Red Right 88

Cleveland Browns should avoid Colin Kaepernick

The Cleveland Browns are expected to select yet another quarterback in the 2016 NFL Draft, if not in the first round then at some point during the weekend.

Holding the No. 2 overall selection, the Browns should have their choice of one of the two top quarterbacks – presumed to be Cal’s Jared Goff and North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz – or, if they don’t like what they see, could dip into the second tier of prospects, a group that includes Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott and Michigan State’s Connor Cook, among others.

Of course, for a team that has been searching for its next franchise quarterback for 23 years, the Browns will always find themselves linked to any quarterback that has fallen from grace.

Which brings us to Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers.

To see why he would be a bad fit for the Browns, visit our latest at Dawg Pound Daily.

Cleveland Browns: 10 options if Mitchell Schwartz leaves

The Cleveland Browns may not have much going for them, but one unquestioned area of strength on the team is the offensive line.

Of course, as luck would have it, the start of free agency on March 9 may change all of that.

The Browns are facing the possibility of seeing both starting center Alex Mack and starting right tackle Mitchell Schwartz hit free agency. While executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown said that the Browns have “identified the guys that can really help us and fit within the schemes we’ll be running,” you never what will happen when a player has the opportunity to speak with another team.

While the Browns may believe that they have a contingency plan if Mack leaves in second-year player Cameron Erving (although the person lining up behind Erving may not agree), no such option is currently on the roster, which puts Schwartz in an enviable negotiating position.

Knowing that, if the Browns do lose Schwartz they will need to turn to either the draft or free agency to fill the vacancy at right tackle, paths that are certainly no guarantee of success.

Visit our latest at Dawg Pound Daily to see 10 players – five in the draft and five in free agency – that the Browns could look at as the team’s next right tackle.

Cleveland Browns sign Gary Barnidge to an extension

The Cleveland Browns signed tight end Gary Barnidge to a contract extension on Thursday, the team announced on its website.

The news mean that, for one day at least, it is all not doom, dysfunction and despair in Berea.

Barnidge, who is in his third year in Cleveland and seventh year in the NFL, has a team high 60 receptions and seven touchdowns, and is second on the team in receiving yards with 817 (those numbers also put him third among all tight ends.)

To get the rest of the story, visit our latest at Dawg Pound Daily.

Mike Pettine: It’s hard to be unified at this point

Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine met with the media on Monday and for the first time publicly acknowledged that there are problems within team headquarters in Berea.

Namely, not everyone is pulling in the same direction when it comes to turning things around for the 2-10 club.

While Pettine did not go into specifics, it seems likely that the source of the division centers around (or at the very least includes) quarterback Johnny Manziel.

The coaching staff, which knows football, clearly has one opinion on what to do with Manziel, while the front office and/or business side, which is interested in moving as many No. 2 jerseys as possible, has another.

For the rest of the story, check out our latest at Dawg Pound Daily.

If the Browns make a coaching chance, who should it be?

The Cleveland Browns enter the month of December in a familiar position.

The team is currently residing in the basement of the AFC North Division, have lost six in a row (and 14 of their past 16 dating back to last season), and are trotting out yet another starting quarterback on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.

It wouldn’t be December in Cleveland, either, without the annual call for yet another coaching change.

If head coach Mike Pettine is relieved of his duties shortly after the regular season comes to a close, whoever takes over will be the Browns’ eighth full-time head coach since the team returned in 1999, and the fourth head coach since Jimmy Haslam took over as owner in 2012.

As hard as it is to find something nice to say about former owner Art Modell, of the seven full-time head coaches he hired, he gave all but one more than two years to try to figure things out.

Let’s assume that Haslam has seen enough, though, and is ready to fill our January and February with yet another coaching search.

So who can we expect the Browns to look at?

To find out, check out our latest at Dawg Pound Daily.

Cleveland Browns: 5 best MNF games of all-time

The Cleveland Browns will make the 30th appearance in franchise history on Monday Night Football when they host the Baltimore Ravens tomorrow night.

It will be the first time the Browns have played on Monday night since the 2009 season, when they also hosted the Ravens. That night, the Browns dropped a 16-0 decision – the team’s 14th loss in 15 games dating back to the previous season. The Browns managed just 160 yards of offense that night and never crossed Baltimore’s 45-yard line.

Quarterback Brady Quinn, another in the never-ending line of first-round quarterbacks who have failed in Cleveland, finished the night just 13-of-31 for 99 yards while being intercepted twice.

This time, much to the chagrin of Jon Gruden and ESPN, the Browns will not be led by quarterback Johnny Manziel, who decided that acting like a spoiled teenager is more important than being a starting quarterback, but rather veteran Josh McCown. The move to demote Manziel to third string pushes him one step closer to joining Quinn on that list of failed first-round quarterbacks.

It hasn’t always been doom and gloom for the Orange and Brown on what was once the league’s lone weekly primetime game. The Browns appeared in the first Monday Night Football game in league history and carry a 15-14 record into this week’s game against the Ravens.

To get ready for the matchup, check out the five best Monday Night Football games of all-time in franchise history in our latest post at Dawg Pound Daily.