DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Boom and Bust

It's weird that time can seem to go so slowly, yet so quickly. But here we are and it's another opening weekend. For those of you that have been here for a while, I annually post this thread. The premise is simple: pick the Browns players who will exceed expectations (BOOM) and play below expectations (BUST).

I generally pick a few from each side of the ball. Here are my 2015 picks.

OFFENSE

BOOM
1. Travis Benjamin. I liked what I saw last year and based on everything I've seen/read this offseason, he's primed to have a very nice year. I think we'll see him become our best all around weapon (plus, it's a contract year).

2. E.J. Bibbs. This might be a popular pick (and I'm not saying he's going to be a pro bowl type player), but I really liked his ability to catch and create. I think he'll eventually be with the first team offense and will put up nice numbers.

BUST
1. Isaiah Crowell. Fumble issues and inconsistency. There's a reason why we drafted Duke and why we're trying to talk to Montee Ball. I realize the trading of West makes it appear like Crow is the man, but I think he fades away.

2. Dwayne Bowe. Hated this signing with a passion and I don't even see him putting up the yards he did last season (he may even duplicate the 0 TDs again). Based on how much we gave him to come here ... he'll be a bust.


DEFENSE

BOOM
1. Chris Kirksey. I think he'll start to come into his own and be a 3 down player. I like his athleticism and I think he'll prove to be valuable.

2. Xavier Cooper. He seemed very explosive and disruptive this preseason. He'll be a rotational guy, but I think he'll bring some heat on 3rd downs from the inside.

BUST
1. Tramon Williams. Just a hunch, but I think by the middle of the year a lot of people on here will be lamenting the fact that we signed him. Teams will pick on him out of necessity.

2. Justin Gilbert. Is it even fair to put him on this list? He's already been tagged as a bust by some people, but I just don't see him making any strides.


Well, what do you guys say for 2015?

BOOM

OFFENSE:

BRIAN HARTLINE -- I expect an 80+ catch, 1,000+ yard season from Hartline. Guy looks like he still has all his strengths from the limited amount we've seen so far and he's going to play a featured role in the offense.

TRAVIS BENJAMIN -- I was going to put Barnidge here, but I agree... it looks like Benjamin is poised to have a nice season on O and ST.


DEFENSE:

ARMONTY BRYANT -- I think he's a starter by season's end and leads us in sacks. Finally playing him as an edge defender is going to really highlight his best skills... rushing the passer and setting the edge in the run game.

DES BRYANT -- Man, he looked really good this preseason, didn't he? Unfortunately, he can't line up against Ali Marpet every game, but he looks ready to wreak havoc.


BUST

OFFENSE:

DWAYNE BOWE -- I feel like we've seen this before. Guy comes in through FA and doesn't care.

TERRELLE PRYOR -- I don't think he will become close to the playmaker that they are hoping for. I think he was kept around in no small part due to them still smarting over Charles Johnson.


DEFENSE:

SCOTT SOLOMON -- For all the offseason hype, "bloodbath" didn't really show very much in preseason. I think he gets moved to a reserve role sooner than later. A few more blown contains and I think the coaching staff will decide that Orchard is the better edge sealer (he is.)

CRAIG ROBERTSON -- He looked pretty bad this preseason. He's a guy that's been making the most of his abilities but if we are going to improve our run D we need him either to take much better angles or come off the field. His positive plays in the preseason have been due to excellent contain, and we know we don't often have than on the ground.


JMO.

Offense:

BOOM - Brian Hartline and Taylor Gabriel
BUST - Bowe and Crow (I think Crow will get us all excited after a few runs, then fumble it. Especially if he becomes the true, non rb by committee, workhorse.)

Defense:

BOOM: Paul Kruger, Karlos and Danny Shelton (can I add Armonty here too? Truthfully I think Des is also going to beast it, so many potentials to list here)
BUST: Mingo and Nate Orchard. I'd list Justin but I really doubt he plays much this year. Might be a sole special teamer.

Boom:

Offense

1. Taylor Gabriel - our #1 receiver
2. E.J. Bibbs - will end the season as our starting tight end.

Defense

1. Mingo - Won't pressure the QB as much as people would like, but will be great in coverage and in the run game.
2. Ibraheim Campbell - Will be used in nickel packages as a linebacker/safety hybrid.

Busts

Offense:

1. Brian Hartline - Was unsuccessful last year with a much better QB in a much better system. Will be on the bench behind Gabriel, Hawkins, and Benjamin before too long.

