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In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the category “Cleveland Browns”

06 Mar 2012

The media will not decide who the Browns draft

We like NFL draft talk as much as the next person, especially when it involves the Cleveland Browns, but all the speculation about what will take place in the first round of the draft on April 26 is starting to work our last nerve.

The biggest thorn is the ongoing narrative pushed by the media that the Browns “must” trade up for Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III at any and all cost. Failure to do so will somehow prove that the Browns are incompetent, insipid and generally an insignificant franchise that doesn’t care one bit about winning.

For more, head over to The Cleveland Fan.

(Photo by Getty Images)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, NFL draft, RG3 | Leave a comment
04 Mar 2012

Phase One Continues for the Browns

The Cleveland Browns continued to get their roster in order prior to the start of free agency as they placed the franchise tag on kicker Phil Dawson on Friday.

Now that the Browns have taken care of Dawson and linebacker D’Qwell Jackson, that just leaves the Peyton Hillis situation.

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

(Photo by The Plain Dealer)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, D'Qwell Jackson, Peyton Hillis, Phil Dawson | Leave a comment
02 Mar 2012

International Man of Mystery

Over the years we have seen more than our fair share of strange moments in Cleveland sports.

From Ten Cent Beer Night, to an Indians player breaking into the umpire’s room to retrieve a teammate’s confiscated bat to Bottlegate, to Dwayne Rudd’s helmet toss, there has been no shortage of interesting times.

But even by Cleveland’s standards, we weren’t really prepared for Thursday’s news about Peyton Hillis.

A day after Hillis split with Kennard McGuire, his third agent change in the past year, ESPN’s Adam Schefter cited unnamed sources in reporting that Hillis told Browns coaches at the end of last season that he was thinking of retiring and possibly joining the CIA.

Read more…

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Grady Sizemore, Peyton Hillis | Leave a comment
28 Feb 2012
1 Comment

Phase One Begins for the Browns

The Cleveland Browns started phase one of their off-season on Monday, signing linebacker D’Qwell Jackson to a reported five-year, $42.5 million contract that includes $19 million in guaranteed money.

“D’Qwell is thrilled with the deal,” Brian Mackler, Jackson’s agent, told The Plain Dealer. “He wanted to finish his career in Cleveland and this enables him to do that.”

Well we would certainly hope that Jackson is thrilled – that’s healthy chunk of change to hand out to a player who has only been healthy for a full season once in the past three years. But once the team decided it wanted to keep Jackson, they were going to have to devote some of their salary cap to him, the only question being how much.

Hopefully the team played the right side of the risk on this one.

Read more…

Posted in Cleveland Browns, D'Qwell Jackson, Liverpool, NFL free agency, Tom Heckert
23 Feb 2012

Shurmur, Childress & RG3: Can this work?

Cleveland Browns coach Pat Shurmur and offensive coordinator Brad Childress sat down with the media on Wednesday before leaving town for the NFL Combine and the duo dropped a couple of interesting tidbits for Brown fans.

But you’ll need to head over to The Cleveland Fan to find out what it all means.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Pat Shurmur, RG3 | Leave a comment
21 Feb 2012
2 Comments

The Rams clearly miss Pat Shurmur

The St. Louis Rams offense clearly missed having Pat Shurmur calling the plays in 2011, as evidenced by a statistical breakdown at Cold Hard Football Facts.

After finishing the 2010 season with a negative point differential of just 2.4 points per game while going 7-9, the Rams were outscored by 13.4 points per game last season, the worst in the NFL.

Obviously the team couldn’t overcome Shurmur’s departure to Cleveland to take over as Browns head coach.

The Rams showed a huge improvement in 2010, Shurmur’s second season running the offense, as they rebounded from a 2009 season that saw the team outscored by an average of 16.3 points per game.

Hopefully that is a good sign for the Browns offense heading into Shurmur’s second year in charge.

***

For some reason, Scott Miller of CBS Sports.com has decided it is his responsibility to hound the Oakland A’s and Manny Ramirez this season.

Miller sent out a Tweet saying “Sharpening knives now: Cannot wait to rip Manny, #Athletics & everything in path when Manny arrives in Valley of the Sun. Reprehensible.”

