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Browns make a move to help patch the offensive line

With the Cleveland Browns facing the prospect of being without guards Shawn Lauvao and Jason Pinkston until sometime after the start of the regular season, the team needed to do something to help keep quarterback Brandon Weeden upright.

The Browns clearly were not comfortable going into the season with just Garrett Gilkey, a seventh-round draft pick out of Chadron State, holding down the spot and, having a surplus of spare parts at defensive line, acquired John Moffitt from Seattle in exchange for Brian Sanford.

Moffitt, who is 6-foot-4, 319-pounds, is in his third year out of Wisconsin. That’s the good part, as if there is one thing that Wisconsin knows how to do it is create offensive linemen.

He started nine games his rookie year but suffered torn ligaments in his knee and had season-ending knee surgery. Last year it was an elbow injury in training camp that required surgery. So that part is not so good.

Moffitt was also one of five Seattle players suspended since 2011 for using performance enhancing drugs; in Moffitt’s cae it was Adderall. He was also banned from a Seattle mall property for twice getting caught urinating in public. Those parts are really not very good.

If nothing else, Moffitt adds much-needed depth on the offensive line. Worst case is he holds the fort down until Lauvao and/or Pinkston can return to the field. Best case, the change of scenery, and playing with a talented group of offensive linemen, helps him play like the player that was part of a Wisconsin offensive line that dominated Ohio State in 2010.

(Photo by USA Today)

5 Questions as the Browns open the preseason

The Cleveland Browns play their first preseason friendly tonight against the St. Louis Rams.

As a Browns fan are you excited? Nervous? Glad you have something to distract you from the Indians?

We join the best and the brightest to take a look at where the Browns are right now in the latest installment of Five Questions in Five Minutes at Cleveland Reboot.

(Photo courtesy of The Plain Dealer)

Nate Jackson reveals indisputable truths about NFL

Former tight end Nate Jackson is releasing a book, Slow Getting Up, next month that tells the story of his eight-year career in the NFL.

ClevelandScene.com ran an excerpt from the book today that highlighted the very brief time Jackson spent with the Browns in 2009.

We will leave it to others to debate whether or not Jackson’s tale of life with Eric Mangini’s Browns is sour grapes from a player who was at the end of his career – Jackson never played in the NFL after being released by Denver in 2008 – or if he is just telling tales to sell his book – although it is hard to imagine anyone buying a book because a player is critical of a coach that two-thirds of NFL fans can’t even name and who carries around a career record that is 14 games under .500.

We are more interested in two takeaways from the excerpt that clearly illustrate why coaches consistently fail – not just in Cleveland but across the NFL.

Read more…

The fan experience is different for every fan

We have to say we were a bit surprised by the push back from fans over the announcement that the Cleveland Browns are working to try and improve the game day experience at home games.

We know (hope?) some of it was general snark, but we read and head enough that it makes us wonder, with the biggest complaint being, of course, that the Browns should “just win more games.”

Like any right-minded Cleveland fan, we have fond memories of going to Browns games in the late-1970s through the early 1990s at Municipal Stadium, even though we knew it was a dump. We also enjoy seeing highlights from games during that time period even though we still know the stadium was a dump.

But those memories are embedded in us because we were watching a winning football team (for the most part), not because the experience at the stadium was wonderful. So, on a basic level, we can understand the “just win more games” argument. But that is taking too simplistic of an approach.

While we understand what the Browns are trying to do, they are missing an opportunity here, which we explain further over at The Cleveland Fan.