DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Joe Thomas Revisited

Ending up a babbling concussion riddled shell of yourself is NOT hard to walk away from. He's already said he had a bit of memory loss.

If it were me I'd look at it in two ways:

1. If we get a VIABLE QB option I'd stay
2. If we don't I'd leave

Problem is, how can he let us know before FA starts?

j/c

I also would not wish him 1 iota of ill-will... but man, how much will it suck to finally look like we've got our franchise QB locked down... just to have him get the snot beat out of him because of the gaping hole that just opened up on the left side of the line.

It's always something with this team and its QBs.

If that's the concern, why would he even consider coming back?

I don't think JT will return if we are not playoff contender caliber team...

That means a good veteran QB...and not AJ.... someone like Foles or Cousins.

Did you listen to the interview he gave last night? when asked about the Browns draft and FA he kept saying

"they are" or "they will" or "they need". In the past (I would have to double check to be certain) he has always used the term "we". That tells me he checked out already.

And sorry, if you haven't made your mind up yet - its made up. If you are 100% in you might as well be out. Once you start to think you don't want to play, you might as well not cause you wont be the same guy you were.

Especially when you probably have 100 million already sitting in the bank. . . .

Good points .. cant argue with a single thing u said ...

Now .. if u don’t mind .... i’ll go rebury my head in the sand right where it was ... THANK U VERY MUCH ... *L* ...

Frickin NEGATIVE NANCY ... ...

lol no need - just discussion. I hope you are right. I am just trying to read between the lines, because i think a lot of us fans just want to him to play forever ( and rightfully so). we need to prepare ourselves, we might not see 73 on the field ever again.

That's a keen observation, but (imo) it's trumped by the reports that he's in the building working out and beefing back up. If he were anywhere south of 100% invested into coming back, I don't think he'd be doing that.

When that day does come, his will be a number truly worth retiring.

One final year on his contract .. fulfilling a commitment

This is how I see it.

Well if he is going to let us know before FA, we're on the one week countdown.

yeah, he's got like 3 days lol

if AJ would appease Joe, he's going to stay IMO ... that's who we're going to sign in my mind

I wouldn’t be so sure on the AJ thing .... we know Hue would Ike him cause of familiarity ... we have no clue what Dorsey or Haley think of him ... we also have NO CLUE who has what input right now ...

We have NO CLUE whats going on there now ... ya, i know .. there working together ... that could mean a lot of things ... thats a very very ambiguous statement ... what exactly does that mean ...

I agree. AJ doesn't know the Haley offense. He will have to learn it just like everyone else.

I myself wouldn't hold Joes feet to the fire on when he makes his decision. I would like for it to be in the FA period, but I would give a bit more then 3 days.

It's not like there is a great LT sitting in free agency...and if there is, sign him anyway.

I think Joe is waiting to hear from ESPN or Fox. I think if he gets a nice gig, he's gone. ESPN isn't going to rush their decision because Browns fans want to know if Joe is going to be here or not.

j/c:

A few comments:

--I don't want the Browns to sign AJ. I don't think it would be a terrible signing, but I really don't want him because he has a weak arm and isn't very athletic. That's a bad combo.

--We don't know that the Browns are going to run Haley's offense and ditch Hue's offense completely. People keep making crap up.

--Working together? Well, they talk to one another and that is much better than what occurred when Saint Sashi was here. LOL

--I don't know any of this for sure, but my hunch is that Dorsey and Hue are handling their relationship like professionals. It is in the best interest of both men to work together. Hue knows that Dorsey can axe him whenever he wants. Dorsey should realize that you want to get input from your coaching staff in general and your head coach specifically. Dorsey would be a dumb ass to tell Hue to "shut up" as one of our brilliant posters wants him to do. Instead, I think Dorsey will work w/his coach, his other FO guys, the scouts, the owner, etc, but in the end, he will make his own decision.

