A new thread might be useful.

and here we go!

Two edge guys off the board already.

I maintain that a Clowney bandaid and a rookie are probably the play for us on the edge.

I think two veterans on one year deals.

Less than I would have expected.

Doubt any vets worth their salt would come to split reps. Gustin, Weaver, and Jackson are probably fine for depth. I'm hopeful Gustin progresses some more.

A guy like Clowney and/or Melvin Ingram could move inside.

18M/yr with half guaranteed seems pretty good to me. Especially going back to a Superbowl winner in a reduced cap year. Hopefully that's the high water mark on the edge.

Aye, but I'd rather Clowney did it for a rookie. *shrug*

I'm setting myself up for disappointment when Oweh goes early.

I'm curious to see what Denver and Von Miller end up doing, too. They have til Wednesday to decide on his option I believe.

I think we’d be in on Miller if he becomes available but I don’t think he’ll be available.

Belichick must feel so dirty.

How can you connect the word Belichick with feel so dirty?

Thinking about Rosenhaus makes me feel dirty. Imagine dealing with him.

Belichick is going to need to walk through a car wash.

Cam still making a living in the NFL

I don't consider Rosenhaus any dirtier than Belichick. Pretty much a match made in hell to me.

Not so keen on the money but a Cam checkdown to Jonnu connection sounds like something we might hear a lot.

The problem is Newton will miss the wide open check down.

j/c:

Am I wrong to think DJ Chark is not an alpha wide receiver?

I was thinking the same thing...this move would hurt them in the short term. Going to be hard to replace Orlando Brown for as cheap as his contract was this year.

Hard to tell. Minshew Mania died pretty fast.

I like him alot. With a better QB??? I'm a bit worried if this goes through.

Texans gonna Texan.

I kinda like that signing for the Texans.

Depending on the guarantees. It’s probably not a good idea to overpay for a special teamed.

Grugier-Hill looks like it should have the word Syndrome after it.

Or it could have been a flavor of Boone's Farm in the late 70's.

Berea ... *Crickets*

I wish we'd be part of the excitement as well, but I thought I read that this FO, as a rule, likes to do most of its damage after Day 1 of FA.

And that's ok they have been good at this so far

Belichick just jumped into a volcano to try and clean himself off.

I’d expect to see some of the other edge guys come off the board now with Judon kind of setting the market.

Belichick is currently scraping his skin with a pumice stone dipped in acid.

So... what exactly are the Patriots doing right now? They've basically spent the better part of 2 decades showing the league that the opposite of what they're doing now is the way to building winning teams.

This is their only shot at contending.

Belichek's last stand?

Not with Cam Newton at QB, IMO.

80 mil

Agreed. And I'm not necessarily referring to just this year as his last stand, but with the last run at requiring talent to make one final push.

I'm guessing seeing Brady winning a Super Bowl really chapped dat azz.

...Teller extension is not gonna be cheap.

I would be shocked if they don’t add another significant QB before training camp.

Can probably cross off Moehrig in round 1.

Spotrac shows 3 year 33.75m. Not bad at all

Jake Trotter twitter says 24m guaranteed

If we can get a DE (Lawson would be huge) this is a winning FA period now

we need a DE... i don't know enough to have a strong opinion but Lawson seems like he'd be a great get... seems to have great upside and is young...

Aaron Rodgers has to be pissed...

Danielle Hunter?!?! I can only hope!

I Know Yannick Ngakoue is a pretty Good edge but I'm glad we didn't sign him, I mean in 5 seasons he is now headed for his 4th team (JAX - VIKES -RATS - LV) something funny about that ... JMO

Patriots buying everything on the shelf.

Except a capable QB

With Brady, they didn't need as good of a team to always be in any game.
Without Brady, they need a LOT more to carry them because they're not going to win on QB play.

Until Deshaun Watson ends up in New England.

Yikes!

Leave it to the Rams to ruin the market for everyone else.

He was a good depth player for us last year.

j/c...

The Patriots are going to have a completely different team in 2021.

Man, Caserio must've been the one holding the purse strings in NE. Somebody snapped them this offseason.

There was an obvious talent deficiency after so many bad drafts. Brady covered a lot of it up. Now they have to pay to close the gap.

still will suck unless they improve their QB play

Obviously. I would guess that is on their to do list.

