DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns cut Donte Whitner

Not sure who it was, but when they cut Dansby, someone said, Dante Whitner is next. Well, he wasn't exactly next but he's gone. I wish him well..

He'll get picked up,, no question in my mind.

I guess there are few if any sacred cows on a 3-13 team.. Probably as it should be.

Good luck to Donte. Thanks for the good you brought.

I disagree. Whitner was our best db last year. He had one game early in the season where he looked real bad on about 3 plays. Those images stuck in the minds of certain posters for the rest of the season.

Whit was the one guy who was where he was supposed to be in coverage. He was the one guy who threw his body around. He was the one guy who really cared about the team and the city.

It's disturbing to see fans kicking him when he is down.

I can tell you that he was miles better than T. Williams. Why is that guy still on the team? Is he young? He may have been the worst cb in the league last year.

Yeah, Sashi knows what he's doing.

Players from our 2015 roster who are already gone from our 2016 roster

Pat Devin
Johnson Bademosi
Tashaun Gipson
Craig Robertson
Ifo Ekpre-Olomu
Johnny Manziel
Alex Mack
Dwayne Bowe
Travis Benjamin
Karlos Dansby
Randy Starks
Donte Whitner
Jim Dray
Mitchell Schwartz

Talk about cleaning house

Who are all of these people that are freaking out or acting like we are ripping apart a dynasty? Care to name? Most of the posts said that it was not surprising. There were a couple that said he sucked. There were a couple who wondered how this makes us better.

So again, who is "everybody" or all these people?

And I post on the Cavs threads. Not "everyone" is saying to blow up the roster. Heck, who really is saying that? Anyone?

I think the two posts quoted here are simply posts designed to belittle the opinions of anyone who doesn't praise each move the FO makes. Belittle them, exaggerate, label. We see it all the time on there. The goal being to dismiss the opinions of those who don't agree w/the majority.

You know, kinda like last summer when people were praising Farmer and Pet and saying how good the roster was. 11 and 5. This team is a qb away from being a Super Bowl contender.

Now, y'all throwing those same people and players under the bus.

Comedic genius at its best.

Trust me. He's not down. He has money in the bank living a GREAT life playing a game. He's the opposite of down.

I love that Whitner just tweeted out that the team is playing MONEYBALL now LOL

Personally, I'm not shocked. that's what the front office told everyone there were going to do.

The difference between the NFL and baseball.. they play a lot more games to give their team a chance to gel. They also have more time to find and acquire players or even bring them up from the farms. The NFL doesn't have that. We only get 16 games in the NFL.

Plus, I could see a situation where 8 games in... the players will just give up if they don't win at least 3-4 few of them at the start of the season.

I'm guessing the team just did physicals/medical checks for everyone before camp. With his age and style of play, I wouldn't be surprised if his body looks like it is breaking down a bit. I probably still would have kept him as we're not near the cap, and he was a good role model and wanted to win in Cleveland. I'm not sure if he would have been down with being a backup if the team wanted to get the younger guys more reps. The medical angle is really the only thing I can think of for the timing.

j/c:

I wonder if the Haslams will cut ticket prices for the fans like they are cutting money from the roster?

Why should the fans pay the same price for tickets when the organization is not willing to pay enough money to field a competitive team?

Medical and probably $

If you're going to rebuild it... tear it down and rebuild it all.

Much easier to install a new culture. It will be easier with young, fresh players than too many vets and guys set in their ways.

I like what Oakland has done but we'll need patience. IF I see fruit from this reclamation I'll stay patient.

This organization loves to try it's followers...

I am not attacking you. I think your statement was genuine. However, I just don't "get" this tear it down and rebuild it all logic?

Gilber is still on the team. T. Williams is still on the team. Meder is still on the team. Erving is still on the team. All kinds of guys are -- and will be -- on the team.

I don't see this is a "total tear down" and start over thing. I see these moves as cost saving moves designed to put more money in the pockets of the Haslams.

