Nice Get

Great news. Win!

Someone to play across from Ward. Nice.

He’s more of a slot corner.

Pretty good player PFF grade 74.2.

Played in our defensive system and of course played with JJ.

"Brandon Staley’s defense was among the best in football a year ago running a variant of the Fangio system, and it relied on Troy Hill as a starting corner.

Woods system is close to Staley's.

Pretty good player.

Great signing!

Top player in an area of need, Ohio native and reasonably priced.

We're trying to be the Cleveland Rams again with all these Rams DB signings :-p

J/C Very nice upgrade for our slot. The importance of that position seems to escalate every year. I am really beginning to like our front office more and more. Nothing to flashy but very sound and well thought out approach. I am really excited to see how the rest of F/A plays out as well as the draft

Smart move.

This guy will fit in packages and provide depth.

Reasonably priced.

That's a decent grade!

I'm kind of surprised they did 4 years for a guy about to be 30 just based on the guardrails. I wonder how it breaks down.

Like the player. Slot corner went from probably the 2nd worst position on the squad for parts of last year to a possible strength.

If Greedy & Delpit are healthy, our secondary just got FILTHY.

We have SIX solid DBs!


Now... about those DT's

Nice seeing a YTown guy coming home!

Slot corner beautiful ... any secondary help is welcome

he also played outside

well, we will be playing a lot of 4-2 or 5-1 so we need the depth

Three solid safeties. Three solid CBs.
In theory, Greedy & Harrison are the weaknesses in our secondary

A DT that can get pressure while maintaining run discipline and an athletic LBer that can cover and the makeover will be complete.

Another shrewd free agent signing by the Browns! It's becoming a habit.

Finally, the inside outside CB.

It was him or Hilton, so...yeah.

He played a lot outside before he destroyed the slot last year. Really well done, AB.

Last year we had Ward, a guy who struggled inside (Mitchell) and a guy who was trash outside (Johnson). Our DB room just got crazy versatile with a quickness.

Heck, at this point I don't care if we wait to see how the draft plays out before signing anyone else. Happy days.

RCB- Greedy Williams
LCB- Denzel Ward (72.8)
Slot: Troy Hill (74.2)
FS- John Johnson III (85.6)
SS- Ronnie Harrison (74.7)
Flex: Grant Delpit*

Get some!

That looks good

Thanks.

So we still need someone to play across from Ward.

Loud and clear.

Strategic moves. From weakness to strength.

I expect the draft to be complimentary.

If Takk delivers as part of a group "to keep fresh"at DE. We are methodically improving. Billings returning from opt out year. Second year for Elliott and Phillips normally big growth from rookie year.

Defense is already way better.

Agreed bone. We improved at safety and nickel. Huge upgrades

Awesome!

All Good signings so far.

Getting Greedy and Delpit back is like gravy.

i'm liking what our FO is doing this offseason... pluggin holes!

Am I the only one who is very concerned about GReedy coming back from his season-long nerve issue?

Hill plays inside and outside.

I was greatly concerned until about an hour ago.

No

This was a good signing and no your not the only one worried about Greedy's return. That's why i believe we should get another CB somewhere be it FA or the draft.

I would expect we sign one more corner as Greedy insurance.

I am glad we are signing Rams defensive players. I liked how they played defense last year.

It helps to have Aaron Donald though.

It doesn’t hurt to have the best corner and best defensive player.

I like Hill but we could have re-signed Mitchell for a lot less and according to PFF Hill grades out only slightly better than Mitchell plus he's a year older.

Mitchell doesn’t play the slot.

no I’d say chances are he’ll never give any production

You don't think with Hill's versatility that they're considering CB 'done' until the draft?

Probably so. Corners/safties are also good special team players, but in the end you can only keep so many.

However, in the past you might keep 6 linebackers where now we might only keep 3-4.

While I still would've liked to keep $ Mitchell, I'm now lamenting the loss of Tavierre Thomas. He was our special teams ace. I don't want JJ3 or Hill taking those hits (with versatility comes lots and lots of reps at different positions on the defensive side).

Our new ST Ace will be an UDFA from this Draft.