I don't see that happening (but who am I). He's unhappy with his salary, Minnesota trading him doesn't make him happy - and I don't see us trading for him then giving him a 30-50% raise (unless it was a fake raise, aka a 5 year deal with voidable years). Don't get me wrong, he'd be a massive addition. I'd think a guy like Lawson or Hendrickson will come at Hunter's current salary - which is important since we have to extend Ward, Chubb, Baker, and Teller (at minimum).

Dorrsett to the Jags.

Where are the Patriots coming up with all this money?

They resigned Cam 1 year $5 mil
Then signed:
Judon 4 yr $56 mil $32 guaranteed
Smith 4 yr $50 MIL #28 guaranteed
Milld 4 yr $24 mil $9 mil guaranteed
Nelson Aghular 2 year for up to $26 mil
And some other Wr - Kendrick Borne 3 yr $22 mil

Didn’t they have like $62 million in cap space?

But why

Hyde's still playing?!?

I don't know how much they had. If true that they had $62 mil in cap space the question is the same. Where/how did they get all that cap space?

They have no good players.

I thought Davis would get quite a bit more than that but the wide receiver market is flooded so it makes a little sense that he got less. This bodes well for Higgins price being pretty low.

I think Hollywood could be re-signed in the ~$2M/year range.

Davis is an intriguing guy ... it’ll be interesting to see if he plays well in NY

Arthur Smith’s offense is Matt LaFleur’s offense is Kyle Shanahan’s offense is Mike LaFleur’s offense so the the learning curve shouldn’t be too steep.

j/c...

Good for him but I’m not sure I understand. Maybe they were impressed with his pass catching skills.

man... really hope we can get a solid DE

I don’t think this will be a problem.

At least Dupree is out of the division.

Rapaport reporting Dupree is a multi yr deal-16.5 mil per yr

Bummer, but at least he's not still in the AFC North.

Uh. That’s a lot.

wow.... that's a ton

Too much for Lawson

Don't overpay we have our own players (Better Players) to sign ...

Really running out of Edge targets...Hendrickson (especially now that the Jets are probably out of the running), Clowney, and Takk McKinley...who else is available?

Everson Griffin
Carlos Dunlap
Justin Houston
Ryan Karrigan
Derek Wolfe

This front office has not shown a propensity to sign older players; all those guys are 32 or older. Maybe if we can get one for really cheap, but I don't think that is how they want to address this position.

Melvin Ingram, Haason Reddick, Justin Houston, and Ryan Kerrigan are all available. I think Clowney and McKinley are most likely at this point. We tried to sign Clowney last year and claimed McKinley twice on waivers.

Data says that corners are more important than edge rushers.

Thank you, Reddick and Ingram could be good options.

Can't really say that I agree that DBs are more important than pass rushers. I can name 3 superbowls off the top of my head that were won by dominant D-lines getting after the QB; can't say the same about DBs.

Our goal this year is to win a Superbowl.

The best pass rushes reach the QB like 35% of the time. What happens the other 65% of the time? A pass. That’s the 100 level course of that thinking. Here is a PFF article on the subject:

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-pff-data-study-coverage-vs-pass-rush-part-three

Way too much for a guy who doesn't play the run.

And most of his sacks where as a result of someone else’s effort. Bullet dodged in my book. And a huge downgrade for the Bengals from Lawson. I still haven’t seen a good reason why the Bengals didn’t tag Lawson other than incompetence.

That seems A D low, why would, or rather, I'd hope the team would not insult one of their better TD scorers with less than 4 per year, given what UDFA's who barely make a roster don't get.
It'd set a bad message for future Free Agents too.

holy cow... DEs are expensive...

Fun

9th team and 16th year in the league...

Got to think we had someone in mind, However the price tags on these guys is ludicrous. Myles is a bargain at his price and he is better than all of these dudes. I think we sign a vet like Kerrigan to a 1 year deal and address the position in the 1st or 2nd round of the draft. It makes way more sense.

I think we’ll find our DE and draft one early as well. Sign a guy like Clowney or McKinley and then select one to rotate/replace

I have little doubt we have always wanted to sign him back. We are just waiting for reality to hit him and his agent. If he gets offered, we will consider a match if given the chance and we want to pay that much. If he is still sitting where in a week or so, he'll take whatever we offer.

If we have learned one thing about our FO, we have clear $ amounts we are willing to spend and if it looks like we can't get it done inside those parameters, we move on to the next guy.

Von Miller will become the target IMO.

Berry places a premium in rushing the passer.

