...a tradition of hope, passion, and misery
Inside linebacker hasn’t been a position of strength overall for the Browns since 1999. They’ve had some solid players and some very good players, but they’ve lacked a superstar. Still, in Browns fans minds the choices were pretty clear. D’Qwell Jackson scored over 2700 first place votes while Andra Davis came in a distant second with 661. Davis crushed the competition with 1568 second place votes with Jackson taking 720 and Chris Gocong scoring 485 votes. [Read more...]
Today, Robert Griffin III talked to Dan Patrick. With the amount of rumor and speculation regarding the Browns and Griffin, I decided to check it out. Dan Patrick ended the interview by saying that he thinks Cleveland is most likely going to “go get” Griffin in the draft, but wisely Griffin stayed silent as Patrick only really feigned giving him a chance to respond to the statement. Mostly I thought Griffin came off very well in the interview. He shows a respectful confidence mostly. You get the sense that even though he won the Heisman, he still has a bit of a chip on his shoulder about playing second fiddle to Andrew Luck in all the draft talk. [Read more...]
The Browns have struggled mostly to find top of the line starters at the cornerback position. There’s a reason that Tom Heckert drafted Joe Haden and traded for Sheldon Brown when he arrived in Cleveland. And for as much complaining as some fans do about Sheldon Brown, he has brought a lot to the table for the Browns in coverage. It seems that sometimes corners do get beaten, but that just isn’t acceptable for the guy who gets thrown at opposite Joe Haden, I guess. Anyway, on with the list. [Read more...]
Brodney Pool didn’t have an easy time beating out Brian Russell in this voting. Russell actually beat Pool in first place votes 1168 to 1064. Pool picked it up thanks to a huge margin in second place votes with 926 to Russell’s 524. In fact, despite Russell getting so many first place votes, he was beat in the second place voting by Pool, Earl Little, Abram Elam and Chris Crocker. Very strange results indeed.
Not so close on the strong safety side of things. T.J. Ward dominated Sean Jones. Ward scored almost 1900 first place votes to Sean Jones’ 885 and Robert Griffith’s 676. It pays to be popular and current, I guess. T.J. Ward is a good player and the Brown missed him desperately when he was out hurt this season. The Browns let Jones walk and he signed a 1-year $3 million deal with the Eagles in 2009 to replace Brian Dawkins in their secondary.
Offensive Line - Left Tackle | Left Guard | Center | Right Guard | Right Tackle
Pass Catchers - Wide Receivers | Tight Ends
Runners - Running Backs | Fullbacks
Defensive Line - Defensive Ends | Defensive Tackles
Secondary - Cornerbacks | Safeties
For anyone who was hoping to follow up Jim Thome’s swan song in Cleveland with one for Manny Ramirez, you can keep dreaming. ESPN is reporting that Manny has agreed to a small deal with the Athletics that includes a spring training invitation.
Sources tell (Pedro) Gomez the deal is worth about $500,000. Ramirez is obligated to serve a 50-game suspension without pay before beginning play for the A’s due to violating baseball’s drug policy for the second time. With no rainouts, the first game Ramirez would be eligible to play is June 2 at Kansas City.
I was a proponent of bringing Manny back to Cleveland one more time because I figured it was a cheap way to take a flyer on a right-handed bat. With the timing of the suspension it would give the Indians a chance to see what they have and see if they needed to play the Manny lottery fifty games into the season.
Make no mistake. It is the lottery at this point. Manny Ramirez hasn’t hit in a while and most seem to think he is completely finished as a hitter as he quickly approaches 40 years of age. Still, $500,000 seemed like a pretty cheap lottery ticket by MLB standards.
Billy Beane and the Athletics are on-board and we’ll see who is right about Manny and his aging process sometime this season.
[Related: MLB News: Cespedes reportedly signs with Oakland A’s]
Last year, the Browns tagged kicker Phil Dawson a year ago with their franchise tag and paid the veteran kicker $3.25 million. While Dawson may have wanted a longer term deal from the team, a 36-year-old kicker can’t really ask for much better time to be tagged and guaranteed a bigger lump sum, albeit for a single year.
This year, it will be interesting to see if the Browns choose to use the tag and if so, on whom.
The period for franchising players starts today and runs through March 5th. This is the first year that the new rules from the latest collective bargaining agreement are in place as well.
They are the product of a very complicated formula, but ultimately it reduces the cost somewhat. [Read more...]
Defensive tackles haven’t been a source of pride in Cleveland, but the Browns have still had some decent players at the spot. The list is top heavy, it seems in that respect. [Read more...]
It says an awful lot about the season that Jabaal Sheard had as a rookie that he dominated the competition here. Granted the competition was a bit skewed because the Browns played 3-4 so long and especially during Kamerion Wimbley’s time in Cleveland. Still, there are a lot of years of defensive ends that Sheard had to compete against for the honor of being number one in Browns fans’ minds. [Read more...]
