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17 Apr 2012

Quick thoughts on 2012 Browns schedule

The NFL released the 2012 schedule on Tuesday (in case you hadn’t heard) and, as always, the Browns have some interesting match-ups ahead of them this fall.

  • The team opens at home, naturally, against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sept. 9.
  • Their lone scheduled primetime game comes in Week 4 when they travel to Baltimore for a Thursday night NFL Network appearance.
  • They face the Colts and (presumably) Andrew Luck in Week 7
  • They travel to Dallas in Week 11 – probably the sole appearance of the brown jerseys this season.
  • The bye comes in Week 10
  • Week 14 brings Kansas City to town with old friends Romeo Crennel, Brian Daboll and Peyton Hillis.
  • The Browns host the Redskins and (presumably) Robert Griffin III in Week 15.
  • They travel to Denver in Week 16 to take on Peyton Manning and the Broncos.
  • For the third season in a row, the Browns close the season with Pittsburgh.

Oddly enough, after making a big deal last year about back loading the schedule with division games, the Browns only have two division contests after the bye week – both against the Steelers.

The Browns will face teams that had a combined 135-121 record (.527) last season, giving them the third-toughest schedule in the league and the hardest for a non-playoff team.

Cleveland will face just four teams who had losing records last season – Kansas City, Buffalo, Washington and Indianapolis.

“Although we have known our opponents and where we are going to play since the end of last season, there is always a certain amount of anticipation as to how everything will fall into place,” Browns coach Pat Shurmur said in a release. “I think that opening the year at home against the Eagles will be great for our players and our fans. It will be exciting to play a team, an organization and a coach for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect. It will be a good test for our team. Ending the year in two of the tougher venues in the NFL also will present a challenge. I am looking forward to kicking off the 2012 season.”

Which just makes next week’s NFL Draft that much more important.

(Photo by Cleveland Browns.com)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, NFL schedule | Leave a comment
15 Apr 2012

The Browns & draft day deals

We are now less than two weeks until the start of the NFL Draft and the rumors, speculation and misdirection are flying hot and heavy.

The thought of making a trade on draft day to pick up extra picks certainly has to be attractive to general manager Tom Heckert as the Browns, coming off a 4-12 season that was preceded by consecutive 5-11 seasons, have more than their share of holes to fill on the roster.

Having said that, we can’t help but shake the feeling that this year’s draft is the time to get a potentially elite player to help the Browns get this mess turned around a little bit quicker rather than worrying about stockpiling picks to draft a bunch or really good players.

For the rest of the story, head over to The Cleveland Fan.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, NFL draft | Leave a comment
12 Apr 2012
1 Comment

A Case for Morris Claiborne

Forget Trent Richardson, Justin Blackmon, Ryan Tannehill or Brandon Weeden.

If the Cleveland Browns want to win, they need to draft LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne.

How do we know this? Because while big-time offenses may sell tickets, they don’t win championships.

Cold Hard Football Facts found that 53 teams in pro football history scored more than 30 points a game in a single season (46 from the NFL, three from the AAFC and four from the AFL). Of those 53 teams, 39 did not win a championship.

Of those 53 teams, 31 of them have played in the past 50 years and only five won championships – the 1991 Redskins; 1994 49ers; 1998 Broncos; 1999 Rams and 2009 Saints.

So while the Browns definitely need to do something to help the offense, they don’t need to do it with the fourth pick in the draft – the offense can wait its turn.

Read more…

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Morris Claiborne, NFL draft, Ryan Tannehill
09 Apr 2012

It’s your turn now, Josh

Josh Tomlin takes the mound for the Indians tonight against Chicago looking to follow the lead of his fellow starting pitchers.

Despite losing two-of-three to Toronto over the weekend, Tribe starters Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez and Derek Lowe combined to give up just three earned runs in 22 innings of work (a tidy 1.23 ERA).

All three starters have gone at least seven innings, with Lowe hitting that mark Sunday on the way to giving up five hits and zero earned runs.