I really love Kerrigan for a 1 year rental...He's looking for a place where he could start, and initially he could start right away for us. Meanwhile we could draft and groom a DE fairly high, whom can play in waves and situations...Kerrigan will be relatively cheap as he's older, but the guy would be great for our young guys and locker room as well...

Benjamin Allbright, who I think is as connected as anyone has listed the Browns as a potential landing spot for Miller. But man, at 32, I hope he comes super cheap and is on a 1-2 deal MAX.





I thought I read somewhere that the Broncos need to make a decision on Miller either today or tomorrow re: whether or not to keep him. I can't imagine them paying him $22.5M in 2021 at 32 yrs old when they can shed $17M cutting him.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/denver-broncos/von-miller-7717/

Edit: Decision date is tomorrow as it is listed in the contract details....

2021 Club option (must be exercised by the 1st league day of 2021 (3/17). If exercised, $7M guarantees)

Getting Von Miller would be a pretty nice luxury. I don’t know about the contract details and stuff of course

Way too much for his age IMO. Love to suit him up here, but nowhere near this salary. as owed here. How do we track decision when made?

There was a rush to give JJ Watt a deal and he is the same age as Miller.

You don't fall off a cliff when you turn 32. It is all about the player and training.

Miller didn't play last season. It does not make sense for the bronco's.

It makes perfect sense for the Browns on a two year deal.

Surprise.

Bronco's pick up Von Miller's option

Shift gears.

I think they will now go for Clowney on a short deal.

Or, Maybe Ingram from SD.

Wow!

Considering all things from the Bronco's this seems odd.

They are not a very good team and have serious questions about Lock.

They need money and signing Miller at this stage is strange.

I’d like Ingram on a short term deal

Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry.

Interesting.

y'all need to put some respect on Cam's name. he's still a good QB. he got hit with COVID that derailed his comeback, but lets not forget the last 11 games he went 6-5, 65% accuracy, and for the entire season rushed for 12 TD's.

and he had even worse talent to work with than Brady the previous season. Now with the patriots signing Hunter Henry, for the first time in a long time, he's got real weapons to work with on offense.

Nothing Cam Newton did last year indicates that he is a good QB. At this point he is a bottom third starter in the league. He just got a one year $5 million contract. That’s backup money and he’ll probably be a backup at some point in 2021.

I agree. Cam doesn't stink.

He was on a new team in a complicated system with a bunch of rookies/underwhelming vets while dealing with COVID. I'm not sure what people expected.

Now he's healthy and has some weapons. NE can see if he's more than a bridge.

I don’t know if he’ll ever be healthy again. His arm looked fully toasted.

People expected a former 1st Overall veteran with almost a decade in the league to step in and play like an above-average veteran QB.

I won't be surprised if this happens. But, I don't think it has yet.

William Jackson III anyone? Another III in the secondary?

Haason Reddick?

I told myself I wouldn't get impatient today!

What’s this mean? He knows something.

He is watching Coming to America 2.

I hear the Jets are taking calls on a C.J. Mosely trade.

Think they want Njoku?

On top of the challenging conditions last year, NE saw their QB leave with no viable person to step into the starting role. In terms of the situation they faced, they could've done much worse than Cam.

or Denver for Von Miller, or the Vikings for Danielle Hunter?

.

Yeah, I didn't pay attention to who I quoted.

he's the TE watching contracts thinking he is going to get paid.

j/c:

This time I checked my source.

Curtis Samuel is someone I’d like to sign, but will be a bit expensive I bet

j/c:\





Lol.

I repeat, William Jackson III anyone?

Urban Meyer can still recruit.

My guess is that he’ll be too expensive. I’d guess that we end up signing a slot guy like Brian Poole on a one year deal.

Unrelated, I haven’t seen Ogunjobi, Higgins, Terrence Mitchell, BJ Goodson, or Kevin Johnson mentioned with relation to any other teams at this point.

And this time he’s allowed to say how much he’s paying the players!

Hahahahahahaha

I read where the Viking's DE Danielle Hunter is not happy with his contract.

He is 26 with more sacks than Myles. His contract over the next three years is $14.4. Way under Bosa and Myles.

He would cost our first rounder and would be worth it. He is better than any prospect in this draft.

He may cost more than that. The Viking's don't want to lose him. He missed last year but he is critical to their defense.

However, ya never know what can make a deal happen?

Options in FA are running out.

We have chased Clowney before. Maybe we will again.

Melvin Ingram would be my choice for a stop gap FA DE

Danielle Hunter would be ideal - however, he is also unhappy with his current contract, so he'd probably be looking for a new one, wherever he is traded.

