Red Right 88

In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the category “Jon Gruden”

19 Apr 2011

It’s always good to have options

In life, it’s always good to have options. And the same can be said for Cleveland’s sports teams.

With the NFL Draft a little more than a week away, the Browns have plenty of holes to fill and options as they currently hold the No. 6 selection in the first round.

If they want to fill a hole at wide receiver, A.J. Green or Julio Jones should be there.

If they want to continue working on the defense, a defensive lineman – Robert Quinn, Marcell Dareus, Da’Quan Bowers or Nick Fairley – should be available.

You want a linebacker? Maybe Von Miller falls if the teams ahead of the Browns go quarterback heavy.

If the Browns want another cornerback, Patrick Peterson or Prince Amukamara will be available.

Options.

Or if general manager Tom Heckert believes he can move down in the draft and still get someone the team wants, they may find trading partners with Houston (No. 11) as the Texans reportedly want a cornerback or Miami (No. 15) as the Dolphins may be looking at a quarterback – if one falls to No. 6.

As long as the Browns don’t take a quarterback with their first pick, we’re confident they will make the right call. Based on last year’s draft, we have faith in the front office until they give us reason to doubt them.

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The Cavs also have options as they prepare for this summer’s NBA Draft.

Holding two lottery picks (their own and the Clippers) means that, best-case scenario, the Cavs come home with the top two picks in the draft. Worse case, they take the 5th pick and the 11th.

No matter what happens at the draft lottery on May 17, general manager Chris Grant is ready.

“From our standpoint, we’re in a really good position: high picks, trade exception, flexible contracts,” Grant said in published reports. “Every year we know one thing: We know there’s 10-15, 12-15 good players. Our job is to figure out who those guys are. Those are the marching orders we give our scouts: Go figure out who those guys are.”

So while, according to draft “experts” this may be a bad year to be in the draft lottery – having Harrison Barnes, Jared Sullinger and Perry Jones available certainly would have helped – if the Cavs do their homework they should come out of this alright. And having two lottery picks certainly increases the chances of finding solid – if not necessarily spectacular – players.

And we like what we hear from Grant. He seems thoughtful and we get the feeling that the Cavs are in good hands with him calling the shots. The fact he turned Mo Williams and Jamario Moon into a lottery pick can’t be understated.

Coach Byron Scott did his part in getting the team through a tough season. Now it’s Grant’s turn to step up and give the team some much-needed reinforcements.

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Thankfully the Indians have options when it comes to their starting pitching, as Mitch Talbot is going to be out – possibly for a long time.

The Tribe called up Jeanmar Gomez to take Talbot’s spot in the rotation and Gomez is scheduled to start tonight’s game in Kansas City against the Royals.

Gomez made his major-league debut last year in July and returned to the Tribe on Aug. 1. He spent the rest of the season with the Tribe, compiling a 4-5 record and 4.68 earned-run average. In two starts this year at Triple A Columbus, Gomez posted a 2-0 record and 1.42 ERA.

Hopefully someone clued Gomez in to the fact that the starting pitching has been lights out so far.

***

We get why ESPN hypes Jon Gruden. He works for the network and they have a brand to sell, and Gruden is nothing if not a brand at this point.

His Quarterback Camp segment on ESPN is completely unwatchable and the five minutes we caught this morning where he was gushing about Blaine Gabbert’s shoe size and ability to wear a baseball cap backwards makes us so, so glad the Browns didn’t hire him as coach. (We think it was Gabbert, it was difficult to tell because our ears were bleeding from Gruden’s rambling).

What’s harder to figure out is why any media outlet not affiliated with ESPN continues to sell the myth that Gruden is some kind of quarterback guru, hanging on every word he utters.

Seriously, what quarterback did Gruden ever develop?

Former Tampa quarterback Shaun King, who played two years under Gruden, agrees, telling JoeBucFan.com that he won’t watch the program:

“I won’t watch it,” King said. “I disagree with the premise of the show. The premise is that Gruden is some kind of quarterbacks guru and that having him as a destination for a rookie QB is the ideal situation for a rookie and that just hasn’t proven to the case.”

Thank you, Mike Holmgren, for being smart enough to not let Gruden get his hands on Colt McCoy.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Jon Gruden, NFL draft | Leave a comment
11 Jan 2011

Finally Some Good News in Browns Town

Jon Gruden saved the Browns from potentially making a horrible mistake when he announced late Monday that he will not be coaching in 2011 and will return to the network booth as a football analyst.

Fans all across Brownstown thank you for this Jon. Now we don’t have to fear that team president Mike Holmgren will lose his mind and bring in a coach who is inexplicably linked to every job opening despite having a 45-51 record in six years in Tampa after he won a Super Bowl with Tony Dungy’s players.

Seriously, did we really want this to be the face of the franchise?

And there was more good news as wide receivers coach George McDonald is leaving the team.

After the performance of the receivers this year, this move is clearly a classic case of addition by subtraction.

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It’s never to early to start thinking Browns draft picks.

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The Cavaliers are on pace to be the worst defenders of the three-point shot in league history.

Somewhere, someone is trying to figure out a way to blame this on Mike Brown.

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Twenty-four years ago today this happened. You’ll excuse us if we go and bury our head in a bucket of Maker’s Mark right now.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Jon Gruden, NFL | Leave a comment
07 Dec 2010

Final Thoughts on the Browns & Week 13

Still relishing the Browns road victory against the Dolphins on Monday and so, so glad Nolan Carroll dropped that ball.

***

Joe Haden continues to show why he was the seventh pick in the draft in April. He had another interception on Sunday – his fourth consecutive game with a pick – five tackles and broke up four passes, the biggest when he knocked the ball away from Miami’s Brian Hartline in the end zone.