I think that we'll look for at least 1-2 CBs and another S before the draft. (obviously not top dollar guys)We have had so many injuries in the secondary last year that we wound up playing Sendejo, and a bunch of other guys who should never have seen the field on defense. Yes we'll still probably draft a couple in the secondary, but we need as much quality depth there as possible.

The Browns are quietly going about their business.. Very effective, No splashes. Just very solid pick ups.

So far, it seems that the Browns FO is not willing to depend on the draft to address the team's weak areas on the defensive side.

Job well done!

They're doing things the smart way: fill holes in free agency, improve talent and youth in the Draft.

I am sure some of the drafted guys can fill that role...or some UDFA.

I think that was already addressed in the one year deal reached with Natson. At least I think that's the plan.

Browns agree with return specialist JoJo Natson on a one-year deal coming off torn ACL

https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2021/03...e-torn-acl.html

Darn right. When you start to pigeon hole yourself into selecting players for major needs, you have a problem

That’s a great deal. Andrew Berry has the goods.

agreed. Business like and smart, while not overspending

We brought back Hodge. I'm assuming Elijah (?) Lee is back to play ST, too.

Last season, the Browns were depending on Delpit and Greedy and both remain question marks after sitting out last season with injuries.

Tak agrees!

All good...

Strategic moves.

You upgrade talent and add versatility.

Andrew Berry is proving education counts. Smart moves.

The Cleveland Browns final roster for the 2021 season will be the best roster the Browns have had since way way back.

Returning players who missed last season:

Odell
Billings
Greedy
Delpit

Additions to date:

John Johnson 3
Troy Hill
Takk McKinley

Returning free agents:

Malcolm Smith
JoJo Natson
Cody Parkey
Hollywood Higgins
K Hodge


Free agency is not over.
The draft yet to arrive.

My hope is we can avoid injuries. We have a great team and I want to see them play.

It would sure be a blessing if we could stay healthy.

In addition to those you stated on players who missed last season, you can add:

Drew Forbes
Drake Dorbeck
Colby Gossett
Malcolm Pridgeon


All of them are OLine; so, an already deep group just got a lot deeper.

Right, Forbes was going to challenge for the RG spot before Teller put his name on it.

The bottom of the roster is not decided till the very end.

But damn just with what we have done. I am ready for September.

Agreed. I haven't been looking forward to a football season like I am now in forever. Like someone said, I hope we stay healthy because if we do this team could be very, very good.

The last time people were saying this, we were given the Freddie Kitchens season. I'm not letting myself get excited.

I think this year will be different. I think the 'team' arrived last year and for the next couple years it's only direction is up. Of course anything can happen to derail this, but I like our chances right now.

I wasn't one of them. I was hopeful but skeptical about Freddie. This feels alot better because of last season.

Last year we weren't sure if Freddie had broken baker, if the team would buy into the new coaching, if the coach would be worth a damn, if the new FO would be worth a damn, and how everything would gel... Then we had covid to deal with as well...

Since it looks as though the org is 100% on the same page, the team loves the coach and the plan, Baker took the next step, and hopefully covid will be behind us... This year couldn't be more different IMHO.

Dorbeck just got released recently.

I'm just saying, stranger things have happened.

This team....

When Freddie was hired all was unknown.

Last year the Brown's beat the Steelers in their house in the playoffs.

We will be starting our second season with the NFL Head Coach of the Year.

After getting to and winning in the playoffs.
We have already improved the team in the areas of weakness.

It's ok to let go and be optimistic.

Like I said if we can remain healthy this is the best team since 1987.

I think the Browns Defense played better than some want to admit last year, and got good production out of a variety of players. Likewise I think the loss of Terrence Mitchell and Larry Ogunjobi, among others whose status is sort of up in the air, Vernon, Kevin Johnson, others, will leave the Browns with a question mark of what the new faces can do, an unknown, we'll have to wait and see, wait and see if the new guys can match the previous players' success.