“When Lowe is on, it’s pretty hard for guys to lift the ball,” manager Manny Acta said in published reports. “And he did a fantastic job of getting ahead of hitters.”

Now it’s Tomlin’s turn to play “anything you can do I can do better.” The pitchers’ performance during the opening weekend is reminiscent of last year as the Indians rode solid starting pitching in building an early division lead.

After a rough opener last season, the Indians went 12-2 including an 11-game stretch where the starters threw 74 innings and gave up just 15 earned runs – a 1.82 ERA. They’ve also went an average of 6.2 innings in their starts.

If they can repeat that over the next couple of weeks it will help the team buy time until the offense (hopefully) decides to join the rest of the team in the regular season.

Read more…

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Fulham | Leave a comment
04 Apr 2012

Could be better, could be worse

The NFL and Nike unveiled the new uniforms for the 32 teams on Tuesday and the Browns uniforms are essentially unchanged.

It shouldn’t really come as any surprise as the Browns have one of the iconic uniforms in the league. Plus, as Paul Lukas points out at ESPN.com, the league isn’t going to just let Nike come and make any changes without a team saying it is OK. Lukas writes that, “Nike is just a vendor supplying a service to a client, and in this case the client is the NFL, whose team owners are some of America’s most conservative businessmen. They’re not the sort of people who want their teams to look, for lack of a better term, wacky.”

It definitely could have been much worse.

The one disappointment is the gloves the Browns will use. We like how Nike makes the gloves show an image when you put both sides together, but would it have killed the NFL to use the Brownie Elf?

Who would argue with that?

The most important thing to remember, of course, is that the uniforms themselves don’t matter, what’s important is the players inside the uniforms.

***

LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne reportedly scored a four (out of 50) on his Wonderlic test at the NFL Combine. According to ESPN, his score is the lowest known result by a draft prospect since Iowa State running back Darren Davis reportedly received a 4 in 2000.

“I haven’t talked to anybody about it. All I know is that (Claiborne) was from a complicated defensive system and he flourished in it. I’ve never seen any sort of deficiency in him,” Claiborne’s agent, Bus Cook, told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. “I’m sitting here in shock at what you’re telling me. And if it is true, how does that get out? I thought the commissioner was going to put safeguards on this information and there would be severe discipline if it ever did get out. I don’t know if he scored a 4 or a 40. All I know is he’s a great kid, he’s smart, and I’ve been thoroughly impressed with everything about him.”

Our reaction is: who cares? We’re still cool with the thought of the Browns drafting Claiborne and teaming him with Joe Haden in the secondary. As long as he knows to hit the guys in black and gold extra hard, the rest is irrelevant.

More importantly, there is little evidence that the Wonderlic has any value in predicting how a player will perform in the NFL.

According to ESPN.com, a 2009 study by professors from Fresno State University, the University of Georgia and Towson State found no connection between Wonderlic scores and performance during the first three years of a player’s NFL career. The group studied 762 players from the 2002, 2003 and 2004 draft classes.

John W. Michel, an assistant professor at Towson University who co-authored the study, told The Washington Post: “We found in no cases was cognitive ability related to (football) performance. We did find a negative relationship for tight ends and defensive backs. For defensive backs, it was the most pronounced; basically, the lower you scored on the Wonderlic, the better you performed.”

***

Finally, it turns out its not only the win totals that are dropping for the Washington Redskins – attendance is also on the decline.

The team announced they are cutting 4,000 seats from FedEx Field, bringing the seating capacity to 79,000. As recently at 2010 the stadium sat 91,000.

But it’s OK but the Redskins reportedly are a team that wants to “win now” – just without the win part and with fewer fans in attendance.

(Photo by The Associated Press)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Morris Claiborne, new uniforms | Leave a comment
02 Apr 2012
1 Comment

Odds & Ends with the Browns

We all know Cleveland Browns linebacker D’Qwell Jackson can make a tackle – after all he led the AFC last year with 158 of them – which is one of the reason’s the team rewarded him with a five-year deal with $19 million guaranteed.

