May 18, 2013

Expectations remain the same as Browns changes continue

February 11, 2013 by 18 Comments

Banner and HaslamI’m feeling surprisingly good about the Cleveland Browns right now. I know that sounds funny to say at this point in the year. I’ve been kind of down on them with all the unknown variables hanging in the air, but a week out of the loop 1 gave me a bit of perspective on the team and just what they’ve done so far this off-season. Let’s just say the word “rebuild” hasn’t come up much in my mind.

The Chip Kelly thing did a lot to skew perception of the Browns pretty negatively over the last few months. Because the Browns shot for the hot candidate and ended up losing out on him in the end, it distracted a lot of us (myself included) from the fact that the Cleveland Browns just upgraded their coaching staff pretty massively.

Rob Chudzinski is an unknown, but he’s already gone out and done what I begged the Browns to do with Pat Shurmur. He’s hired experienced coordinators, and wouldn’t you know it, he’s even decided to let Norv Turner call the plays. Imagine that? No, I don’t know much about Ray Horton, but I don’t know anyone who thinks he’s unqualified as a candidate. So, on paper at least, the Browns have upgraded the operation. [Read more...]

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  1. I was on vacation last week and only wrote one post in case you hadn’t noticed. [back]

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NFL News: Cleveland Browns release DE Frostee Rucker

February 5, 2013 by 36 Comments

The Cleveland Browns have released veteran defensive end Frostee Rucker.

The Browns signed Rucker, 29, to a 5-year, $20 million deal before the 2012 season. On that contract, $8 million was guaranteed and he had already been paid $5.5 million between his signing bonus and first-year salary. Rucker was due $2 million in a roster bonus had he not been released by Wednesday, February 6. The last three years – covering rougly $12 million — were not guaranteed.

Rucker — once mistaken for a NASCAR driver —  was a 4-3 end with the Cincinnati Bengals before being signed by the Browns; the team’s impending switch to a 3-4 defense coupled with the lack of guaranteed money owed made this move relatively unsurprising.

Rucker, 6-3, 285, was a third round pick out of Southern Cal in 2006. In 2011, he started the final 11 games for the Bengals, making 44 tackles and four sacks. Rucker started all 16 games for the Browns in 2012. He amassed 48 tackles, four sacks and a forced fumble.

[Related: Cleveland primer for new athletes in town]

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Browns Veterans Return, Continue to Praise the Kids

August 20, 2012 by 6 Comments

Greg Little is laying in the end zone. The second-year wide receiver, face up with his legs and arms spread, looks as if he is attempting to make a snow angel on a day when the weather is approximately 80 degrees and sunny. Seconds earlier, he would juke teammate Buster Skrine out of his taped-up cleats with an absolutely disgusting double move, leaving the lightning quick defensive back in his wake for what would be a sure-fire touchdown delievered beautifully from rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden. At least until the ball ricocheted off of Little’s hands, falling to the earth amid a flurry of audible sighs from the crowd in Berea.

Roughly eighty yards west from a sprawled out Little, rookie defensive linemen Billy Winn, John Hughes and Ronnie Cameron are driving the sled before releasing with swim moves and encountering teammates with a half-speed blow. In between the two parties, rookie linebackers James-Michael Johnson and LJ Fort join first-year linebacker Craig Robertson were running drills focusing on lateral quickness.

[Read more...]

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NFL Free Agency News: Browns release DE Jayme Mitchell

March 16, 2012 by 16 Comments

In the least surprising news of this off-season so far, the Browns finished off a maneuver they telegraphed blatantly over the last few days. Jayme Mitchell, who Will Burge first reported was looking to get out of Cleveland, has been granted his release by the Browns.

If my math is correct the Browns will save $2.4 million in cap dollars by cutting Mitchell loose.

In case you are wondering what “telegraphed” this action, you need look no further than Frostee Rucker and Juqua Parker who signed with the Browns over the last day or so. It is widely believed that this duo can play in tandem with Rucker playing earlier downs to stop the run and Parker subbing in on passing downs.

In all, the duo will cost the Browns roughly $5 million against the cap in 2012.