Havent been on the forum in awhile. But I agree highly with this. When our whole front 7 was wiffing on tackles along with Haden, Tramon, Gilbert, Desir etc...Whitner was the only one consistently bringing people down 1 on 1...I dont know why people bash on him so much, he was our best and most reliable secondary player all year, and the one laying his body on the line the most. Yeah he was getting older, but so is everyone...Makes no sense to save $3-3.5 mill when your $40 mill under the cap. I know alot of people saying Campbell gets a chance to shine, while true...whom do we have when and if Campbell gets hurt or for sub packages...going to have to use now ANOTHER draft pick, when we have a plethora of many many other needs already...this is getting disgusting, and hurts me deeply when I just want to have at worst an 8-8 .500 team to at least enjoy rooting for or manageable to watch...That seems many years away, if ever in the near future.

I get you and agree.

I realize you can't dump the entire squad.
In keeping guys like those you mentioned was more in line with what I posted along with those who might buy into your intended plan. I'm sure some vets don't want anything to do with this plan.

Or they learned from free agency and want to free up money to front-load some extensions on players they see as part of the future. Or they could just be incompetent. It's hard to know without being privy to those conversations.

While I understand Whitner's frustration at being cut by his hometown team, I don't think the common courtesy twitter blast was really called for. The team could have held onto him through the preseason and then cut him. He hasn't missed anything with another team yet, and most still have cap room. I don't think the team planned on cutting him. Cutting him now rather than later is common courtesy to me.

reserve this for after the draft.. too early to say.

Wow.....I remember talking about that when the Browns hired Savage. You're right.......tearing it down is the easy part.

I can't help but believe that at some point "moneyball" or "analytics and the thing/player the team needs to (possibly) push it over the top collide.

Given the recent cuts are part of the new plan, whatever that is, none of them has really bothered me, not even Dansby. They handled his release in a very classy manner. He's already signed with the bengals in what appears to be a temporary replacement for a suspended player and later to be used in a sub-package role.

I'm guessing they were trying to deal Whitner for a pick since he's fully capable of a starting role on a team needing a safety. Donte is every bit as much owed a break like the one they gave Danbsy. Either the Browns got no takers or they felt they should cut him while he still has a chance to get a signing before the draft which would still be considerate.

The Whitner cut bothers me in that he is a Probowl veteran who is a Browns fan and would be, as he has been, the first to stand up and cheerlead for the team in the locker room. That has value even if he couldn't play well. But he is a player and will be missed on several layers.

I know nobody making a lot of coin is safe when it comes to "Moneyball" but, was it not Horton who brought Kruger to the Browns? If so, I would be surprised if they now cut him.

If anything, Horton is probably scratching his head as to how the previous Def coaches couldn't get productivity out of Kruger and maybe looking forward to working with him again. But, who knows...it's anybody's guess at this stage in the "reboot".

I think Whitner is gone because we feel we have his replacement in place. Williams is probably still here because we don't have a replacement at this time. I doubt he is here for the season opener.

Why, because people chose to sign with other teams even when we made better offers?

No doubt this is hard for some of you to watch because you don't understand. Give it time Grasshopper.

Rolling up my sleeves. Don't start on my boy Jamie

The FO is tearing down and rebuilding. There is little question about that IMO. That's why no one is shocked by the release of Dansby and Whitner. Both on the wrong side of 30 and it saves money. If this FO thinks it's going to take years to be competitive, what's the point of paying them? Sorry if fans don't like that (including myself) but it makes complete business sense. Then plug young guys in and see if they succeed, if they don't you continue to add pieces. If they fail over whatever period Haslem gives them, they're gone. What they're doing makes complete sense to me, it's just going to suck watching Browns football in 2016 and maybe 2017.

The reason you probably won't see 3 of the 4 names you mentioned get released is two-fold. (1) They're young and (2) their current contract status:

The only person you mention that somewhat justifies your point is Tramon Williams, and he doesn't even save Cleveland that much money if you cut him...$7M is keep, $4M in dead cap money. Plus we just cut IEO, can't rely on Gilbert, so why wouldn't Cleveland keep their #2 CB? There is really no one else behind him? Maybe if Jalen Ramsey gets drafted, then we may cut ties.

Meder- is $525,000. Nuff said
Gilbert- Cost us more money to cut him ($7.6M) than to keep him ($3.5M) in 2016.
Erving- Again, cost us more money to cut him ($7.7) that keep him ($2.1M) in 2016. And I'm not sure if you noticed, but we no longer have Alex Mack.

All three players are 23/24.

