceiling is the exact thing that will see Jim O’Neil looking for another job this off-season. Regardless of Mike Pettine’s future it would appear Jim O’Neil’s seat is scorching hot.
6 Comments
“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?”
“I
wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by
link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my
own free will I wore it.”
“No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused”
“It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there
is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so
irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”
Jim O’Neill, LOL.
Merry Xmas.
I see nothing wrong with the way O’neil & staff are trying to get a db to step up. It boils down execution & if you can’t execute you don’t deserve to start. Changing coaches is not going to make Haden healthy, Gipson healthy, Whitner healthy, Kwaun healthy. Speaking of interceptions, Gipson made the pro bowl in this scheme with 6 interceptions & Jim Leonard added another 4 when Gipson went down last yr. It’s player execution & what we are seeing is an injury ravaged secondary that hasn’t been able to play together the whole yr. A change in coaching & scheme wouldn’t matter one bit, the injuries would still happen & a rookie is still a rookie in any scheme. Now you can whine & cry & complain about O’neil, but you are showing just how damn dumb you are! Blow it up, fire them is all that Cleveland beat writers know. To stupid to realize that has never worked in the past & won’t work again. Gilbert won’t grow up because of a different coach, but he’ll grow up as time goes on. Selling print has sold out the Browns through the years & is still selling us fans out as well. I wish the sick media that wants change every 2 yrs would take a flying leap, you are destroying the Browns & it’s sickening to watch, to listen to & to read. My prayer to Santa is that Jimmy & Dee Haslam know better & stick with the ones they put their trust in. My guess is they already know it & will have the gonads to finally say no, that’s not what we learned in Pittsburgh & it’s not what the Bungals & Ratbirds do as well.
I’ll give you the argument on the secondary. Did you listen to O’Neil during training camp on Cleveland Browns Daily? He was ADAMANT that the defense would stop the rush. He pounded his fist on the table during the broadcast and said “We will stop the run”, emphasizing each word with a strike on the table. He also said defense would earn the right to rush the passer by stopping the run. None of this has happened. The defense did better last year when Pettine kept an eye on it. The run stopping was no better but the passing D was fabulous.
I like Pettine and I say keep him around. But I say O’Neil has to go. He’s in over his head
Good grammar makes a better point than anything else you can say. Without it, nobody wants to read what you’ve chicken-scratched in the box.
I agree with CBD….the system is not working anymore. But guys who made their careers off this system are not about to cast it aside. It would mean undermining their career’s work.
My favorite Christmas tale. Timeless and brilliant.