DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum A Farewell and Thank You to Sashi ...

I think what it boils down to is that there are no qualified LT in the draft. There was only one in FA and he went to the gnats for a ransom.

So the only options left for the Browns is to go with guys already on their roster. Drango was serviceable but as Pit said the offense had to scheme to give him help. That's not what you want to do. They have Coleman who was also a LT in college so they're going to give him a shot at competing for that spot.

They may end up going back to Drango or maybe Coleman might need a little less help. I think either way they're screwed. They are making the only decision open to them.

Will they take Orlando Brown in the draft? Who knows. He could be a wasted draft pick, (any of this years LT could be), probably in the second round. They could also combine some picks to move up for him but he just may be more trouble than he's worth. On the other hand, he may not need near the help our other two guys need.

At this time I'm certain the FO does not consider themselves geniuses in trying out Coleman at LT. It's not a stupid decision. It's simply a decision to try. Their options are severely restricted.

Orlando Brown? The guy is looking at the 5th round.


Joe Thomas recently said he thinks Coleman can play the position. He has experience yet Pitt was talking down to people saying they will get it once they gain more experience.

Pitt is a friend on these boards going on 20 years, but I am going to side with Joe on this one.

The problem anyone faces is they are replacing Joe, and it will be a while before people get Joe out of their minds.

Teams rarely transition from one HOf'er to another. It happens. It happened in Cleveland with Leroy Kelly following Jim Brown.

I think something that has to be taken into consideration is that Joe encourages all the players.

Yes, he did say he thinks Shon can work out at LT. But what else could he say? Could he say, 'It's a tall order and I'm not sure Coleman can do it but he can try and who knows, maybe he can pull it off'?

Now wouldn't that just about kill any real passion Coleman had for working at LT?

Some things Joe says can be taken to heart. But when it comes to his teammates he is always going to be encouraging.

Ok....so he is full of crap?



I know that is the opposite end of things.



Nobody knows. I do know Coleman played LT at Auburn and played it well.


Seems I remember Garrett saying that Coleman was the best LT he faced. I guess if Coleman sucks, Garrett sucks as well.


Look, I am not going to get in to a big debate over Coleman. Let's see how it plays out.

Seeing how it plays out is exactly where I am with it. I wish him luck and hope he works out for the good of himself and the team.

But at the same time I'm not going to base anything off of encouraging remarks from teammates. If they said anything otherwise I'd be appalled.

Everyone always says that playing on the right side of the line is nothing like playing on the right side of the line, so why after a year are people so hard on Coleman who has played and practiced as a LT for years because of his play as a RT. I think Coleman will be a much better LT than RT for us.

I agree. The movements are different.


We had Joe on the left, Coleman is a powerful run blocker who showed the ability to get to the 2nd level, so just stick him at RT.


It's like people think being a RT is easy. I am pretty sure it isn't.


Every position on the line requires a skill set. Not all that many can cross over and be really good at both the R or the L.


I don't think Joe would have been a HOF'er if we had a established LT when he showed up and we stuck him at RT.

Ah yes .... i forgot what time of year it is .... were 0 - 0 and hopes are always high this time of year ...

I’m sure Coleman will be fine at LT ... what the hell was I thinking ...

BITE ME .... quit making sense ...

Your right .... and I know it ... im just FRUSTRATED ...

Thi8ngs are really really looking up ... and i mean WAY UP ... EVERYTHING seems to be breaking our way .... and now this ... its just VERY FRUSTRATING ...

Let me end with a little more frustration release ...

BITE ME ...

Thanks for letting me vent ...

Yogi Berra is alive and well.

unless, of course, you play on the right side of the line

Yogi was a catcher, which was in the middle, not on the right. He had to use a two legged kick step.

Berra also played left and right field.. particularly in his later years when Elston Howard shared catching duties.

See, that's the thing. You always want thing to work out because it's the best thing for the Browns. Yet when you look at the skill set needed to be a solid NFL LT, it's not something that's easy to overlook. And in case you haven't noticed, posters have avoided discussing that part of the debate like the plague.

You are most certainly right that we really don't have anyone on our current roster that will make a legitimate LT. You can only play the players you have. So we're going to have to use a band aid at the position until it's actually addressed.

What I do know is this. Shon Coleman lacks the lateral movement and footwork needed to be a legitimate NFL LT. He was penalized 16 times in 2017. Now I'm not sure what everyone was watching, but if they actually feel he's going to be some kind of answer at the LT position, wearing beer goggles would be my best guess.

I believe in the teachings of Joe Thomas. I think he could teach a circus bear to play tackle at an adequate level. Can anyone name a starting lineman during Joe's tenure who was forced to retire because they weren't deemed good enough? The o-line has always been a very self correcting unit.

I have to agree. Drango is a way better fit based on what we have seen.
Maybe Johnson switches on, maybe we draft someone like O'Neill out of PIT but Day 1, you have to be looking at one of the incumbents. There is no - and has not been for many years - a JT type tackle prospect coming out IMHO. The irony of us being so poor for some many years versus having the best LT in an era. What a waste on so many levels.

In our defense, Joe Thomas, Calvin Johnson and Adrian Peterson have 1 play off win between them and only 5 appearances. Just goes to show you that it's a team game.

Completely.

We've only seen many of them replaced and cut. In case you missed it, we had some terrible OL's during Joe's tenure. Athletic ability can't be taught. You can only play up to your ability. You can certainly make the most of the ability God gave you.

