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Cleveland Browns stacking up talent at cornerback: Terry Pluto's Talkin' | cleveland.com
http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2012/05/cleveland_browns_stacking_up_t.html

ABOUT THE BROWNS' DEFENSIVE BACKS . . .

1. The Browns remain sold on Sheldon Brown being a cornerback, as coach Pat Shurmur has made clear. Can he beat out Joe Haden? No. Can he beat out Dimitri Patterson? The Browns are paying Patterson like a starter. Patterson has $6 million guaranteed this season between his signing bonus and 2012 salary. It's $4.5 million in 2013 and $5.3 million in 2014. It sure looks as if the 28-year-old Patterson is being primed to start.

2. Brown is 33, and makes $3.7 million. That's a lot of money (and salary-cap room) for a veteran who may be a nickel back. The Browns do love his leadership, and perhaps they believe he will be a positive influence on the younger players -- and supply depth in case of injuries.

3. But the Browns also have Buster Skrine, who impressed them when playing some cornerback at the end of last season. They do believe the second-year pro could develop into a starter at some point, and he certainly can play in passing situations right now. So that gives them four cornerbacks: Haden, Patterson, Brown and Skrine. General Manager Tom Heckert has talked about the need for extra players at this position, so he may be content with keeping Brown for the final year of the veteran's contract.

4. The Browns did take Trevin Wade in the seventh round, a cornerback from Arizona who received very mixed reviews from scouts. But a year ago, Eric Hagg was a seventh-round pick and he has played his way into the team's plans as a backup safety. Skrine was a fifth-rounder and really is liked by the coaches. So we'll see if Wade can surprise.

5. With Michael Adams signing with Denver, the Browns appear content with T.J. Ward and Usama Young as their starting safeties with Hagg in reserve. But the Browns coaches have been so pleased with Hagg in the early camps (and how he played late last season), they believe he could end up starting some games.

6. The Browns' stats show they play three corners in more than 60 percent of the snaps in this pass-happy league, so they believe they are well-stocked at that position -- and want to keep Brown playing the spot where he has the most experience.

ABOUT THE BROWNS . . .


1. In case you missed it, Tampa Bay traded Kellen Winslow Jr. to Seattle for a conditional draft pick -- probably a future seventh-rounder. The price was so low because Winslow has had six different knee operations. He also has three years -- at $3.3 million, $4.5 million and $5.5 million -- left on his contract. If he had been cut, more teams would have been interested because they could have negotiated a new, cheaper deal.

2. In the past three years with the Bucs, Winslow caught 77, 66 and 75 passes, averaging 11.1 yards per catch. He's mostly a possession receiving tight end with good hands. The knee surgeries have robbed Winslow of his speed and blocking ability. Tampa Bay didn't think he was worth the cash, so they put him on the market.

3. The Browns traded Winslow to the Bucs before the 2009 season, then-coach Eric Mangini adding second- and fifth-round draft picks. The second-rounder became Mohamed Massaquoi, the fifth-rounder was part of the deal (along with Alex Hall) that brought Chris Gocong and Sheldon Brown to the Browns. And yes, the Browns did pick Winslow over Ben Roethlisberger, partly because they had signed Jeff Garcia and believed he would be their quarterback in 2004.

4. Shurmur listed Massaquoi as the starting receiver along with Greg Little -- and the Browns are very excited about Little losing some weight, adding flexibility and being very serious about taking a major step forward in his second season. Massaquoi has had three concussions in the past two seasons, and has not done much in his three years with the Browns: catching 31, 36 and 34 passes in those seasons, seven for touchdowns. The door is wide open for him, but don't be surprised if Joshua Cribbs grabs some of his playing time -- as Cribbs did last year.

5. The Browns were happy with third-rounder John Hughes and sixth-rounder Billy Winn in the early camps. The two rookie defensive tackles now are more important with Phil Taylor out for at least the first eight games because of surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle. No one is tackling yet, so it's hard to draw grand conclusions. But the Browns drafted Hughes with the idea that he can immediately become a rotation player in the middle of the line.

6. The Browns had Winn rated higher than the sixth round, and they were extremely pleased to grab him at the bottom of the draft. Heckert's approach to defense is to stack up the linemen and cornerbacks.

7. Interesting comment from linebacker Scott Fujita, "This is the most experienced defensive coaching staff that I've been around." Coordinator Dick Jauron was a head coach (Chicago, Buffalo), linebacker coach Bill Davis has been a defensive coordinator for Arizona and San Francisco. Defensive special assistant Ray Rhodes was a head coach for five years. The experience on defense last season helped the team quickly adjust from the 3-4 to the 4-3 defense.

8. By bringing in former head coach Brad Childress as coordinator and Nolan Cromwell as offensive assistant, Shurmur has added experience on the offensive side. Cromwell has been a wide receivers coach for three different NFL teams and an offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. The coaches will have plenty to do as they break in a rookie quarterback (Brandon Weeden), running back (Trent Richardson) and right tackle (Mitchell Schwartz) to the starting lineup.

definitely value in having 3CBs. I like Sheldon Brown against the WRs who try to outmuscle CBs more than anything else. Despite his reluctance to tackle RBs, he does a good job fighting for position w/ WRs w/o getting DPI against him.

I think Haden and Patterson should start w/ Brown as the CB3 (which is almost a starter nowadays).

Skrine is a nickel-only guy to me. If we have Haden on WR1, then CB2 needs to play against the WR2. Well, most teams have a big physical guy in that role and I think Skrine is too short,small to deal with them. He's scrappy as hell, but sometimes pure size would trump him.