[Related: Guessing what the Browns' moves mean so far]

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NFL Free Agency: Breaking down Frostee Rucker’s deal and cap costs

March 16, 2012 by 7 Comments

Frostee Rucker signed a five-year deal for $20.5 million! That means the Browns are paying Frostee Rucker $4.1 million per year!

Now that we have that out of the way, I thought it might be interesting to look inside the deal and how the Browns protected themselves, yet gave Frostee Rucker a good amount of money at the same time.

According to the updated information on Rotoworld, Frostee Rucker’s deal breaks down like this.

From a cash flow perspective, the Browns gave Frostee $5 million for a signing bonus. Frostee is all but guaranteed to make his first year salary of $1 million. 2012 will be a great year for Frostee Rucker as he’ll make $6 million of Randy Lerner’s money. But, from a cap perspective it works out differently for the Browns in case Frostee Rucker can’t be a beneficial contributor to the team.

The $5 million signing bonus can be spread out over the life of the deal, or five years. So, if Frostee Rucker plays out his entire deal, it will look something like this.

  Salary Signing Bonus Cap #
2012 $1.0 $1.0 $2.0
2013 $2.5 $1.0 $3.5
2014 $3.7 $1.0 $4.7
2015 $3.5 $1.0 $4.5
2016 $4.1 $1.0 $5.1

The numbers only add up to $19.8 instead of $21.5 million so I figure they’re missing a small roster or workout bonus in there somewhere. Close enough for rock ‘n roll, though. The really important number is what it would cost the Browns to cut Frostee Rucker early.

That is whatever amount of signing bonus is left over, so it is $5 million in 2012 and declining $1 million every year thereafter. So if the Browns cut Rucker before the 2013 season, they’d take a cap hit of $4 million, but it would only cost them $3.5 million if he remained on the roster to play as you can see above.

This sets up a decision point for the team before 2014. That’s when the lines cross because the Browns either pay Rucker $4.7 million to play, or they can cut him and the cap hit will only be $3 million. That’s a hefty cap hit, but depending on what kind of situation they’re in it could be important money to save.

Is it a good deal for the Browns? Initially, yes. The Browns obviously need Rucker to play well for it to be a good deal. In the meantime from a salary cap standpoint, the Browns retain maximum flexibility in 2012 by only using up about $2 million for Rucker’s services.

Ideally for the Browns, Frostee Rucker will be a valuable member of the team for at least three seasons. It doesn’t seem that many five-year deals are finished and that’s why the last year is such a high number. That’s the number – no matter how frequently it turns out to be meaningless – that allows an agent to crow about the “MORE THAN $21 MILLION” he just got for his player.

It is a cheap pop, when all he really did was get Frostee Rucker $6 million in cash today. Shouldn’t that be noteworthy enough?

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Update: NFL Free Agency: Bengals DE Frostee Rucker to the Browns

March 14, 2012 by 47 Comments

Update: According to Adam Schefter the Browns have signed Frostee Rucker to a 5-year $21 million deal with about $8 million guaranteed. I predicted on Twitter that Rucker wouldn’t get much more than $2 million per year. We won’t know what the breakdown will look like for a while, but it seems like I might have been a bit low. Still, it sounds like there will be a lot of incentives and bonus types of provisions in his deal with a gap of $13 million between stated value and guaranteed dollars.

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Original report:

O.K. we finally have enough info to report something about Frostee Rucker. It might have been accurate in hindsight, but all I had was a Twitter rumor from a guy who allegedly knows Frostee Rucker’s girlfriend’s best friend. No. I am not kidding. Welcome to the modern age of social media.

Anyway, Joe Reedy of The Enquirer is finally reporting that Frostee Rucker and the Browns could be wrapped up by the end of the day. He is, in fact, meeting with the team.

Frostee Rucker appears to be a decent upgrade for Jayme Mitchell to play opposite Jabaal Sheard. It also sounds like the kind of guy who will come at a real value. Rucker had a decent season with four sacks. He is in his sixth season out of USC and he is 6’3″ 280 pounds and 28 years old.

[Related: Where's all the Browns' Money?]

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