I’ve always been in favor of trading down in the NFL draft. It speaks to how many pieces the Browns have needed since being back in 1999. It speaks to my value proposition consciousness in a league with a hard salary cap. Now, it might be somewhat outdated.
I will forever thank Eric Mangini for trading out of the Mark Sanchez pick. I’ve written about it here on WFNY too many times already, so I’ll be brief in mentioning it this time around. Regardless of on-field production, Mark Sanchez was always going to be a very risky proposition. His contract was $60 million for five years with $28 million fully guaranteed. In 2012 Sanchez is scheduled to make $8.5 million and is also due a $2.75 million roster bonus on 3/28. Alex Mack signed a 5-year $12.2 million deal with $8.3 million in guarantees. The tough-as-nails center is due $1.303 million in 2012 and almost $2 million in 2013 before becoming a free agent.***
But the world of drafting changed dramatically with the labor strife of a year ago. The rookies are now capped and with that, the dynamics of value in the first round have changed dramatically. This is especially important with the Browns’ need for a QB and all the touted experts claiming that the Browns could and should trade up in order to get St. Louis’ second pick to get Robert Griffin III. [Read more...]
I figured I’d end the week on a happier note than some of the other categories. No better way to do that than with some love for Phil Dawson. [Read more...]
WFNY’s own Scott was on hand as LeBron James talked to the media following practice. Of course his old team was a large part of the discussion.
From Scott’s twitter feed…
LeBron: “Im happy where I am now [...] If I decide to come back (to Cleveland) hopefully the fans accept me.”
LBJ says he believes there’s a day where he & Dan Gilbert can get along again. “He said what he said out of anger. I’ve made mistakes too.”
Finally on the Cavs and Kyrie Irving…
James says the Cavs landing Kyrie was huge. “It’s a point guard league.”
Not too much there, but it was certainly a mature and healthy response to the past with Dan Gilbert and his reactionary letter to “The Decision.” Maybe that means that all those fears about no free agents ever being willing to play for Dan Gilbert (and cash his checks) were overstated.
Also read from the last time the Cavs played the Heat, Windhorst: Before it’s All Over, LeBron Will Play for Cleveland
The top three backs for Browns fans were all free agents or trades. The Browns have done the near impossible across multiple front offices and coaching staffs. They have managed to not hit on a running back out of nowhere from later in the draft or off the street as an undrafted free agent. I don’t know the stats from around the league, but it seems inconceivable that there isn’t a name on this list that put more than two good years together running the ball for the Browns. Wouldn’t you have to say Jamal Lewis had the most productive overall career for the Browns? Scary. [Read more...]
During a teleconference yesterday with the media, NFL Network’s Mike Mayock weighed in on the Browns’ draft and the quarterback position.
“As much as I like Colt McCoy, I still think they have to look to upgrade that position and I think they have to do whatever it takes to get there,” said Mayock of grabbing Griffin. “If it’s me, yeah, I’m looking at that real hard. I want to go get RG3.”
The Browns, specifically Randy Lerner, have spent a lot of time talking about the importance of the quarterback position since the final whistle sounded on this past season. It would seem likely that the Browns would go to extra lengths to find their quarterback considering all that noise.
What remains to be seen is whether the Browns will trade up in the draft or pony up in free agency on someone like Matt Flynn. Obviously if it is up to Mayock the Browns will do whatever it takes on draft day including paying the high price of packaging both picks together.
It seems easy for draft experts to say that the Browns should just package their two picks, but Browns fans know the price. Browns fans spent the entire year dreaming of having two picks after mortgaging a year trading down with Atlanta for the right.
All these factors just add to the pressure of a typical NFL off-season.
[Related: Quotes Randy Lerner on WTAM with Mike Trivisonno]
I’ve been accused of being a bit too dismissive with the Lawrence Vickers fans in the past. I just felt at some point the Vickers talk became a rallying cry for those who just wanted yet another thing to pile on the Browns because they weren’t winning games. Maybe that isn’t fair to do with such a blanket statement. [Read more...]
In Cleveland it has been a source of pride for many that no matter how bad the Browns have stunk that no games have been blacked out on local TV. Some of you Clevelanders may not know this, but if you can’t muster up enough fans to go to a home game and make it a sellout, then the local TV broadcast is blacked out and you can’t watch it. From the letter.
There were 16 blackouts in the 2011 NFL season. There were 23 in 2010, and 22 the year before. These blackouts are ruining the experience of rooting for the home team and are unjustly hurting fans. That many of these stadiums were constructed or remodeled using taxpayer dollars underscores the disservice done to fans by blackouts. [Read more...]
