Browns Should Say Goodbye to Jamal Lewis
Written By: Craig | Category: Cleveland Browns | Comments: 31
The Browns have seven games left this season. Starting this Sunday against the Detroit Lions, the Browns should move on without Jamal Lewis. I say this without any malice or anger. I don’t care that Lewis spouted off in the locker room last week. This season Jamal Lewis has topped 100 yards once. That was the game against Buffalo where he needed 36 attempts to get his 117 yards. At this point in the Browns’ “progression” and at this point in Lewis’ career, there is no point in giving Jamal a single additional carry as a member of the Browns. He has officially achieved Willie McGinest and Ted Washington status for the Cleveland Browns.
So, who would get the carries? Obviously the first two people I look to are Chris Jennings and Jerome Harrison. I know Jennings didn’t blow us away with his running against Baltimore this week, but honestly, neither did Jamal Lewis. I know that Harrison missed blocking Ray Lewis toward the end of the game, but that was four quarters into a game where Baltimore defenders were already mostly running unabated to the quarterback after the snap anyway. This is the point in the season when it would have been nice to work in a trio of James Davis, Jerome Harrison, and Chris Jennings. It is kind of ironic that Davis won’t get an “opportunity” due to his participation in “opportunity drills.”
Also, have you noticed that they never ever hand the ball to Lawrence Vickers? Not even once, right? I looked. On the season Vickers has carried the ball zero times. Maybe it is a bad idea to hand the ball to Vickers. Nobody has ever really handed the ball to him much, so maybe this is a waste of breath to even discuss. Just for comparison’s sake, Baltimore occasionally works Le’Ron McClain into the running game. Not a ridiculous amount with 23 carries in their first 9 games. But still, a little bit.
The point is that the Browns are a decidedly bad team right now. They should probably give as many carries as possible to the young guys just to give them reps. It probably can’t be any worse than it is now. If the Browns don’t have enough players on the roster to run the ball, they should raid a practice squad somewhere. It is too bad that Josh Cribbs got his bell rung this week, because I would also point to him. I thought at some point the Browns would actually line him up behind the QB so he could take real handoffs. I guess not, though.
Regardless, there is literally no point to handing the ball to Jamal Lewis another time in a Cleveland Browns uniform. Again this is without anger. I also don’t blame Jamal Lewis for putting the Browns in this spot. He tries hard every game. It certainly isn’t his fault. But the team goal has definitely moved on to developing / evaluating the players that will be here after this season.
Author: CraigLyndall
Craig Lyndall has been writing about all the Cleveland sports teams at WaitingForNextYear since September 2008. When he isn't, you can find him selling insurance or playing music. Follow WFNYCraig on Twitter.Craig Lyndall has written 338 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
by Griffin, do you mean Jennings?
And I also think Vickers should get more touches. He’s proven he can get some tough yards and can run over some people when he has some space
Isn’t it Chris Jennings?
totally agree. the season is a total waste and there’s no reason to keep grinding down j’lew’s pre-retirement carcass. this season and this team should be in 100% rebuild, evaluation mode. forget the depth chart. get everybody their plays, at every position. see what we got in terms of talent and get that team of scouts working overtime. it’s draft time! i love the new 11 game preseason we have for 2010.
Lewis should not be cut because bad behavior should not be rewarded. Put him on the kick coverage teams.
isnt chris griffin from The Family Guy? you mean chris jennings?
Well for one, Chris Griffin only resides on the show Family Guy. Chris Jennings on the other hand is a RB for the Cleveland Browns.
Now, I agree with you. We could bring in a guy like Tatum Bell or some rookie who went undrafted and had a decent college career. Also, Vickers was a RB at Colorado before we drafted him. Obviously he’s gotten bigger since then, but he can still tote the rock and produce (or lack there of) as much as Jamal.
When Jamal says he needs 20 carries to get going it makes me laugh because guys like MoJo, Chris Johnson, LT, AP, hell even Fred Taylor can still have GREAT days only carrying 20 times for the entire game. BYE BYE J-Lew
Sorry about that… fixed. I decided to get up early and write at 7:00 AM… that’s what I get.