2. Pryor - He will do nothing and be cut mid-season.

Defense:

1. Solomon - I don't expect much in the first place, but he will prove to be a disposable part of the team.

2. Gipson - Will still play well, but not with the INT numbers he had last year.

Ibraheim

Him too.

Ah you reminded me that I wanted to add Gipson to my bust list as well. Not that he'll play poorly, just that INTs are more of a "luck" thing and I think he's played as well as possible the last two years

Gipson doesn't need INTs to still have a stellar year.

Gipson's interceptions are not luck. His interceptions come from mistakes by a QB who is hurried or confused. His interceptions are a product of others doing their job and good indicator defense is playing well.

Right. Luck in the sense that he is not being Ed Reed in the middle of the field tracking down the ball. I don't think anyone was suggesting that the ball literally just fell into Gipson's lap with no other factors in play.

Correct. I didn't mean he just sits there and the ball flies to him. Obviously he's making good reads, there is good pressure, and/or the CBs are being effective. However, all of that COULD still happen and he may not get INT #s

guess you were wrong on that one, lol

ProFootballTalk ‏@ProFootballTalk 50s51 seconds ago

Browns are waiving Terrelle Pryor per source.

You too.

We are both so smart.

Does this also mean that all my other predictions are also right? If so, can I change 4-12 prediction for the season?

change your prediction quick!

"Text" has much more BUST than BOOM.

Booms
Danny Shelton--I know people are expecting him to play well, but I think very highly of him and think he'll produce much better than already expected. He is a hard worker, has a high motor, an athletic freak, and smart. I expect to see him eating double-teams all season and opening lanes for the linebackers to apply pressure on the QB and stuffing the run up the middle.

John Hughes III--He has the skills to be special and I think will step up in place of a faltering Randy Starks by mid-season. He's big, mean, and also has a high motor like Shelton. A Desmond Bryant, Danny Shelton, and John Hughes defensive front could be a wrecking crew.

Taylor Gabriel--Like Hughes, he has the skills to be special. It's just a matter of putting them together and having a QB who can get him the ball. This Smurf WR will pass everyone else on the depth chart and become the team's #1 receiver by the end of the season.

Isaiah Crowell--I know Duke was brought in to contend for that #1 RB spot, but I think Crowell is more talented. He runs with anger and could explode as one of the better running backs in the league this year. I'm afraid Johnson will be too small/weak to carry the load as a runner and will be utilized more as a receiving back. When we need a runner, though, Crowell will be that guy.



Busts
Justin Gilbert--I think he never gets his head around how to play at the professional level and fizzles out this season, ultimately being let go in the 2016 off-season. Unfortunate, but I think we've seen enough of him at this point to know what he is.

Randy Starks--It was between him and Dansby (because of Dansby's age). I can't quite put my finger on why, but I have a gut feeling feeling that Starks will disappoint.

Duke Johnson--As I mentioned earlier, I don't think he has the body or running style to make an impact running the ball. He will be a nice receiving option out of the backfield, but I don't see him being much of a threat running it. I really hope I'm wrong with this one.

Dwayne Bowe--Not sure he could be considered a bust since it seems that most people don't expect much from him, but he was considered our #1 WR at one point and commanded a larger contract. He's getting older, slow, seems to have a bad attitude, and hasn't strung together multiple seasons worth noting in his career. Aside from his one season in 2010 when he had 15 TDs and 72 receptions, he's never had more than 86 receptions and 7 TDs in a season. My prediction of Gabriel being a boom also doesn't help Bowe's status (if I'm right, of course).

League-wide kicking woes have not afflicted Browns and Ravens
Oct 09, 2015 -- 6:00am

C’mon, man: I’d had enough.

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh was sermonizing on a conference call with Cleveland media on Wednesday.

He responded to a question about how his franchise’s “winning culture” enabled his team to overcome a 20-7 deficit in Heinz Field last Thursday night and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime, 23-20, to avoid a disastrous 0-4 start to the season.

“I don’t know … that’s like an hour conversation,” Harbaugh said, haughtily as ever. “I don’t know. I think I do know, but there’s no way we could get into it right here. Give our players credit. They just got the job done. The odds were highly against us at the end there, but we put ourselves in that situation, too. It was just the situation we found ourselves in. I think that’s how it works in this league.”

I couldn’t take it.

I blurted into the intercom, “Doesn’t it help to have the opposing kicker miss two field goals?”

Harbaugh chuckled.

“You’re not really wanting to me to comment on that are you, or expecting me to?”

I said, “Well, yes, I am.”

Crickets …

“Is there a question there?” Harbaugh finally said.

“Yes,” I said. “Would you admit you were lucky to leave Pittsburgh with a win?”