I kind of want CB Mike Hilton from the Steelers, he'll be a lot cheaper than the guys being mentioned at CB...He will be our nickel, and can blitz really well...Plus poaching from Pittsburgh's roster is always fun. Another guy I like slightly less is CB Jourdan Lewis.

Some of those guys don't get offers until after the draft.

No doubt. He would want Myles money.

j/c...

Come back Hollywood!

The WR market is basically nothing right now

My ideal stopgap would be Takk McKinley

I wonder what this is?

A Tweet from Odell Beckham Jr. about rehabbing his injury.

You’re welcome.

MKC tweeting about another journalist doing actual reporting.

To be fair that’s kind of her job. Also, I’m guessing OBJ isn’t responding to a text from an unknown number.

If he was on his way out, he'd have Tweeted, "3rd Act."

Just heard on 92.3 The Fan that the Bears signed Andy Dalton for 1 year, $10M. What Belichick should have done, IMO.

The Jags have bought themselves a whole new team.

This makes Trevor Lawrence guaranteed to be #1 right? No way they do all this just to trade for deshaun.

j/c...

Keep hearing rumors Browns are in the hunt for LB Denzel Perryman, don’t know much about him, is he any good?

I'm still trying to figure out what kind of defense they are trying to run. That's a lot of DTs.

They're going to try a 7-4.

Why is no one talking about Tyrod Taylor to the Texans?

You only sign Tyrod if you are planning to draft a QB.

Justin Fields.

Fixed it for you

He would be an upgrade for sure. Third round pick if I remember. Started for the chargers most of his career.

Perryman was a 2nd round pick. But not a guy who has been as consistent as you'd like. Plays better the less he plays it seems.

If he's the cheap short term vet so be it.

I should get a screen name change. I have not followed the Chargers since the move to LA.

We may look at linebackers, but we can pretty much rule out backers. The type most people think about won't play much for us. The game is changing.

He hasn't played a full 16 game season in his 6 year career. Missed at least 2 games every season, usually more.

He's more of a run stuffer than coverage guy. Had a nice PFF grade but only started 6 games last season.

One year prove it deal with a low base and some incentives, sure. Not sure what he is looking for, though.

If he can't cover, chances are he can't run. If not, we probably don't want him. We already have several LB's who can't run.

Don't all teams have to be under the cap by 4pm tomorrow or something like that?

Not sure, but it makes sense since tomorrow at 4PM is when teams can officially sign players.

Was just curious with the Saints, Rams and now Bears' situations (tagging Allen Robinson). Hadn't heard much info on restructured deals that has been flying out as of late.

Just a quick update on the cap situation. According to Spotrac, we have 18,540,031 in space without Takk (overthecap shows 18,251,244). If the 4.25m I've read is correct, we about 14.8 (OTC)-15.0m (Spotrac) remaining (current minus Takk plus 780k since we'd have someone drop off the top 51).

That means we have about 8m to spend if we choose to do so, leaving about 7m for rookies. If we did spend, we'd have to be creative about any extensions this offseason.

Poor Allen Robinson. Going from maybe getting Wilson or Watson to having Andy Dalton as his QB. Dalton's Y/A was the lowest of his career with a rather stacked receiving corps in Dallas. OL injuries probably are part of that, but, man, ARob has had some underwhelming QBs throughout his career so far.

The rookies will also kick the bottom contracts off with their signing bonus difference (maybe not the 7th round guy, but you get the idea).

Probably 12-13 million to spend pending any restructures or releases.

Not sure what that means.

Just looked up the Browns' rookie current pool (assuming we make no movement at all) and the figure is $8,931,008 - about 2m higher than I thought.

https://overthecap.com/draft/

j/c:



Good weapon for Allen, IMO. May get more run with attention on Diggs.

With the possible exception of the 6th and 7th round guys, rookies get signing bonuses which put their cap hit higher than league minimum guys.
That would push the league minimum guys at the bottom of the top 51 out of the calculation (just like Takk's contract pushed someone out).
That frees up about 4-5 million more than you had mentioned, if that makes sense.
Probably closer to 4 with the higher than expected rookie pool number.

Yep, makes sense, didn't read it that way at first. My bad.