Really now? After it was bloody obvious BEFORE the season that this guy had nothing left and was injury prone, you NOW come to this conclusion? Every reference to Beanie Wells, LaSean McCoy, et al was bashed……and NOW the call for Jamal Lewis to be cut? Here’s hoping next time you OBSERVE so that you can profer things that move this organization in the right direction instead of reacting after the game is over.
Just because Jamal needs to go does not mean the Browns needed to use the #5 pick on a RB. Those two outcomes aren’t mutually exclusive.
OBSERVE irrationality
It is 11:21 am. It is almost lunch time. It is almost the the halfway point in my workday. It is in fact still way too early to read Isis.
There absolutely was a chris griffin that played special teams on the Browns as recently as last year I believe. Might have spelled it Kris, though. Too lazy to look it up right now.
I dont think Jamal should be cut. I also (even looking back) wouldnt draft Wells or McCoy. McCoy hasnt really done much since Westbrook has been hurt (believe, I have him sucking it up on my fantasy team) and Wells is just as if not more injury prone the Jamal. I would take out these opportunity drills so perhaps our rookie we did draft could be out there. But back to the article, I was ready to say lets stop running Lewis starting last game. That would have taught him to not take things public and talk in house first. I am angry at him too. Not about the comments about practice, though they seems like he’s just crying, but that he says he will consider himself only as a Raven upon retirement. If that isnt a huge middle finger to Cleveland I dont know what is. I think he should be deactivated for the rest of the season, but keep him so he cant hop on a playoff team.
as for the RB status of the browns, I would like to go through next year w/ James Davis and some other player (be it Jennings or Harrison or another vet) and if that doesn’t work draft Ingram from Alabama in 2 years. He seems to have the AD like gift of finding the endzone and break huge runs with a less then stellar QB.
Isis why do you write stuff on here that makes it seem like we make the decisions around here? You are a freakin idiot. WE DON”T MAKE THE DECISIONS!! We just have our opinions on them, and I know this may come as a shock to you, but NOT EVERYONE AGREES ON OPINIONS!!! WHere do you lose the concepts of this? Sorry just had to add that in.
#8…”Here’s hoping next time you OBSERVE so that you can profer things that move this organization in the right direction instead of reacting after the game is over.”
How is a post on a blog going to “move this organization in the right direction?” Isnt the job of a sportsblog to OBSERVE and react to the goings on of the organization it covers? As difficult as this may be for you to comprehend… NOTHING said by you, or I, or any of the fine writers on this website has any impact on the organization, whatsoever.
Swig you look so GD beautiful today.
I agree, sometimes it’s tough being me
@Isis: Name me ANYONE on this site that ever said Lewis was the answer at RB, or that he was even in the top 20 RB’s in the league during camp. I will BOOK IT that not one person who is on this site regularly even insinuated that. If there were a list of top 20 RB’s, Lewis would be like #27 at best. Everyone knows that. So how about you don’t try and cast people off as some big Jamal Lewis supporters and tell them they don’t know anything about football.
I don’t think Beanie or McCoy would’ve been good on this team since the line can’t block a soul. It wasn’t a very good class for RB’s anyway. Knowshon(?) hasn’t been great and has shared time with Correll Buckhalter. I’m glad they didn’t draft a back and give him big money when this years class is supposed to be better.
I’m going to pull an anti-Isis and actually use facts.
Everyone knew the team would be bad and the offense wouldn’t be good. If they keep this pace, though, the 2009 Browns will be officially the worst offensive team since the season went to 16 games and, I have a strong suspicion but haven’t looked it up, one of the worst 2 or 3 in the modern era. The 1991 Colts set the 16-game records for fewest points and fewest TDs in a season, at 143 and 14. The 2009 Browns are on pace for 138 points and 10 TDs (total). At least this season isn’t the worst overall, since the Browns do have a defense and a win. I guess.
Please, please, please everyone stop responding to him. It ruins every single post he comments in when the next 10 comments are about his post and not about the well written and thought provoking article.