“They kept throwing it. I have no idea (why),” Haden told The Chronicle-Telegram. “I thought after I broke up the first two that they weren’t going to throw two more. But I just feel like every play I go out there, I have to be ready for them to come at me, so I have to be on top of my game every play.

“One of my strengths is the deep ball, just staying on top and being able to make a play on the ball. So they just kept trying and I just kept knocking it down.”

Coach Eric Mangini talked about Haden’s tackling ability in his Monday press conference:

“What I really liked about Joe’s game last week is probably different than what I’m sure you’d think, the way he tackled,” Mangini said. “That was a real strength of his in college and I he did an excellent job of that I thought last game. There were plays there where a missed tackle, the ball would have gone for a long way. Ronnie Brown on the screen, if Joe doesn’t make that play, he’s going for a long way. It was an open field tackle, one-on-one against Ronnie Brown, that’s hard to do.

“Those yards he saved aren’t a measurable stat, but it’s significant. I think that he’s playing with a lot of confidence, which is good. He has a much, much higher understanding of what we are trying to do, defensively, in terms of scheme.”

“The last quarter of the season he’s playing lights out,” David Bowens told The Plain Dealer. “They tested him a few times and Joe held his own. Not only that, but in the tackling game, he supported well.”

Good thing Browns GM Tom Heckert and the coaching staff didn’t fall for the nonsense about Haden being “too slow.”

***

While any Browns win is a good win, the lads at Waiting For Next Year came up with some disturbing numbers from the game yesterday:

The Browns ran 11 first down plays in the (first) half, one of which was a kneel down at the end of the quarter. So of those 10 plays, exactly 1 went for more than 3 yards. (That was a 13 yard rumble by Hillis on the first play of the second possession.) Here are the results from first down in that half- 0, 13, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 0, 3, 0 for an average of 2.2 yards on first down.

Those numbers go a long way toward explaining why the Browns were just 2-of-14 on third downs against Miami. The Browns can’t win too many games with that kind of non-production on first down. It will be interesting to see what kind of adjustments offensive coordinator Brian Daboll can make over the last quarter of the season.

***

It wouldn’t be another week in Brownstown without a nonsensical story about the future of coach Eric Mangini – and this one is better than most.

Jon Gruden’s son, Deuce Gruden II, says the old man will leave the ESPN broadcast booth in another year to take over the as coach of the Browns.

Or maybe he’ll wind up in San Francisco. Little Deuce wasn’t really sure.

We’ll forget for a moment how absurd all this is; we’re just glad to read a story that attributes the comments to someone other than “unnamed sources.”

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It seems more likely that the Grudens would be looking at Denver, where Josh McDaniels is out as Broncos coach.

A year after being all the rage following an 6-0 start, McDaniels went 5-17 in a shocking flameout.

At least he hung around long enough to send Peyton Hillis to the Browns.

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I know they aren’t getting much love, but we liked the Packers throwback uniforms from yesterday. And we absolutely loved the Buccaneers throwbacks.

***

And while we’re on the subject of things we love, we can’t say enough about the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV. While watching the Browns yesterday we were able to keep tabs on the Chicago-Detroit game that we had action on; watch the Bengals bungle their way into another loss against New Orleans; and see our money pick come through when Atlanta beat Tampa.

Life is good sometimes.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Joe Haden, Jon Gruden, NFL, Sunday Ticket | Leave a comment
21 Oct 2010

Don’t the Browns already have a coach?

After a few weeks without anyone taking the temperature of the office furniture in Berea, the nonsense has come back thanks to a line from ESPN broadcaster Jon Gruden.

Gruden was on Rich Eisen’s podcast show and Eisen asked Gruden if he would listen if someone wanted him to coach again next year.

“I think I might,” Gruden said.

That’s all. Not, “I’m coaching next year.” Or “I’m already moving my furniture into the coach’s office in Berea.” Just that he would think about it if someone came calling.

That didn’t stop the speculation from the “experts” who quickly drew the conclusion that Gruden will be on the sidelines for the Browns next year:

I guess we should be thankful that no one is trying to sell Gruden as an in-season replacement.

When Mike Holmgren decided to bring Eric Mangini back as coach it was clear he was going to give him the full year. It wouldn’t make any sense to bring Mangini back only to fire him after six or seven games – Holmgren needs a full season to evaluate Mangini and it’s only fair to give him that.

As to Gruden, what is it about him that makes anyone think we’d want him to coach the Browns? People like to point out that he is a “Super Bowl-winning coach*,” but that was in 2002 and with Tony Dungy’s players. Once Gruden started turning the roster over and bringing in his own players the team went downhill.

And Gruden’s inability to settle on a quarterback in Tampa makes the past few years in Cleveland quarterback issues look like a dream.

Finally, since every coach and every player is great, as Gruden tells us each week on Monday Night Football, can we really trust his ability to judge talent?

If some other team wants to take a shot on Gruden, if they fall in love with his bad haircut and goofy faces, good for them.

But there’s no place for him in Cleveland.

Not now and not next year.

*We really need a statute of limitations of about 10 years on the phrase “Super Bowl-winning.” It’s a bit ridiculous when people refer for Mike Shanahan as a “Super Bowl-winning coach” when his last Super Bowl was in 1998; same with Brett Favre who won a Super Bowl in 1996. That’s a long time ago.

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Oh, and all that talk about James Harrison retiring? Yeah, not so much.

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I often wish we had more aspects of European soccer crowds in American sports – check out this video from Anfield, how sweet would it be to see that at a Browns game? – then something like this happens and makes me think that maybe we can do with a little less passion.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, hot seats, Jon Gruden, Liverpool | Leave a comment

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