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

Weren't you the guy who PMed me the other day about keeping it about football?

Seriously man.............do you think I didn't know that they weren't under contract?

The FACT is that Sashi and Hue both said they wanted to keep those guys. Agree or disagree?

The FACT is that none of those guys are still w/the club. Agree or disagree?

Why should we take them "at their word?"

Keeping guys who are free to leave and keeping guys who are under contract are two different things.

Are you a politician? I always wondered why you had so much free time.

Wait.........maybe you are the guy in the Captain Obvious commercials????

Once again, thanks for telling me something I did not know.

Look, you wanna suck in Haslam's crap........go ahead. But please, allow me to have my own opinion.

Thanks.

Just saying it's easier to retain your own players when they are under contract (obviously).

I don't think Brown and Jackson were lying when they said they wanted to keep the free agents who left. The free agents left even though the Browns wanted to keep them (to varying degrees). Joe Thomas cannot leave even if he wanted to and the team has said they want to keep him.

I think you have been very reasonable in all the recent conversations. So.........I just want you to know that I am not lumping you in w/the other guys I have been talking to who blindly eat Haslam's doo doo and then act like those of us who don't are the illogical ones.

I'm not doing that to you. Okay?

I just want to ask you to look at the moves this franchise has made the past two years and formulate an opinion on whether or not Haslam and Sashi were not also involved last year.

Please consider Shefter's reports while doing so.

I get you don't like me and I'm okay w/that, but man, do you really think I am stupid? Seriously?

What proof do we have that they will keep their word? Cite examples.

I don't know. Team finished with 3 wins last season and 6 year before. Team is not structured well coming from a mix of three different GMs. End of last year Browns had maybe 5 to 6 guys worthy to build a future around. Two, Mack and Gipson, wanted out. In the end, keeping those 3 to 4 players really gets us to the promise land faster? Having Schwartz is nice feather in one's cap. He was a good player team must replace. Other than those three are we really talent diminished? In the end, is it simply someone let all the water out of the pool before tomorrows party? Weather is hot but we got beer sorta thinking.

While it's good they are dumping anyone over 25, what will be even better is replacing the old with scrubs....

It's one thing having a youth movement. It's quite another NOT REPLACING the old guys. Thinking you can build throough the draft in ONE year....


Get ready. It is possible that the 2016/2017 Browns will be the worst team in league history. Worse than the 0-16 Lions were..... Not saying it's inevitable, but it is possible.

One thing is for sure, I won't be spending any money on a Browns game this year. So glad I'm not a season ticket holder right now.

Why would they want to keep him? Joe Thomas is old and he played on the same 3 win team everyone else did. Everyone is jumping for joy that Mack and Schwartz etc. are gone because "they are old and played on a lousy team". Guess what, Joe Thomas has played on a bunch of lousy teams over the years and he's older than Mack. So why is he untouchable?

Absolutely. Not even sure I'll watch on Sunday's. We went 3-13 last year and we are a MUCH worse team this year. I seriously doubt we win one game.

We were going to be horrible with or without Whitner (which is not the fault of the current people in charge). Might as well play young guys and see if they are good.

When it comes to releasing guys like Whitner and Dansby, I wonder if there's more to the story than just age and $$?

I think some posters are being overly generous when they say Whitner only had a few plays that stick in everyone's heads.. to me he started the season off pretty slow and with poor tackling but he did improve as the season went on. In any event, that's a matter of opinion.

Dansby being released didn't surprise me either, but I did wonder what the deal was considering Horton was the guy who brought him here in the first place (and Whitner IIRC? Someone feel free to correct me on that part).

Certainly the loss of veteran leadership is regrettable, but what exactly did we get last year in regards to veteran leadership last season? How often was the defense just plain flat? I get that O'neill's defense sucked and the players didn't like it, but it still doesn't justify the apparent lack of effort we saw at times. Come game day, that's what guys like Whitner and Dansby are for. NOT saying those guys lacked effort, but their jobs as leaders is to get that effort from the others. Not so sure I saw it.

Also I wonder if guys like Whitner and Dansby going public with in house issues about other players (i.e. Gilbert) doesn't exactly fit in with the culture they are trying to establish in Cleveland?

Just some random musings.

If we've retained the same scouts as we've had, I'm not as concerned as some about rebuilding as we've done pretty well getting solid players later on. Maybe not Probowlers but we've gotten some pretty decent guys when we don't reach for them.

Dansby was signed by Farmer/Pettine.

Really? Hmm... for some reason I thought Horton brought him over because they had ties in Arizona... my bad. Thanks for the correction even though it now completely blows the hell out of my wondering why Horton let him go lol

GONE.............REPLACEMENT

Benji----------Hawkins
Dansby---------Davis
Whitner--------Moore
Gibson---------Poyer
Schwartz-------Alvin Bailey?
Mack-----------Garth Gerhart ?

These are just the main guys we lost. not everyone like Drey and the others....I am looking at it and am not too sad about them. the two that worry me the most are Mack and Schwartz. but we still have the draft ahead of us. and guys will be dropped before and during the preseason games. lots of time to figure it out. I think we upgraded some and have two ? marks on the O-line. so not all doom and gloom for me just yet.