But how many of those 158 tackles had true value? Well, according to Pro Football Focus, not as many as Browns fans might like for that kind of money.

According to the site, Jackson had 94 tackles – 19 more tackles than any other linebacker – in run defense. Sounds good so far.

But Jackson was on the field for a ridiculous 511 snaps where the opposing team ran the ball, meaning he recorded 18.4 percent of his tackles against the run, dropping to fifth overall in the league. Still not bad.

Jackson led the league with 52 stops (the site takes into consideration down and distance when accounting for a positive tackle) but that was only two more stops than Kansas City’s Derrick Johnson, who had 50 stops on 20 less tackles.

So when you get to the money stat, the Run Stop Percentage which measures how often a defender was responsible for stops in relation to how often they were on the field, Jackson doesn’t even make the Top 20 in the league.

Something the Browns may want to work on if they hope to improve on their 30th-ranked run defense.

***

Sticking with the stat game, Pro Football Focus looked at which wide receivers pick up the most yards per route they run.

And it’s no surprise the Mohamed Massaquoi was at the bottom of the list, gaining a meager 0.93 yards per route run, good for 104th in the NFL.

Interestingly, Jordon Norwood scored out at 1.60 yards per route run, picking up 268 receiving yards on 167 snaps. Not great by any stretch, but a definite improvement over the disappointing Massaquoi.

Looking at those numbers, it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if Massaquoi’s time in Cleveland comes to an end soon after the draft.

***

According to Peter King in his Monday Morning Quarterback column, the Dolphins are showing serious interest in Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

King writes that “club officials, including GM Jeff Ireland and coach Joe Philbin, dined with Tannehill in College Station Wednesday night, then spent about 90 minutes with him on the greaseboard Thursday after the workout.”

Sounds like Tannehill could draw some trade interest if the Dolphins decide they must trade up for him. And the Browns should be right in the middle of it, although there’s little reason to think they would be the ones moving up to take Tannehill.

(Photo by Getty Images)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, D'Qwell Jackson, Mohamed Massaquoi, NFL draft, Ryan Tannehill
27 Mar 2012

Delayed Gratification

The Cleveland Indians cleaned up some roster questions on Tuesday, optioning Lonnie Chisenhall and Matt LaPorta to Columbus.

Neither move should come as any big surprise, although there is the requisite grumbling from some fans about the move to start the season with journeyman Jack Hannahan at third base over Chisenhall.

Chisenhall hit just .205 during spring training, however, with 16 strikeouts and only one walk in 16 games. Chisenhall needed to hit to win the third base job as Hannahan has a major edge when it comes to defense, something the Indians are going to need plenty of if the offense struggles to score runs as expected.

Read more…

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Colt McCoy, Lonnie Chisenhall, NFL draft | Leave a comment
26 Mar 2012

The Game is Afoot

It’s the NFL off-season, which means rumors, speculation and misdirection are the currency of the land until the draft on April 26.

And the Cleveland Browns are going to be in the thick of things, probably right up until they – or someone – makes a selection with the fourth pick of the first round.

The only thing we (may) know for certain is the Browns will not make an attempt to move up to No. 3, as there are four players after quarterbacks Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III who would fill a major need on the Browns. General manager Tom Heckert told The Plain Dealer that there are five players the Browns would be comfortable selecting with their first pick.

Because of that, the team may be willing to trade down – just not too far.

“We’re most likely going to stay at No. 4 and we know we’ll get a really good player there,” Heckert told the paper. “But there’s about five guys we really like, so we would consider trading down — but probably only to five, six, seven or eight.”

Read more…

Posted in Cleveland Browns, NFL draft, Ryan Tannehill | Leave a comment
23 Mar 2012

Are the Browns hunting Cougars?

We all know the Cleveland Browns have several holes to fill on the roster in the upcoming NFL Draft: right tackle, wide receiver, linebacker, running back.

And, of course, quarterback.