Drew Forbes is the first recognizable name to stick out on that list.
Kendall Lamm, the Browns #7 ish who played like a semi- able starter, last year, is gone, hopefully they aren't counting on Drew Forbes
who sat out last year for Covid caution, and didn't play very well anytime before that, to be the replacement. A definite net loss of skillset imo.

I want to see how Alex Taylor develops with more time with Callahan. He could be an adequate internal replacement at swing tackle.

That just gave me chills... Either that or it was my milkshake.. I'll go with your comments

When we build on last year and are a playoff team again in 2021 fans can finally be healed of their PTETD. Post Traumatic Expansion Team Disorder. It's a real thing, look it up in the DSM -6.

We are for real.

I know what it has taken to get here. Lots of pain.

We are no longer the team we have been.

The Bucs went from 7 wins to winning the Super Bowl.

We have a lot of good things going on.

Buckle up.

I Cnt' believe. Browns CB Kevin Johnson, (the one who made all those good plays late in the year last year)

signed a one year deal with the Tennessee Titans, March 18th.

So This, Troy Hill whomever, who we know nothing about,

is going to be counted on , to make the plays for a player, like, like Kevin Johnson, who was just coming on, and showing what he can do,

and the PLAYER WE KNOW CAN MAKE PLAYS, ... LEAVES THE TEAM!

HOW MANY TIMES, HOW MANY YEARS, do the Browns have to REPEAT, THE same pattern,

of not signing their own guys, I'm telling you,

I'm telling you, a team can't win the division in March!
But they can lose it.

For 25 years, for 25 years, (so a proven pattern), guys who join your team, at least in the first year,

Guys who join your team never help you as much, as guys you let leave your team hurt your success.

Guys who are added to your team, never help your team win as much...
as guys who leave your team hurt your ability to compete.

So The 2020 Browns had about 24 Db's and only two of them could suit up most of the year,
and now Both Kevin Johnson and Terrence Mitchell were allowed to leave the team in free agency.

It's an old record, me complaining is an old record.

another old record is any time the Browns show any type of success, (including the year 1993)
I start asking,
HOW LONG CAN THE BROWNS KEEP THIS ROSTER TOGETHER??????

Well once again! Not even for one off season.

and, of course, the last 10 positive seasons,
maybe 7 of the last 10 times the Browns showed signs of LIFE competitive, wise

They follow it up with a sup par year the next year.

Face it the Browns defense is in complete Rebuild mode, and

They'll have to overachieve if they even want to compete for playoff spot next year,

Since they can't keep their &%^& roster together!

Dude you are lost

Yea some people can't see the forest for the trees ... I mean we actually have 2 Shutdown CB's with pretty good depth, we do need to add another either through FA or the draft but Ward and Hill are dynamic

I'm hoping Hill in the slot , not the #2 outside guy ..

Either way he is a dynamic CB, and if Greedy returns healthy wow just wow ...

This made me laugh. ^^^

Also, made me think of this:

Bro that post was uglier than a 100 mph 3 yard pass by Derick Anderson.

sorry.
just couldn't help piling on.

Kinda along the same lines, aside from Tavierre Thomas and Sendejo, who was the third DB that was regularly getting roasted in coverage? I'm getting my depth DBs mixed up. Was it KJ that was getting picked on regularly?

I know the DB situation was messed up from the get-go with Greedy being out, but if we've essentially swapped KJ for Hill... an upgrade is an upgrade.

Was it Robert Jackson?

Thank you. I definitely was getting my depth DBs mixed up.

Hope he can replace T. Thomas on special teams since we resigned Jackson and didnt resign Thomas. Not a complaint. Just saying Thomas was valuable on ST and his contribution on those units has to be made up for by somebody.

That's what UDFA's are for.

Some kid in camp who recognizes that his best way of making the roster is Special Teams will step up and take that role.


As for the secondary, just the fact that we won't be putting a 3rd stringer out there just to be able to go Nickle is a massive upgrade. We have starter-quality across the board for the three CB spots... and for the three Safeties, too.

Now, we just need to groom/elevate our backups a little so in the event of injury the drop-off isn't so huge.