“No. No,” Harbaugh said.

Give us all a break, John.

Kicking it: Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was so awed by Baltimore’s “culture” that he fired his crooked-legged kicker, Josh Scobee, two days after he cost Pittsburgh a win against their hated rivals with two missed field goals in the fourth quarter.

The Steelers had traded a sixth-round pick to Jacksonville for Scobee and paid him $2.5 million to rescue their kicking situation. Scobee was acquired after injuries to regular kicker Shaun Suisham and replacement Garrett Hartley, the one-time Brown.

Pittsburgh has signed its fourth kicker of the young season, Chris Boswell, wo has never kicked in a regular-season NFL game.

Pittsburgh’s situation is emblematic of a crazy year in the works for NFL kickers.

It’s open season on kickers. Through four weeks, six teams have changed kickers. Even Billy Cundiff, the ex-Brown, has found another team. The Buffalo Bills signed him this week.

For years, the NFL has tried to curb the impact of kickers, whose accuracy has soared to over 85 percent league-wide. The league experimented with narrow goal posts in the Pro Bowl.

“Kickers are like lawyers, never truly appreciated until you need a good one,” Tweeted ESPN’s Andrew Brandt, a former Green Bay Packers executive.

Kickers are under fire after a rules change moved back the extra point from a 20-yard kick to one from 33 yards. Already, 17 PATs have been missed, compared to eight in all of the 2014 season.

“It’s not an easy point anymore,” said Browns special teams coordinator Chris Tabor.

An unintended consequence has been more missed field goals, too. In Week 4, kickers missed 14 field goals.

Harbaugh, who was an acclaimed special teams coach with the Philadelphia Eagles before becoming the Ravens head coach said, “One thing, I guess, they don’t get their money shots to get them going with the PATs. I play golf sometimes, and I’d love to get some easy putts, too, to knock a few putts in before I have to make a putt, but it just never seems to happen for me.

“The point is you have to make whatever they ask you to do. It’s a little more challenging for kickers. It certainly is.”

Toe to toe: Which brings us to Sunday’s game in Baltimore between the Browns and Ravens.

Just as Scobee was the goat in Pittsburgh’s loss, Justin Tucker was the hero in Baltimore’s win. Tucker made a 42-yard field goal with :03 in regulation to tie the game, 20-20, and then won it in overtime with a 52-yard field goal.

Tucker, who is 10 of 11 on field goals and 9 of 9 on PATs this year, may be the best kicker in the NFL right now. His career field-goal accuracy rate of .899 is second all time to Dan Bailey’s .902 for kickers with a minimum of 100 field goals made.

For the Browns, kicker Travis Coons has been one of the pleasant surprises of the young season. Coons, who had been in the Tennessee Titans training camp a year, won a competition against native Clevelander Carey Spear to win the Browns’ kicking job this summer.

On his first NFL kick in a regular-season game, Coons set an unofficial record with a 48-yard PAT – the result of two Browns penalties. It was the hardest-earned point for a kicker in history.

And Coons has not missed a single kick. He has made all eight PATs and 7 of 7 field goals, with a long of 41 yards.

Coons, a native of southern California, has converted through the unpredictable winds in FirstEnergy Stadium, but he has not been tested in inclement weather or in a game-winning situation. But his laid-back, SoCal demeanor – he’s a surfer and a skateboarder – should serve him well when the pressure is on.

“I think he has exhibited the mental toughness, but you will never know until it happens,” said Browns coach Mike Pettine. “We are hopeful that when that situation comes for him to kick the game winner and calmly trot out there, (he will) bang it through.”

Coons is the first time the Browns have gone young at kicker since Phil Dawson was chosen by Chris Palmer in the 1999 expansion season. “We’re starting with you,” Palmer said, ominously, to Dawson.

ourteen years later, Dawson left via free agency as the Browns all-time field goal leader, besting the record held by Pro Football Hall of Famer Lou Groza.

Dawson’s most famous kick was made in Baltimore in the 2007 season. It was a 51-yard carom shot off the back support bar that bounced back through the goalposts. Originally ruled no good, it was reversed when officials received a call from New York headquarters. The kick sent the game in overtime. Davis then won it with a 33-yard field goal.

It was the last time the Browns won a game in Baltimore.

If something like that happened on Sunday, Harbaugh would have a tough time explaining the Ravens’ “winning culture.”

http://espncleveland.com/common/more.php?m=49&action=blog&r=17&post_id=50301

good prediction with Coons thus far ... let's hope it lasts young squirrel

So his longest kick this year was a PAT. By a decent chunk. Unusual to say the least.