While all the quarterback talk has revolved around Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill and Brandon Weeden, there is one name that is rarely mentioned as a possibility to fill the void under center.

We’re talking, of course, about record-setting quarterback Case Keenum, who threw for 19,217 yards, 155 touchdowns and completed 69 percent of his passes in his career as Houston’s quarterback.

Now that we have your attention, and you’ve picked yourself up off the floor, we are in no way advocating that the Browns draft Keenum. System guys like Keenum don’t fit in the NFL, just look at Colt Brennan’s career if you forgot that fact.

But the thing is, Keenum wasn’t out there on offense all by himself. Someone had to be catching all those passes.

And that’s where the Browns come in as they need all the playmakers they can find on offense.

The Cougars have a trio of senior wide receivers that put up big numbers in 2011

  • Patrick Edwards, with 89 receptions for 1,752 yards and 20 touchdowns
  • Tyron Carrier, with 96 receptions for 958 yards and five touchdowns
  • Justin Johnson, with 87 receptions for 1,229 yards and 12 touchdowns

We wouldn’t want the Browns to use a first- or second-round pick on one of these guys, not with Justin Blackmon, Michael Floyd and Kendall Wright potentially available, but Edwards, Carrier and Johnson clearly can catch the ball when it’s thrown to them.

The guy that intrigues us the most is Johnson. At 6-foot-1 and 223 pounds, he has NFL size, comparable to current Browns wide receiver Greg Little and Notre Dame’s Floyd, who are both listed as 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds.

“He can block, run, catch,” Carrier told The Houston Chronicle in an article last September. “Whatever you want him to do, he can do it.”

Johnson was a Conference USA First Team selection this past season after earning the starting slot as one of the Cougars’ inside receivers. He is also versatile, as he saw action at wide receiver, tight end and in the backfield during his college career.

“I knew if I kept working hard, I would get my chance,” Johnson told the paper. “We have playmakers. I was fine if I could block for Bryce (Beall) or Tyron or Patrick. As long as we were winning, I was fine.”

He also lit up Penn State in the Ticket City Bowl, catching 12 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown.

Sounds like someone we wouldn’t mind the Browns at least taking a look at. And it turns out that the Browns had scouts at Houston’s Pro Day on Monday.

The scouts also had a chance to see running back Michael Hayes, who rushed for 727 yards and 11 touchdowns on 138 carries and caught 44 passes for 483 yards last season. According to The Daily Cougar, Hayes is projected to be a late-round pick.

While we’ve all been focused on the Browns first three picks, and rightfully so, the team needs to hit on its later picks as well to continue turning this thing around.

Johnson, and possibly Hayes, are two names to keep in mind once the draft hits the later rounds.

(Photo by Getty Images)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Justin Johnson, NFL draft | Leave a comment
21 Mar 2012

Will the Browns pay for the Saints mistakes?

Like comic book hero Thor, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell brought down the heavy hammer of justice on the New Orleans Saints on Wednesday for the team’s role in rewarding players for intentionally injuring the opposition.

In suspending Saints coach Sean Payton for the entire season, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams indefinitely, general manager Mickey Loomis for eight games, assistant head coach Joe Vitt for six games, fining the team $500,000 and taking away second-round draft picks in 2012 and 2013 (that’s a lot of work for one day), Goodell sends the message that this kind of behavior won’t be acceptable on his watch.

“Beyond the clear and continuing violations of league rules, and lying to investigators, the bounty program is squarely contrary to the league’s most important initiatives – enhancing player health and safety and protecting the integrity of the game,” Goodell said in a statement announcing the discipline. “Let me be clear. There is no place in the NFL for deliberately seeking to injure another player, let alone offering a reward for doing so. Any form of bounty is incompatible with our commitment to create a culture of sportsmanship, fairness, and safety. Programs of this kind have no place in our game and we are determined that bounties will no longer be a part of the NFL.”

Read more…

Posted in bounties, Cleveland Browns, Lionel Messi, NFL, Scott Fujita, Tim Tebow | Leave a comment

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