Per the link, that starts in the 5th round (733k cap amount), so the picks in the 1st through 4th (6 picks or about 4.7m - so about 2.7m higher than my first number)

j/c,

Rookie cap = $8,746,362
Minus rounds 5, 6, and 7
(under top 51 value)
-$2,105,739
First six picks: = $6,640,623
Minus: $750,000 (of which there are but 5 on the current top 51.) -$4,500,000

Net rookie pool: (approximately) ... $2,140,623

$18,540,031 minus $4,250,000

= $14,290,031 minus
... $2,140,623

Aprox cap space remaining: $12,149,408

He was someone I was hoping we would keep. I thought he was one of Dorsey's few good value signings. With question marks around Greedy and Denzel Ward's injury history, I thought he would be good depth worth keeping.

Good luck, TM.

I hate losing Mitchell

I anticipated this when I heard we were in on corners that were not slot corners. Mitchell was a good contributor.

I agree. Losing Mitchell bums me out.

we really should offer him the same deal.. that's not much for a really good CB

lots of chatter

j/c...

the weakening of our division continues

Vikings didn't tender Ifeadi Odenigbo. Might be another DE option.

I remember Odenigbo being on the Browns long enough to have a cup of coffee back in 2018.

He had 7 sacks in 2019, and he was something like the 5th most doubleteamed edge last year with Hunter sidelined. Might be worth kicking the tires depending on money. Stefanski should have insight.



"Better" than Bud Dupree in both categories and only 26.

I do need to actually watch some of his games this season before pounding the table too hard, though.

It'll be interesting to see the details on the Williams deal, since he'll be 33 when the season starts.

[quote=MemphisBrownie]

He was someone I was hoping we would keep. I thought he was one of Dorsey's few good value signings. With question marks around Greedy and Denzel Ward's injury history, I thought he would be good depth worth keeping.

Yeah this one hurts. One of my favorite players. This was his worst year but I think that has more to do with the defensive scheme we are playing

I liked the guy and he was decent, but in the end he is just a guy. Finding a replacement shouldn't be a big stretch.

Mitchell was a good backup that started and played ok.

I liked his style and his hard nosed play. But in the end his lack of speed hurt him.

The Browns were not going to pay him starters money.

He is replaceable.

The big move was getting JJ. This is the guy that changes the back end. He makes all the others in the secondary better. Versatile, smart, fast, plays with good technique. A leader who will make a huge impact.

There will still be some more help added in the secondary.

I am certainly not a football talent evaluator/expert but what I saw from him was he always arrived a step/second late. I could be mixing him up with one of the dozen and a half (or so it seemed)DBs we played last year but that is what I recall. I also think his tackling was suspect. Or maybe we had so many guys who failed to wrap up it was hard to keep track.

Just my 2 cents from watching all of the games.

Bummer about Mitchell. As much as I hate to see him leave as his versatility is valuable, I would hope we can find someone to replace him. I don't like losing him because I thought we were needing to add corners vs losing them.

To the surprise of both no and body, Michael Brockers was traded.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/l...mes/4728923001/

Agreed. Mitchell I think provided probably the only consistency on the back end. IMO he should have been starting opposite Ward in 2019 but if I'm being honest he did look like he was starting to lose a step last season.

In fairness though, a lot of our DBs seemed to be a step behind so I don't know if he really is losing a step or if its more our secondary as a whole wasn't usually in very good position to start with.

I saw the same thing at times...but he was our CB1 for a ton of games last year...he's not that guy.

If he were easily replaceable, we wouldn't have had the bodies behind him that we did.

I’d expect a bunch of unannounced moves at around 4PM today as the new league year officially starts.

Your post sort of makes the point I'm thinking of. No, Mitchell wasn't actual starter material and was forced into the role due to injuries. But let's make something clear here. A 53 man roster isn't made up of superstars. It's made up of players who fill a role. Then you have the salary cap to consider.

When you look at the role Mitchell played and his cost, he was a value. If you look at the depth behind him you can also see the drop off in talent. So the question for me isn't can he be replaced. Of course he can be. The question is what will the cost of replacing him be? To me the level of the talent he brought compared to his cap hit made him a valuable member of the team.

The answer of that value will be answered when we see what Mitchell gets paid verses what it costs us to replace him.

Ouch.

He should have listened to that old adage "If you got nothing nice to say..."

We had been linked to him.

I wouldn't mind bringing back LJ Fort. He seemed to blossom in Baltimore.

Jaguars cut Quenton Meeks. I remember liking him at CB when he was coming out in the draft.

...How old is Buster Skrine now?

It's funny. I feel like he was part of an era where we did better with our lower drafted or undrafted guys than our guys drafted high.