I pray he makes better decisions than the guys we have had in the past. This is such a huge off-season for the Browns. They can't afford to blow this one!

If that was the case, he would have said already he ws coming back.....nothing to think over.

Commentary: Remarkable, reliable Joe Thomas ranks among best to ever play for Browns

by Jim Ingraham March 8, 2018

https://www.brownszone.com/2018/03/08/co...lay-for-browns/



Is Joe Thomas the greatest Cleveland Browns player ever?

It’s a question worth asking now, because the Joe Thomas Train could be pulling into the station for the final time.

In case you hadn’t heard, Thomas is mulling retirement, because of three factors that seem pretty obvious, even to those of us who are not Joe Thomas:

1. He’s 33, and his body is beat up from playing 11 years in the most violent sport in America.

2. He’s lost considerable weight after major, season-ending surgery to repair a torn triceps.

3. Even if he rehabs the injury, gets back up to his playing weight, pushes aside all the other aches and pains he feels day and night and is mentally prepared for another year of NFL football, he’s still stuck playing for arguably the worst team in NFL history.

Given all that, nobody should be surprised if Thomas decides to walk (limp?) away from the game he’s played at the highest level for 11 Hall of Fame-caliber years.

The argument for not retiring would be, and would only be, his 2018 salary of $13.5 million.

The Browns have always gotten their money’s worth on Thomas, while Thomas has always gotten stiffed by the Browns.

Elite left tackles don’t grow on trees. Elite left tackles that never miss a game can’t be propagated in a laboratory. Elite left tackles that play an entire decade without missing a single snap?

Good luck finding one of those.

Because there’s ONLY one.

He’s Joe Thomas, who might be the greatest Cleveland Browns player ever.

Shame on the Browns for wasting 10 years of having the best left tackle in the game on their roster — and not having a clue on how to build a team around him.

Thomas is the all-time poster boy for an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.

From the day the Browns drafted him in 2007 until his triceps gave out Oct. 22, 2017, Thomas played 10,363 consecutive snaps. In other words, all of them. In a sport of brutal physicality and dangerously ferocious collisions, a sport in which, it seems, everyone gets hurt and misses games all the time, Joe Thomas missed none.

None.

He was Cal Ripken in shoulder pads.

In his 10½ years on the job, Thomas made greatness look easy while the Browns made winning look hard.

He didn’t deserve them, and they didn’t deserve him.

There are 21 Browns players enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Thomas will be No. 22, but the first since Ozzie Newsome, who played his last game for the Browns in 1990.

Despite that, young whippersnappers might be interested to know that the Browns were once a storied franchise, thanks to some legendary names who did some historic things. But Thomas might be the greatest of them all. If he does decide to retire, he will be able to say that for 10½ years he played every single snap, until suffering a career-ending injury.

As Babe Ruth said after belting his 60th home run in 1927, “Let’s see some other SOB match that.”

Thomas’ herculean consecutive snaps record, by itself, at least gets him into the elite eight of greatest Browns players ever. The fact that he was for most of those 10½ years the best in the sport at his position pushes him further up the ladder.

Greatest Browns player ever?

Here are three worth considering: Jim Brown, Otto Graham and Joe Thomas.

Pro Bowl selections: Thomas 10, Brown nine, Graham five.

First-team All-Pro selections: Brown eight, Graham seven, Thomas six.

Brown’s numbers would be even better had he not prematurely retired at age 29, after nine seasons.

Pro Football Reference has a stat called “Approximate Value,” which is an attempt to put a single number on the seasonal value of a player, based on numerous statistical factors. It appears to be the football equivalent of the WAR stat for baseball.

On the Browns’ list for highest career AV (Approximate Value) since 1960, you’d probably be as surprised as I was to see that No. 1 on that list is Clay Mathews, with an AV of 124.

The next four on the list: Brown (122), Dick Schafrath (115), Gene Hickerson (111) and Thomas (106).