Not really worried about CB that much this year (if Patterson wins out CB2). Safety on the other hand scares me to death.

Well, Ward is an upper tier Safety, and the team really seems to like Hagg.

With the CB spot being pretty solid overall, we can afford to bring along a developmental type guy like Hagg. Besides, we might want to get him on the job training this year when we aren't expected to win it all so that he'll be in better position to be an impact player next year.

I really think that we could have an elite level secondary in another year or so.

my worry is that Ward can't stay healthy and Hagg is an unproven late round pick with only Usama behind those two (if those are your starters)

one thing concerns me about the Browns secondary is that while it has youth..it doesn't have size or the guys that can cover on a consistant basis.
again they could have brought in some some quailty FA's at CB and S.
CB is one position where you can't have too much depth. Its kinda like the d-line.
I wasn't impressed with Young last year or Hagg. But I know the excuses are out for Hagg.."he was a rookie blah blah"
Patterson seems to have a knack for being at the right place at the right time.
I think if you compare the Browns secondary with the rest of AFC North,its still 4 out of 4 teams.

I thought that Hagg progressed some at the end of the year. This year will really tell the tale. The team really seems to like him a lot. He has really good size at 6'1" and 205#.

Actually, he might be our biggest DB.

Hagg showed some flashes at the end of the season. I thought he was the only safety that provided any over the top help last year. Young and Adams at free safety was pathetic.

In fairness, injuries have robbed Winslow of his speed.

I have always felt, for the most part, that blocking as a TE, WR, or RB is more a matter of will and desire than anything else.

GM isn't saying the injuries didn't rob him of his speed, just his ability to block. That isn't to say he ever had the will to block, because he never did have that.

When it's all said and done, Winslow will have put up numbers indicative of a very good career. It's too bad that a lack of desire and effort combined with the stupidity of his stunt so limited just how good that career could have been.

As much as I hated that pick when Butch pulled Winslow's name out of the hat, he should have been a great TE. Stupidity was definitely his greatest "strength" ...... which is really sad.

Quote:

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As much as I hated that pick when Butch pulled Winslow's name out of the hat, he should have been a great TE

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This is true and the signs were there before the kick off injury.

That said, I really wanted Roy Williams that year. so I'll call it even I guess.

The one that still irks me to this day is Wimbly over Ngata that one still hurts, I was Ngata all the way that year and didn't really even know Wimbley other than he played with Bunkley who I also liked and went on spot behind our pick to Phili.

Yeah, I wanted Williams too ..... so what do I know? lol

YTOWN, we seem to have some coaching talent ... "This is the most experienced defensive coaching staff that I've been around."

WIll this mean we start to develop players and they will play will experience? I hope so. Pitt has been strong because they know what they want on defense and can train the LBs to do the job. Maybe we can do the same.

Just a comment.

I am all for coaching, but at some point it is a bit over rated. I am not saying it isn't important, but it isn't as simple as presenting the information to players. You need players who can play as well.


I won't say it has never happened, but by this point, I think it is pretty rare for a coach at the pro level to tell or show a player something they haven't seen 100 times before. I don't think there are many " Nobody has ever shown me that!" moments.


That said, I do think we have a good group of assistant coaches, especially on the defensive side. The information will be presented.

I just read this article and thought it was perfect for this conversation. There are some coaches out there that really can make a difference but there aren't many and there aren't many players that really are willing to learn and try something new.

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Improved footwork could help Fitzpatrick flourish
Posted by Mike Florio on June 3, 2012, 11:49 PM EDT
Ryan Fitzpatrick AP

Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, whose Harvard education means that he’s fairly smart (to say the very least), could be on the brink of a brilliant upgrade to his game.

New quarterbacks coach David Lee has studied every flaw in Fitzpatrick’s throwing, and now they are trying to improve the process.

“I just go out there and throw; that’s what I’ve done my whole life,” Fitzpatrick said, via Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News. ”No one’s really ever taught me how to do it. Now for a guy to come in and say, ‘This is why you’re missing that throw low,’ for him to actually have evidence for me to look at and say, ‘OK. It looks like that’s something I really need to work on,’ and for a guy to be as respected as he is, to be as knowledgeable as he is, that’s somebody that I’m going to listen to every time.

“I knew I had a long way to go with my mechanics, but I just didn’t know how to find that person or how to improve at it,” Fitzpatrick added. ”He’s going to be a very big help for me this year.”

From Lee’s perspective, it’s not all that difficult. ”I just saw some things I thought we could correct fundamentally from his lower body,” Lee said. ”Just where his placement of his left foot was. He was blocking out his right hip to get more power and velocity.”

Lee is encouraged by Fitzpatrick’s progress. ”Fortunately he is so smart,” Lee said. “He sees it on tape. And when he sees it and has evidence as to why it’s going where it’s going, and then trusts and believes that maybe there is something in the lower body that’s wrong. . . . I’m really pleased with how quickly he’s taken to it but it’s not muscle memory yet, because we haven’t done it long enough. You throw one way your whole life then somebody tries to adjust some things, it doesn’t just happen overnight.”

If Fitzpatrick can use his brain to accelerate the changes he plans to make when using his body, improvements could come quickly, both for Fitzpatrick and for the up-and-coming Bills web page

Exactly. Problem is, when a team stinks several years in a row you don't know if it is:

1 - the coaches
2 - lack of talent
3 - talent not fitting
4 - just not giving the system time.
5 - some combination of the above


IF it is #1 you will never be good until you change coaches
IF it is #2 you need to change the GM
IF it is #3 you need to change the coach or the GM
If it is #4 then you mess things up by panicking and firing either.
If it is #5 then you are the Cleveland Browns of the past decade