LJ Fort, Tashaun Gipson, Craig Robertson, Jordan Poyer, etc.

Of course, we let them all walk.

Our LBs weren't great by any means, but I thought he was all right in comparison to the rest.

Eric Wilson LB - like him, but re-signing Smith probably negates that.
Troy Hill - Slot CB.
Ryan Kerrigan - DE.

Like Smith and wouldn't mind re-signing BJ Goodson either ...

That is not much money. Rhule seems to accumulate Temple guys.

Not in all cases but many times that is a result of having a new front office every two years.

j/c...

I thought this guy was going to be great coming out. Oops!

Thomas definitely was a good ST player

j/c...

Houston continues to take any player who played for the Browns in the last 3-4 years.

boo

Adam Schefter
@AdamSchefter
Colts free-agent LB Anthony Walker is visiting the Browns today, per source.

Very true.

well atleast we know which dline to attack with our running game this year

another slow LB who can't cover..not sure this guy is an upgrade over BJ goodson, literally he's in the bj goodson/kwon alexander mold. Prob just a depth guy. I think we will pick up a couple in draft.

Maybe we’re trying to get Goodson to lower his asking price a bit too

Colts GM Ballard on Walker"

"Ballard also commented on Walker during his end-of-season press conference:

I have a special relationship with Anthony Walker. Selfless. Team guy. Rare leader. I hope he gets into coaching one day or scouting. Mark my words on this: if Anthony Walker gets into coaching, he will be a head football coach in the National Football League. And if he gets into scouting, he'll be a general manager. He's brilliant — absolutely brilliant, and he's made of the right stuff. I know Anthony wants to play more. We value Anthony. We'll see how it works out. I want good for Anthony.

"73.3 grade
Anthony Walker is the other projected starter and is coming off his best year in coverage, posting a 73.3 grade.Jul 21, 2020"

Smart player who works hard 4.65 speed.

His overall grade was knocked down because of missed tackles.

I want an LB who can play at a high level not a Coach.

The missed tackles comment scares me. I have seen plenty of that from our LBs.

Trent Williams signed a 6 year, $138,060,000 contract with the San Francisco 49ers, including a $30,100,000 signing bonus, $53,900,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $23,010,000. In 2021, Williams will earn a base salary of $1,550,000, a signing bonus of $30,100,000 and a roster bonus of $656,250, while carrying a cap hit of $8,226,250 and a dead cap value of $38,900,000.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/trent-williams-6513/

That's absolutely absurd money; and there's almost no chance that he plays out that entire contract.

I wanted to trade for Trent Williams last off-season. Now I’m really glad we didn’t.

And a $31M dead cap in 2022, $19M in 2023, and $12M in 2024 when he'll be 36 years old.

It's a 3-year deal structured over 6 to manage the Cap impact of the signing bonus and all the guaranteed money.

His overall pff grade was in the 40s. Linebacker missing tackles is a core competency deficit that’s just not worth even looking at. 4.65 speed is very average . He might be a rotation guy but it’s very clear that Berry is going to address with our picks and not FA

After laying on the platitudes, this is what he had to say about playing time... and, obviously, he's now a free agent.

In other words, the owner is saying that the guy should move on to coaching or scouting. He's super smart and knows his stuff, but he just doesn't have it to be on the field any longer.

What I see is: "If Sendejo were a linebacker.... "

I thought that too, but didn't have the heart to say it.

We have not signed him.

He is a young guy who has been a starter.

Berry has a specific role and amount in regards to linebackers.

We have plans followed by alternative plans and contingencies.

Until our final roster is in place. We are feeding on scraps.

Exactly, and it ends up being cheaper to cut him (19m dead) than keep him (26m cap) in the 3rd year if he regresses - so it could even end up a 2 year deal if his skills go south quickly. And the 6th year was just an ego addition to get him the "highest contract ever".

j/c...

Speculation about Walker's tackling deficiencies appear to be contradicted in this article from the PD

link


Browns hosting former Colts LB Anthony Walker on a free agent visit today
Updated 3:31 PM; Today 8:57 AM
Cleveland Browns vs. Indianapolis Colts
Cleveland Browns tight end Austin Hooper is hit by Indianapolis Colts middle linebacker Anthony Walker after making a catch in the first half. Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

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By Mary Kay Cabot, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Former Colts linebacker Anthony Walker had only one interception last season, but it made a lasting impression on the Browns.