A total rebuild doesn't mean purging every single person on the roster. That's ridiculous. But have you seen the list of players no longer here? The recent cuts of highly paid veterans? And yes, there could still be more. Maybe T.Williams or Kruger based on what comes via the draft.

This is a knock down and more may be around the corner.

Memphis, nice post.

My opinion is the only way a tear down and rebuild make any sense is if they draft a QB at 2. There is nothing to rebuild without a QB. These moves make me convinced we are drafting a QB at 2.

Good post, Memphis. However, I believe it's less about the money than it is about recognizing that the rebuild is a few year process and that the "vets" will no longer be around. Let the young guys play and either gain experience or play themselves out of a roster spot. I hate to see them go, but such is reality in the NFL...

Oh i don't know. Maybe anyone alluded to the new front office being morons because they are cleaning house. And stick to the narrative anytime a new player is released? They've yet to play a single game, or even set the opening roster for that matter, and people have already passed their final judgement on them. You don't think that's over-reacting?


Where did me or Peen say "everyone"? Through-out the season, I've seen a least one person advocate trading or dumping, just about everyone on the roster. Lebron included. I also included the phrase "other forums" because it's pretty prevalent other places, not just here. A good number of people think we should unload Kyrie and Love for whoever we can get in the off-season.



Which is hysterical, because it describes you to a tee. Someone doesn't agree with you, and you make a post just like this one, designed to belittle, exaggerate, and even say we said things we didn't say.



Kind of like two summers ago, when you were belittling everyone that didn't agree with you that we should sell the farm to trade for Kevin love?


You said it.

Ticket prices have nothing to do with team performance. Supply and demand.

We were going to be terrible with or without Donte Whitner. Might as well play some young guys and see if they can become Donte Whitner.

But what if they don't like these QBs at 2? I've flip-flopped on this over and over again. My most recent thought is that I can't help but think the FO doesn't have any of these QBs rated that much higher than one another and perhaps they hope the QBs fall much like Manziel, Bridgewater, and Carr of 2014. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much hope for the 2017 QB class from what I've read. But I have no personal opinion on that.

The reason I said it was funny is because some seem to think we can fix this and soon. We can't. People keep saying we'll replace all of our holes with people who are "young and have potential".

Well how many holes do you think this FO can fill in one off season? Especially this far into the FA process? You see, the FA process AND the draft is how you fill all of your holes. This FO has done nothing but create holes by filling them with even more questions. And that's when they've even tried filling them with anything.

I don't have a problem cutting players when you have developed talent to replace them. I don't mind creating holes if you have enough top picks to fill those holes. But this FO is creating a Cleveland Browns that resemble Swiss cheese far closer than it does an NFL team.

Enjoy!

I think I kind of agree.

I guess my thought process is "we have huge holes to fill, and by cutting so many we've done nothing but create even MORE holes to fill. So, how long does that take?"

Yes, we're in a rebuild mode. And in the 2-3 years it will probably take to fill this holes, we'll have 3-4-5-6-7 new holes to fill.

I guess there's a reason I'm not a FO guy in the nfl. By the looks of things, I wonder why they aren't trying to trade Joe Thomas.....after all, while he's good now, he won't be if we ever get good, so, trade him now for draft picks????? I mean, surely we can replace him with a draft pick, right?

Maybe what I'm getting at is I don't understand how creating more holes helps the team. We'll have holes next year again, and the year after. Getting rid of any semblance of a base seems counter intuitive to me.

Not only that, but we'll have to draft VERY well just to fill them ... think if we keep drafting poorly?

We can fill all of our holes with draft picks. Everyone knows that it's easy to bat 1000 in the draft. People do it all of the time?

I just find it odd how posters say that our FA's left because they didn't want to be here. So do they really think our FA's next year and the following year will want to stay on a poor team seemingly devoid of talent?

If what they are saying is true, it seems to me that for the next couple of years they'll be fleeing like never before. Leaving even more holes to fill in the future. This isn't going to be pretty for years to come.

I see a Joe Thomas trade coming... sadly.

There's not much comfort in this, but if those things happen then in 2 years the roster will be free of players who've spent 4 or more years with all the losing and coaching changes. It would be a change of culture by default.

God had the Jews wander in wilderness for 40 years. By the time they reached the promised land there was no one left who remembered the slavery under the Egyptians. Total change of culture.

So we've got that kind of thing going for us...

How have they proven that?