And that's what I think people sometimes miss in FA signings. Not all of them are signed as an upgrade to the starting roster. Some are simply signed to upgrade your depth chart. If after your third CB or S you fall off a cliff, upgrading that fourth guy at S and CB are critical to success as well. Injuries will happen. At that point the quality of your depth means everything.

Ok, since UDFA's are for special teams can you explain what Jackson's role is likely to be? It sure isn't pass coverage if his production last season is any indication.

My comment isn't about Freddie's tenure itself, but Freddie was (what looks to be) the end of a long line of huge gambles the Browns have FO's have made over the years. We've gambled on coaches, we've gambled on over priced players past their prime, we've gambled on drafted players with incomplete profiles...

To be fair, hiring Stefanski was a gamble, but that gamble to me felt a little more calculated and trying to play the lotto.

I think bone is right in that we can get excited for next season. And for those not quite there yet, they too are right because no one disagrees that consistency is the next step for this team.

Malik?
Man, I hope his role isn't in coverage!

We are where we have wanted to be since the return. We have our coach. We have our qb. We were talented beyond a one and done playoff team before this offseason, and we have plugged the last of our gaping holes BEFORE the draft. We are still better off financially than most other teams in the league. We have a GM that has yet to make a move that leaves me scratching my head. This team is now ready to compete at the highest level for the foreseeable future. I seriously doubted whether we'd ever get to this place.

j/c...

A recommendation from Money Mitch...

Great story.

In General a team needs something reliable in the Db's or it gets very ugly when they get torched.
(I'm remembering a game against Indianapolis around 2017 where Indy put up 21 points in the 2nd quarter on about 3-5 passing plays, and quickly had 35 on their side of the score board.)

(Flashback! That was one of the times a Backup or 2nd string quarterback beat the Browns under Coach Hue.,
First: The fact the Browns faced about 7+ backup Qb's in a year or two is unbelieveable in it's own right,
Second: The abysmisal record of going almost winless against all of them is almost at unbelieveable.
third: This supersedes Hue Jackson as even before and after he was coach the Browns still have an abysmal record against backup quarterbacks.
If you'd take the last 16 times the Browns faced a backup quarterback, I wonder if they have won 3 of them.
May hold true if you counted from prior to the 2020 year, because in 2020 they beat the Redskins and 2nd steelers game against backups.
End of flashback.)


The Browns, I think got a LOT of Overachieved Success from their secondary last year, that goes unheralded and refusal to see from this message boards posters, and there is a propensity to mock the former Browns players.

But the bottom line, in my opinion and view of observation, is the reliable members of the Browns secondary from last year,
while not statistically super heros, were able to play as a group that understands what to do.

So Now! The Browns have largely jettisoned the entire group, and brought in a new set of individuals,

It could get Very Ugla, <-- I did miss spell that but it looks like a Cajun word. You know, Ugly and Ugla, it's even worse
It could be an improvement, we've seen both occur in years past.

It is a total rebuild.

I'm really going to miss Terrance Mitchell. I don't know how this team wins a game without Terrance Mitchell on the field.
He was a Trunk of a plant or tree.
Every other DB was a branch, that exceled in its role apart from that trunk,
Now, there are a bunch of branches floating in the wind, Who will become the new trunk?

I really think it's going to be a down year for the Browns secondary,
"They could have kept the team together",

But they can't ever seem to,

In January, when your asking why did the Browns regress so far from 2020-2021, it's because they couldn't keep the team together,

Or maybe not, Maybe taking what works and rebuilding what isn't broken,
12 wins

and choosing a full on rebuild, is going to result in "even better"

There is a first time for everything.

By this point, I'm starting to think they took Greedy to Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

Get on the field.

He's such a smart signing. The Browns desperately needed a factor at the nickel position and he can be that. When you consider the rotating issues which occurred last season with Tav Thomas, Kevin Johnson and M.J Stewart, adding a guy who fill that position was a must. I could point out a vast array of failures at that position - most notably the final first down of the season which sealed the loss against KC.

Troy Hill thrives in that role, but he's also someone who is excited to be a Cleveland Brown and is throwing his heart and soul in to the job. That never goes wrong.