He picked off Baker Mayfield with 7:05 left in the Browns’ 32-23 victory over the Colts to put Browns fans on edge. It will definitely be brought up Thursday when the Browns host Walker at their Berea facility, a free agent visit that was confirmed by a league source for cleveland.com.


ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported the visit.

Walker, a fifth-round pick of the Colts in 2017 out of Northwestern, would replace B.J. Goodson, who’s also a free agent.

Walker (6-foot-1, 230), has amassed 343 tackles, 19 for a loss, 3.5 sacks, 11 passes defensed, three interceptions and two fumble recoveries in his 48 starts for the Colts. He started all 16 games last season and recorded 92 tackles, but third-year linebacker Bobby Okereke is set to take over that spot.

According to Pro Football Focus, Walker had the 16th-best tackling efficiency and was 20th in tackling grade among qualifying linebackers in 2020.

The Browns re-signed 11th-year linebacker Malcolm Smith to a one-year deal on Wednesday, and will continue to try to upgrade the position.

Texans are going to need a new QB if this keeps up

Shouldn't that say the Texans?


Sorry...bad joke.

So Larry Ogunjobi is gone to the Bengals,

And someone talked like Terrence Mitchell is gone.

Does anyone know who else from the 2020 Browns is gone?

2.5 million. Ouch. Pretty cheap for a back-up.

Trubisky is a great backup.

I know

Sardonic humor is always appreciated

Larry Ogunjobi
Kevin Johnson
Terrance Mitchell
Olivier Vernon- Street FA
BJ Goodson- Still available
Kendall Lamm
Tavierre Thomas

And a half dozen other guys no one remembers

yeah that’s a steal for Buffalo

Assuming he only holds a clipboard or plays a few quarters, I agree.

The Ravens signing a WR doesn’t scare me much because Lamar can’t throw outside the numbers ... thats kind of like a waste of money IMO

Hollywood Brown was already running through our secondary like nothing last year.

It's their acquisition of Zeitler that scares me more.

Every offseason is an Arms Race.
It's things like this why we need to address DT in a very meaningful way. We cannot have that be an afterthought like the secondary was last season.

I Agree 100%

The whole front 7 need a jolt of real GOODS !

Seems to me that not taking ANY of their cap money would’ve been a little bit better for their cap.

Golladay to the NYG for 18M/yr (4 yr, $72M, $40M guaranteed) link

In other important news, Kenny Golladay did not go to the Ravens or the Bengals.

He is More $$$$ than both OBJ and Landry who are both miles better than him ... JMO

Not sure about that.

The Giants are one of the last places I’d go as a good WR ... but the 18 million is what he’s looking at of course

Golladay is a far better receiver than Landry, but I think good debate would be a healthy OBJ vs Golladay.

I disagree what has Golladay done to help change a culture and turn a team into a winner?

j/c

Carlos Hyde will be reunited with Urban Meyer in Jacksonville.

https://buckeyeswire.usatoday.com/2021/0...draftmaverickMG

Not huge news or anything but with as many Buckeye fans as we have on the board which includes myself, I thought it was worth mentioning.

It was worth it, 9 days ago...

I wouldn't be mad.

A player with Clowney’s upside on the same line has Myles Garrett is very appealing.

Coming out of college he was touted as a once in a generation beast at the position....by more than a few on this board.

And he’s been really productive, just not in the way people expected. At this point his health is the main issue.

I think that he would have to be relatively cheap at this point.

Yup.. he was supposed to be the Bee's Knees, but has never truly risen to being a dominant force. That said, he is still exceptionally good, he's just not transcendent.... and I'd be very happy to see him on the same line as Myles Garrett.

Him on one side, Myles on the other, and Billings/Malik Jackson/Richardson in the middle... you aren't running between the tackles on that. The ability to rotate in Takk McKinley and give Myles & Clowney breathers is HUGE, too.

Yup. I’d bet that he won’t be much more than Takk McKinley at this point.

Almost certainly another one year deal, but maybe it can become a longer one next offseason.

Hmmmmmm ....

j/c...

The NFL seems to be catching its breath for a moment regarding free agency and the offseason. So during the lull in postings on news, I want to thank the dawgtalkers that are posting up here what is going on. It's very much appreciated.

j/c:



That's a rather significant amount.

Seahawks release Jarran Reed

Not sure of the circumstances but they tried to trade him and when they got no offers they released him...

Figured something was coming to get them back under the cap with the Dunlap deal.