Seriously? You have nothing better to do than worry about a player that has to sit out the first 50 games of the season, then get in shape and who, in all likelihood, won’t even see the playing field this season?

And should reporters really be “sharpening knives” so they can go after a team and/or player? We must have been sick the day they taught that in journalism school at Kent State.

***

While we are still intrigued by the idea of the Browns weakening Pittsburgh by signing restricted free agent Mike Wallace, we have to admit to having some reservations after reading Ed Bouchette’s latest in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Bouchette points out that Wallace caught 43 passes for 800 yards in the first eight games of last season, but only had 29 receptions for 393 yards in the final eight games. He closed out the year with three receptions for 26 yards in the Steelers playoff loss to Denver.

Was that just a slump or did defenses figure something out?

That’s the big money question. (h/t Pro Football Talk)

***

Brady Quinn? Apparently not a big fan of Tim Tebow.

(Photo by The Associated Press)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Pat Shurmur
21 Feb 2012
1 Comment

The D’Qwell Jackson Dilemma

Free agency in the National Football League isn’t exactly free, as the Cleveland Browns are learning when it comes to linebacker D’Qwell Jackson.

A free agent, Jackson finished the 2011 season with a team-leading 158 tackles and an NFL-leading 116 tackles. He says he would like to stay with the Browns.

“Do I want to be back? This is where I started,” Jackson told The Plain Dealer. “That’s not even an afterthought to me. Yes, I want to be with the Browns, no question about it. I’m here in this locker room and I like the guys I’m playing with right now. That’s all that matters.”

And general manager Tom Heckert has said the team wants to keep Jackson, saying near the end of the season that “You can pretty much say (Jackson’s) going to be here.”

Read more…

Posted in Cleveland Browns, D'Qwell Jackson, NFL free agency
16 Feb 2012

Rule Britannia

The Cleveland Browns are doing their cousins from England a solid this week, as coach Pat Shurmur is hosting his counterpart from Aston Villa, Alex McLeish, for a few days in Berea.

McLeish is in town at the urging of Randy Lerner, who owns both the Browns and Aston Villa of the English Premier League.

With a two-week break because of the FA Cup before Aston Villa’s next game, McLeish came to town to share ideas and talk with Shurmur about player evaluation, scouting, rehab and training.

“Alex is always looking for any advantage he can get and he felt this was an ideal opportunity to exchange ideas with his American counterparts at the Browns,” said Paul Faulkner, Aston Villa’s chief executive.

In addition to trading coaching stories and training tips, Shurmur and McLeish hung out, maybe had some Lancashire hotpot or some spotted dick, probably even caught some of the Champions League game between Arsenal and AC Milan.

What?

Read more…

Posted in Cleveland Browns | Leave a comment
16 Feb 2012

For Your Consideration

It’s not breaking news to anyone who watched the Cleveland Browns this past season that the team needs help at several (most?) key positions.

But before general manager Tom Heckert can use the team’s nine draft picks to continue rebuilding a franchise left bare by the previous regime’s consecutive 5-11 seasons, there is the little matter of free agency, which begins on March 13.

And there are some interesting players the team should consider.

Head off to The Cleveland Fan to find out the rest of the story.

Posted in Cleveland Browns | Leave a comment
11 Feb 2012

Would Ward look good in Orange & Brown?

As the Pittsburgh Steelers continue to cut players and restructure contracts to try and get under the NFL salary cap before free agency begins on March 13, the team may have an unexpected move up its sleeve.

According to NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora, the Steelers may release Hines Ward, a 14-year veteran at wide receiver.

Ward was the third wide receiver last year behind Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown, and put up his lowest receiving numbers since his rookie season – 46 receptions for 381 yards and two touchdowns (basically he was Mohamed Massaquoi).

If the report is true and the Steelers release Ward before his March 1 roster bonus is due, should the Browns take a look at bringing Ward to town? While his best days are clearly behind him, the thought of Ward joining the Browns in a mentoring role is, we have to admit, intriguing.

Ward knows how to play the game, he knows the other teams in the AFC North, and there’s little doubt he could teach Greg Little, Massaquoi, Carlton Mitchell and Jordan Norwood some important lessons about playing wide receiver at the NFL level.

Read more…

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Liverpool, Luis Suarez, NFL free agency, racism | Leave a comment

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