Interestingly, three of the five are offensive linemen: Schafrath and Hickerson, who were the left tackle and right guard on the offensive lines that blocked for Brown, and Thomas, who was the left tackle on the line that blocked for Fozzy Whittaker.

Thomas was not only a great player, he’s a great guy. Perhaps the most low-maintenance superstar in a league filled with divas and egos. If he’s not the greatest Browns player ever, he’s close.

And if he goes into TV work he’ll certainly be the greatest sportscaster ever with a torn triceps.

Part of me wants to see him go out in a non-injured year, though I realize circumstances aren't always ideal.

I agree ... its why i said i wanted AJ .. hes the PEFRECT BRIDGE QB IMO ... some folks think bridge = 2, 3 4 years ... for me ... it may not even be for one year if Rosen, Darnold or Baker can beat the “bridge” qb out during the pre or regular season ... witch is what u would ideally love to have happen ...

U go get a guy like Keenum or Foles ... the rook has NO SHOT of starting the year and unless those guys totally melt down during the year ... the rook won’t see action til very late in the season ...

U go get AJ or McCown .. and its a totally different scenario in regards to the “ realistic transition” time ... those guys are way easier to bench than a Keenum, Foles, Bradford or Bridgewater ...

I agree the rookie might beat him out early in the first year and if it's AJ, he'll beat him out preseason, but what happens when the rookie doesn't?

Also what happens when the rookie does and then gets injured two weeks later? Did you see enough in those first two weeks not to worry about a vet at that point? Even if the rookie looks like the next Otto Graham in those two weeks, are you confident at that point that he can stay healthy through a season?

I think Joe would re-sign McCown. Can you imagine a better "bridge" for Rosen? I can't.

Look Otis ... u can’t have your cake and eat it too ...

There’s RISK with anything we do .. we have to pick our poison when it comes to a “bridge” QB ...

I picked mine ... u can put yours in your choice of tonight’s beverage ... *L* ...

There's risk and then there's stupid risk. Paying money to a vet that sucks just so you can say you signed a vet is a stupid risk.

We have the money, pay a decent Vet. The worse case scenario is that you have a decent back-up with a high trade value.

I'm not certain AJ can beat out Kizer. Let's skip pretending that we'd be signing someone that actually has any value.

Patrick Mahommes sat for the entire season and coaches saw enough from him to be comfortable trading away Alex Smith.

Now McCown is a different story and we know that he can play. I'd still sign him to at least a two year deal in case we swing and miss on the rookie that we draft.

Foles and Keenum aren't Manning and Brady. If the rookie looks good, they'll get a ticket out of town quickly.

So now AJ sucks ... hmmm ... what did u say about Keenum and Foles last year? ... ...

I knew i shouldn’t have bothered responding to u ... oh well ... maybe in another 6 months ...

Bye bye Otis .. tell Andy and Barney I said Hey ...

We already have an AJ. We call him Cody Kessler.

The fact that our rookie can probably beat him out is not a selling point.

Edited to add that AJ has always sucked, but I thought everyone knew this. He can't even beat out Dalton.

Your act is old. I don't think AJ is good, either. However, we really don't know because he hasn't played enough to determine how good or bad he is.

Your constant bashing of him is only because you want to trash Hue. Most of us can see through your BS. We got it. You hate Hue and still have a crush on Sashi. Great!

You can go off on me, but I won't reply. Just pointing out how full of crap you are.

No my constant bashing of AJ is because AJ sucks. If he is the only vet we want then just skip signing a vet and call Kizer our vet because at least Kizer has some upside.

Jeeeez, I thought this was supposed to be a thread about Joe......

That's what you get for thinking ..lol

I wonder how Tyrod Taylor will move the needle in terms of getting Joe to come back.

0

What about having Tyrod Taylor, Jarvis Landry and the #1 & #4 pick?

Does Joe get to pick #1 and #4?