I stop reading his posts weeks ago and my life is better for it.
Plus, he never actually returns and responds to everyone calling him out on his BS.
Good OBSERVation kevin, Isis never actually responds to anything, so calling out his stupidity is pointless. Everyone can we please just ignore Isis? I find this site much more enjoyable when I just skip right past his comments and everyone else does the same.
“Terry Kirby, Terry Kirby, call for you on line 2.”
It’s just pathetic. A fundamental rule of coaching any sport or even playing any sport is that when you are losing doing things the same way over and over, you try something new.
But nope, we do the same old crap. Handoff to tip-toe dance moves Jamal up the middle, crappy screen play to someone who can’t hold onto the ball, etc etc.
Horrendous. Fire and cut them all.
My problem with the team is the lack of an entire offensive scheme. When we see Jamal run, he runs pretty hard, then 3rd and 4 is wasted on errant passes and awful looking reverses.
What I’ve been calling for is to see some Josh Cribbs between the tackles in the Wildcat (another reason the concussion hurts and Mangini has to go – defenses have even less to prepare for against our awful offense). He could have can handed it off to Jamal for some misdirection and some bruising, which looked great Monday night.
Really though, I think Jamal’s place on this team from the beginning of the year was to be a leader to the younger RBs, which unfortunately, he had to do this year by calling out the coach.
I thought J-Lew should have been gone long ago because of his stutter-stepping into gaps and just falling forward, but I have actually been impressed with his angry running and leadership this year.
And how classless a move would it be to get rid of a guy who has worked hard for this team, with no results, but still getting Hall of Fame discussion two weeks after he says he is going to retire?
Fire Daboll, not J-Lew.
When Jamal renounced the Browns at the beginning of the bye week, he should have been placed on the “Inactive” list and forced to watch the rest of the season from the sidelines or cover kicks. Better yet, if he really wants into the game, he can bring water bottles out to the players during breaks that really want to play for this team.
When a captain renounces his team, he is no longer a leader of said team. Strip him of the ‘C’ and give it to someone that deserves the respect and responsibility that goes with wearing it. Lewis deserves neither.
I’ve been pushing to have Cribbs lined up behind the QB and Vickers all season. He’s a hard runner and, with no passing game to speak of, why would you put your best player at receiver? Just hand the thing off to him and watch him go. Mix in some runs by Vickers and give Jennings some reps as well.
Lewis is not a team player. He has been carping and blaming everyone else for two years now. He is also not a very stellar citizen. (convicted felon)
How the myth came about that he is a role model for the young backs is beyond me.
His stutter step should have been out of here last year….garbage
Lewis has driven me crazy for years, I have always thought he was just a punk. So seeing his demise is sort of bittersweet since it comes at the expense of our Browns. I have been reading this site for a year, and I don’t remember one person saying J Lew was the answer. We just didn’t think Beanie Wells was a good pick at #5. He had a good week this week, but that was the first one. Why pick a RB that high anymore? That is what I have OBSERVEd.
We would still be staring at a 1-15 with McCoy or Wells either way…BOOK IT! I think James Davis will actually be pretty good next year, providing we upgrade around that spot.
And this has nothing to do with anything, but it does make me fell better: I started a Madden Franchise this season where I didn’t do anything to the roster than as it currently sits right now for the first season. We went 1-15 when I simmed the season. Then I got rid of both DA and Quinn, got Kevin Kolb, drafted a good D-Lineman, fired Mangini, made a few minor changes, and I am sitting at 5-0 for next season with about 16 TD passes by Kolb so far.
Again, that has nothing to do with anything, but it makes me feel like there could be some sliver of hope.
[...] trouble. Well, apparently he got into trouble anyway as he was inactive against the Lions. I wrote last week that the Browns should never give another carry to Jamal Lewis because it was pointless and proved nothing. I knew that it would never happen, but the Browns [...]
[...] confines of Berea. A few day’s following the chants, Craig penned that the Browns would be wise to move on without Lewis – and it appears that they will now be forced to do [...]