Being a legitimate LT in the NFL takes a very specific skill set. It's what they are the top paid OL players in the NFL. It's why they're the highest drafted OL players in the NFL. I'm really not so sure what's so difficult to understand about that.

Name the bad ones. I'll wait. The worst ones are still in the NFL. Also it's very difficult to understand you saying that Coleman doesn't have the athletic ability it takes to play LT. Shon Coleman's athletic ability has always been a strength of his game and was one of the reasons he was drafted so highly, despite having an injured knee and two years removed from fighting cancer.

You say that but the evidence says otherwise. How many holding calls did he get last year to avoid pressure getting to the QB? You may wish to uphold a RT with 16 penalties on his resume last year if you wish. I however will not overlook the obvious. I'm not sure how you consider being a third round pick being drafted "so high".

But you go on and put your vote into that and we'll see how the season unfolds. lol

And I'm not going to sit here and do your homework. Every Browns fan has a memory that's good enough to know how much our OL has had to be shuffled.

It's not worth it CHS. You'll be trapped into an endless nightmare of circular logic. Pitdawg is the smartest guy Pitdawg knows.

Let me know how that works out for you with Shon Coleman at LT.

And while I know I'm not the smartest guy in the room, I'm sure of a few I'm ahead of in line.

So now all you can do is jump in the middle of a thread and attack posters? What a real man you think you are. lmao

I am interested to see if Coleman can do the job. He's had 1 year in the league (2 officially, but he spent most of the 1st yr on IR and only played in the final game) and he looked like a rookie.

1) How much will his year of experience help him improve?
2) How will returning to the position he played in college help?
3) How much will tutelage from JT help?
4) Pit has repeatedly said he doesn't have the feet. Is it that he doesn't have them or that he hasn't displayed them?

We've all seen players improve. It always kills me when fans declare players unfit after 1 year in the league. I'm not saying Coleman is the answer. I am saying it's too early to pass judgement. There are no plug-n-play LT in the draft. I believe Coleman is a better athlete than Drango who was adequate there last year. Let's see what he can do, and if it isn't sufficient, we address it when we can.

I think that Coleman will get the 1st shot, with Drango and Stephenson also competing for that job. We signed that big TE, Fells, likely with the idea that he will help the LT as needed.

Oniel Cousins and that St. Turnstile guy. Cousins went to Tampa Bay after we cut him, had 1 bad season and is finished.

Make up your own minds, here’s some of his draft analysis.....

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2016/profiles/shon-coleman?id=2555337

https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication...rookie.amp.html

Yet Joe Thomas thinks he can play the position.


How do you explain that? Is Joe just lip service? Is that what you think? I don't know, I am just asking.

Joe Thomas should only be relied upon when talking about Hue Jackson being a good coach.

I agree Mac.

People are freaked out over Joe hanging them up. I get it, but we aren't going to replace him.

I don't know if Coleman is going to be the guy to take the position, but he was a good player in college, he has 2 years under the belt, and has had Joe to help him.

This is the year we find out. I look at it this way. Coleman is better than Drango, and Drango did a fine job filling in for Joe. Sure he need some help with chips and things like that against tough players, but I have a feeling there a lot more LT's starting in the NFL who are more like Drango than Joe Thomas. Not many can go out there on that island and do it play after play.

I think the Browns O-Line played "better than I thought it would" in 2017 during the time Joe Thomas was out because of injury.

better than expected. So if they can keep the team together, I'm optimistic.

Farewell and Thank You to Sashi. ha

That's a good point tab. He is also recovering from his MCL.

J/C...I think also, like snowboarding, people have a a preference for a side they turn and it feels more natural and comfortable. If Coleman looked athletic and natural on the left side in college but less so at right tackle with us, could it be that it's not his natural tilt, for want of a better term, to face off to his right? Just idling, I could be completely wrong.

I have to admit Sashi set us up pretty nice after all the suffering ...

See, it's all about the verbiage you're using. You can use a derogatory term such as lip service or you can call it being encouraging. I do think that Joe is being very hopeful and is doing his best to encourage Coleman.

Let's look at what most posters were saying only a week or two ago. Before Thomas announced his retirement, it seemed everyone was saying we had no answer at the LT position. How desperate we were to sign Nate Solder. How we needed to look for the answer in the NFL draft.

Now, suddenly a week or two later, everyone has suddenly convinced themselves that the answer was there all along. Sitting right under their noses and they simply didn't see it! It's as if the beginning of spring has brought on a light of eternal hope.

So that's the way I see it. Let's put it this way, how many LT's started in the SEC two years ago are starting LT's in the NFL? I mean we can throw lots of names out there that were one, two or even three year starters in the SEC at LT that were forced to change positions in the NFL or never made it in the NFL at all.

At this juncture there's not much left to be said. I try to look at how players have performed in the NFL. We see first and second round players drafted all the time that never make it in the NFL. There's a very valid reason that LT's are a rare skill set. There's a reason the really good ones are drafted so highly and paid so much.

Right now it seems we as posters have laid our cards on the table. A few felt Coleman had a shot before Thomas retired, though very few. Now many have had an epiphany and suddenly feel they've found that LT right on our very own roster that they were simply overlooking the entire time. I'm sticking with what I saw during the 2017 season. We'll just have to see how it all plays out from here.

A lot of college LTs who played the position for several years are drafted yet project to guard in the NFL. Some go to RT. Some work out at their new position, some don't. But of those who project at a different position are rarely, if ever, worked back into the LT position with any success at all.

Lets hope their right Pit ... i dont see it ... but hes being given first shot and u and I are bound to be wrong at some point on the OL guys ... lets hope this is the time ....