It's probably more like this, as of today.....

Whitner---> Campbell
Gipson----> Moore

spirit - now one is "jumping for joy" that Mack and Schwartz are gone. Just saying that it isn't the end all be all that we didn't keep them.

101 - Agree that the Mack and Schwartz are the most concerning losses. Disagree with their replacements. I envision Pastzlor moving to RT. I believe this to be a little bit of a downgrade in pass pro but think it will be an upgrade in the run game. Overall a small drop

Mack on the other hand will be replaced by Cameron Erving at least initially. Yes, Cam looked bad last year but he was a rookie who was forced to try to learn multiple positions and play a brand new position. Of course he was going to look bad. Give him a year of offseason NFL training and move him back to his best position which is center. Having said all that, I saw a picture of Cam with his shirt off a couple weeks ago. Looks like he lifted more donuts than weights this off season. I'm hoping that was a stock photo rather than a recent one. If Cam plays the best he can then a see a mild to moderate downgrade. If he plays poorly he will be replaced. From the center position ,this year I am hoping to find someone that will give adequate play.

Both guys were positive leaders. The one thing I can say about last year's team is that they didn't quit. They got beat a lot, but they played hard all the way through the season. That is one of the reasons I was okay w/retaining Pet. The team did not quit.




That was me who said that. Two things:

1. I was replying to a poster who called him a scrub and talking about how terrible he was. You did not mention that some posters were being overly critical of the guy. That's revealing in--and of--itself, considering fewer people are praising him than bashing him.

2. Yes, it is a matter of opinion, but regarding player evaluation, I trust my evaluations over almost all on this board. Arrogant? Perhaps. Accurate? Would you deny it?

I wish someone would archive all these predictions about the OL. Seriously.

2847 - I would not be surprised if Whitner's mouth contributed (whenever he spoke it made me wince), I don't recall much from Dansby.

Physically Whitner was on his last leg. He was by far the smartest Db on our roster last season but clearly lost a step. His brains kept him as an adequate player. If he loses another step for the upcoming season then he becomes a liability.

Dansby started the year out slow and I thought he was going to be done. But found out he had a nagging injury (don't remember what). Once that healed he really came on. I would prefer and inside Lb duo of Dansby/Davis over Davis/Kirksey but only see 1 maybe 2 more decent years from Dansby so I understand the move.

As for veteran leadership - I've always felt that there should be one hard working, smart vet that has won enough to gather respect present at each level of the defense and each position room on the offense. Ideally, A productive guy in his prime but an over the hill past his prime guy if needed. For example, I would have loved to have brought in Torry Holt to lead our Wr's when Shurmur took over. He knew to offense, is a hard worker and would lead by example, and would be well respected. He was looking for a year or 2 more in the league and I think that would have helped thouse young guys develop.

I've heard that Tramon is that vet leader in the secondary. I hope we didn't keep him for his play last year. Maybe he'll get bumped to FS and get paired with Campbell. Hopefully DeSir makes the next step and we can pair him and a rejuvenated Haden on the outside.

Where did you hear that T. Williams was the vet leader of the secondary?

And if that is our secondary next year, be prepared to set records for defensive points allowed.

My guess is that the FO was trying to see if they could get a pick for Whitner and when they realized that it wasn't going to happen they decided to release before the draft so as to give him a better chance to sign with another team. As for Dansby he's gonna be 35 this year and wasn't likely to draw a draft pick in a trade so the FO released him once they had Davis to take his place.

It was most likely Gribble or the Plains Dealer.

If they don't show growth and the offense is abysmal, you may be right.

That is the kind of thing that used to require a link to back up something that was "heard".

It's potentially another example for the type of comment to be repeated until people buy it as a fact as you've mentioned several times lately.

Tramon Williams providing leadership and accountabilty in trying season for Cleveland Browns

There's a link though not the one I was thinking of. I had to get to class earlier.

If he starts with being accountable for his poor play last year, that would be a start.

Translation: Tramon Williams desperately doing everything he can to not get cut. As anyone in his position should.

Just to be clear...........I wasn't calling Grimm a liar. I just hadn't heard that before. I always heard that Whit was the vet leader of the secondary and Dansby the leader of the front seven.

LOL............I don't have a link for either, so it's cool if people don't believe what I just said.

JC: I don't mind this cut. He was making a ton of money, and I felt that we should have cut Whitner and used the savings to retain Tashaun.

Not everyone agrees with me, but I found his play very poor last year (I never thought we should have replaced TJ Ward with him).

Ibraheim Campbell stood out for Northwestern's defense, which I thought was pretty good. I watched a lot of Northwestern when he was there because I lived in Chicago and my wife worked on their medical campus.



I've got nothing against him personally, I just don't think he's good anymore. Two years ago I wasn't very impressed, last year I found his play to be poor. Happy that he loves Cleveland and all that, but no big loss for our team IMO