Interesting. 28 years old. Former 2nd round pick. Defenisve tackle, average size 6'3 306.

Interesting because, He seems like a 1 on 1 hopeful "type clone" of Ogunjobi.

and, all the Browns defensive front 7 people, well many of them that would be a possible return from last year, or a hopeful signing from this year, and so many seem, seem that the team would hope they'd return from injuries.
Malik ?, hasn't played since 2019.
Olivier Vernon, hasn't been signed and an Achilles injury at, any age has always been "almost" a career ender.
The guy from the radiers, edge rusher, has injury or suspensions by the league, past issues.

So a guy with as many starts in the league, for a Browns run defense that was really stellar last season, and now has been riddled with upcoming suspected absences, would really help.

I'd be real happy if the Browns signed a guy who one could speculate would actually play all the defensive snaps he was asked to.

Like Ogunjobi seemed to.

He'll still get his, but we've got him covered.

j/c:





Not ideal.

So, we get to beat him this year. Excellent.

I thought the same thing

what's with all of these 1 year deals? I thought it was just the the new Browns players doing it but it's all over the league.

We already beat him in 2020 too.

The league Cap went down in 2021 because of last year's revenue losses, so teams have less money to spend on free agents, so players are trending toward one year deals so they can hit free agency again next year when the Cap is expected to shoot back up dramatically, and most teams will have money to burn.

Salary impact of COVID 19 dropped the amount of money that teams can spend on players. So their best option is to take a one year deal, and look for the bigger contract next year.

I wouldn't count on the cap going back up that much. While more people will probably be in the stands next season I seriously doubt they are at full capacity. MAYBE 50%. Depends on how many get vaccinated between now and then and what the Covid numbers look like.

Not disagreeing with half capacity, but they are getting a new TV deal this year and that means a much larger TV contracts. Which will increase the cap considerably.

Maybe, maybe not. Once the ball is starting to roll, which is beginning to happen, anybody can be vaccinated.

The problem is some people don't want the vaccine. If that remains a problem, I can see people being required to show their vaccination card to enter, but that is probably more of a topic for another forum.

I have a feeling stadiums will start around half but end up full as the season moves along.

A good indicator will be what we see in baseball. If after the all-star break we see baseball lifting attendance restrictions(or states), football will be full go.

From what I can gather, fan attendance only really amounts to about 8% of the salary cap. I mean that's how much it decreased from last year with almost zero fans in the stands last season. Actually is was a 92% decrease in fan attendance. With a huge increase in the TV deal and increased fan attendance, I don't see a big raise in the cap being a problem next year.

Report: NFL salary cap down 8% from 2020 at $182.5 million

https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/football-team/report-nfl-salary-cap-down-8-2020-1825-million

This season will NOT be worse than last one as far as covid goes; it literally can't be. 50% attendance is very likely the minimum we'll see at any stadium. No matter what, even 25% is a massive increase for all of the stadiums that played games at 0%.

I believe that I saw that, currently, next year's cap is projected in the $203 million ballpark. That's a gigantic increase, and this doesn't even factor in the new TV deals - that money kicks in for the 2023 season, I believe, and the cap is projected to soar to over $220 million with it being over a quarter billion per team in 2024.

I don't think it will be huge. The cap floor was supposed to be closer to $160M this year, but they "borrowed" from next year to keep it at $180m. As well, the new deal is a 10 year deal starting next year, not all of the money will be seen immediately.

So, lets say they numbers would result in a 30M increase next year, I'd expect it will only increase $10m. I'd think in 2023 we'd see a larger cap increase.

This is all based on articles I read around the time the cap numbers were released, and the TV deal set. Things could certainly have been presented wrong, I may not recollect everything, and things could have changed...so I may not be 100% correct.

There's certainly a lot of questions surrounding the entire cap picture yet to come. At this point we seem to see how it will play out differently. Only time will tell in this case.

Very true.

Considering we have to do something about Baker, Chubb, Ward, Teller and a few other guys in the next couple years, we can only hope it jumps up significantly.

It looks to me like our FO has factored all of this in to the plan. Call it good luck or good planning, either way good timing seems to be on our side.

Whatever it is, I'll take it!

What's that old saying? "Luck is the result of preparation + opportunity."

j/c

Crazy quiet on the Clowney front...seems like our FO really likes the guy (as with Takk)...my biggest concern with Clowney is that no college player in history has gotten more cred due-to/out-of an OG completely whiffing on a block than has J Clowney.