The DB list is starting to become quite intimidating:

Denzel Ward
Greedy Williams
Troy Hill
Ronnie Harrison
John Johnson
Grant Delpit

That's a fearsome secondary. That's loaded with size, talent and production while also being boosted by a fantastic defensive front.

well, it is a defensive front with a ton of potential.... it still needs some help because, as-is, it won't hold up and get pressure all year. We just aren't deep enough. Our talent on the DLine is very superficial and as soon as we start rotating or get hit by the injury bug, our entire D's effectiveness will drop off a cliff.

Best sideline secondary in the NFL. I respect the injuries, but some of these folks need to be on the field or make way on our roster. And I DO love what we have, every one of them. But it is time to play this year.

We know about 4 of them. Delpit has yet to take an NFL snap. Granny hasn't played in close to half of possible games and what little he showed was meh.

I am not writing either of them off yet, but we can't write them on yet, either. Both drafted high (and not considered reaches) so the potential is there. But they need to perform on the field before they can be seen as fearsome or intimidating.

Agreed. We can't be 100% sure about our secondary yet. That's why getting another pass rusher opposite Myles is imperative.

I feel you, but that's why I'm so excited. That's also what she said.

Imagine talent like Grant Delpit and Greedy Williams being the guys we're unsure about. Like, damn. That's wild. We're a long way from hoping Leon McFadden does anything or wondering why Tramon Williams is still suiting up.

Delpit is less of a concern because JJ3 and Ronnie Harrison are, at worst, an exciting duo at safety. Delpit just needs to be a guy in that mix who can shake things up, but there is no pressure on him to carry too much of a load. We'll be able to find a role for him at worst.

Personally, I love Greedy. Dude was phenomenal in his first two games, then suffered a niggling hamstring injury, then returned when Chad Thomas and Porter Gustin were our pass rushers. Let's point out EVERYONE in the secondary sucked that year, even Denzel Ward. We were a mess. And Greedy was dealing with that as a rookie - corners don't exactly tend to set the league on fire in year one as it is.

Then coming in to year two, he was said to be looking good before the injury. I think the guy has just had rotten luck far more than being justifiably meh.

Again, I'll take those two as a weakest link. They'd both probably be the strongest link for more than a few teams around the league.

Write them on. Just based on the talent and the four we know we've got, it's hard to imagine this secondary not being a big improvement over any we've had in a while.

Hill is better than Greedy. I wouldn't mind seeing Hill out there with Ward.

jmho

I also wouldn't mind seeing Hill in the slot with Greedy on the outside for obvious passing downs.

At this point, I think proof of life (on the field) from Greedy would light up the Browns fandom.

Yeah, I think that goes without saying.

Greedy was not drafted by the current regime. Also, he has not played defense for Joe Woods.

First he needs to get on the field.

Last season the defense was not addressed because the offense needed help. This year the defense has been addressed in free agency and will be emphasized in the draft.

So, with the additions of JJ3, and Hill along with the return of Greedy and Delpit.

Roles will be better defined. Greedy will more than likely will be used differently than before.

Training camp will clarify things.

I'm lazy, but I thought one of the reports on Greedy when he was drafted was that he was strictly an outside corner type.

In college he was used mostly a press man corner. When he did play under Freddie and staff they played a lot of zone.

He has very good coverage skills. Excellent in man.

Last year under Woods the team was forced because of lack of personnel to play mostly zone.

That could change. Because of the upgrades. We now have legit safety's. I expect us to add a corner in the draft maybe in the first round. Ward is excellent in both press, and off man, as well as zone.

Woods will be able to do way more in confusing quarterbacks by mixing coverages.

I remember a few years ago when Bengal Fan, was talking trash to me that Adam Jones was going to return from an injury.

In my mind I was like, "I hope he comes back, we've been torching him for 6 years."

If Ahem' is that good, maybe the Browns can trade him to Cincinnati, and hope plays a long time.

When we see 3 WRs that is exactly what we would do...bring Hill to cover the slot and have Ward and Greedy on the outside.

But my point was to say with just basic 2 WR Defense to have Hill in the game on the outside not sit him.

jmho