DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum LB Mychal Kendricks To Visit Browns This Week

Mychal Kendricks would fit with how John Dorsey has built Browns roster | cleveland.com
https://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2018/05/mychal_kendricks_would_fit_in.html#incart_2box

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Browns General Manager John Dorsey's first foray into free agency with his new team has, for the most part, focused on productive, young veterans. Former Eagles linebacker Mychal Kendricks fits with what Dorsey has tried to add all offseason alongside the draft capital he inherited.

Yahoo! Sports insider Jordan Schultz first reported that Kendricks is visiting with the Vikings, Raiders and Browns this week.

The Browns appear set at linebacker with all three of their starters from a year ago returning, but Dorsey hasn't been shy about creating competition across the board. Just look at the cornerback position for an example. The Browns signed T.J. Carrie, E.J. Gaines and Terrance Mitchell before drafting Denzel Ward. Gone are the two starters on the outside from a season ago in Jason McCourty and Jamar Taylor.

Signing Kendricks wouldn't guarantee the same fate for the Browns returning starters, but adding a player who was a part of the Eagles' most-used defensive lineup a season ago, according to the NFL's stats and information website, and performed well enough to grade as ProFootballFocus' ninth-best linebacker would add necessary depth. Football Outsiders has Kendricks at 59.4 percent of the Eagles' defensive snaps a season ago and 13.3 percent of their special teams snaps. He appeared in 15 games and started 13 in the regular season and started all three of the Eagles' playoff games.

Kendricks would have to choose the Browns, of course, and the Raiders and Vikings offer a better chance at winning another Super Bowl. Kendricks' brother, Eric, also plays for the Vikings.

Dorsey clearly isn't messing around when he says the goal is to compete in the AFC North. Whatever the definition of compete is, he's eying a fast turnaround and hasn't been afraid to spend on young veterans like Kendricks.

I'm not sure I understand this move. Where does he play? Can he rush the passer from the edge?

So, YTown, do you feel we really have a shot? Does Dorsey platoon LB's? How pricey might the be? The contact gurus are always all over this.

Do we gotta get his guy?

I thought he was more of a ILB/coverage guy than a pass rusher?

I think that he is more of an ILB type .... so who knows?

I know that one thing Dorsey wanted to do this off-season was to create competition everywhere he could. This would seem to be an extension of that.

I don't know if the Raiders or Vikings could compete with us from a salary standpoint, or even if that would win the day. He might want to play with his brother. Frankly the only place I really don't want him in is Pittsburgh.

I too don't fully understand the interest unless it's just a matter of bringing in people to constantly drive competition.

I don't mind the idea that I think is behind this...

Drive competition anywhere/how you can (within reason). The corollary is that, on a 0-16, there are no assured roster spots.

I'm starting to recover from the trauma of going 0-16 so... PFF describes him as a Strong Side LB.

I wonder how William's tendency to line up in a 5-2 front will affect his decision?

So, the question is: Who is his competition, and would he be an improvement?

At the very least it seems that he would ensure that, one way or another, we would have some quality depth in case of injury or fatigue.


It seems that folks were generally pleased with out linebacker play last year. I wasn't. I haven't been in almost a decade; maybe longer. Our linebacker corps does not look like the '00 Ravens with Ray Lewis where they could cover you and stuff the run all day. Until it does, it can definitely stand to be improved.

In drawing comparisons to the vaunted Ravens LB corp of Ray Lewis just a couple of friendly points of consideration.

1. Offenses have continued to evolve since the early 00's more spread,more read option, more RPO's, defensively more hybrid defenders, more emphasis on LB coverage,more sub package usage etc.

2. Williams' defense even before coming here, seemed to place more play making responsibility on the front than the LBs. More 1 gap penetration and stunts. Maybe those Raven LBs were talented enough to play any scheme, not arguing otherwise. Just raising the point that linebacker's are expected to to different things now.

It still boils down to only two things: stop the run, and cover.

To do that, the basics are unchanged as well: be able to run, be able to tackle, be able to fight off and shed blockers - and hit like a Mack truck.

If anything, the degree of athleticism and speed required has changed, but the rest is pretty basic.... and it is in the rest that we've been sorely lacking for longer than I can remember. Literally.

I kinda like our linebacking crew. Our base 4-3: Kirko, Schobert and Collins. However I do agree, stopping the run (we've gotten better, visually better IMO) and covering (yikes) has been our downfalls, but I will say there's more defensive groups than the linebacking that need to step up to better improve them areas.

Each and every group has enough talent "on paper" to not only make themselves look good, but the whole defensive unit look good if they can play together.

I do. Of all our units, LB is probably the weakest on either side of the ball.

Schobert is WAY OVERRATED ...

Collins has not played well ...

Kirksey ...

Is that a haiku?

I cannot possibly buy into the LB core being the weakest unit. Who in our WR core made the pro bowl like Schobert? Played pretty sound like Kirksey? Nah...

I agree on all three of your comments.

Our backers are decent enough, but we could improve on all of them, and we don't have much behind them.

Jarvis Landry has made more ProBowls than years Shobert has started .... ...

Josh Gordon has a better than decent shot if he stays clean ...

Other than those two ... no one ... guess your right ... ..

Landry.


Look, Schobert made it as a alternate if I am not mistaken, and if not, he is overrated. He is a decent player. I am not putting him down by any means.

Our wideouts are pretty stout from where I sit. I know some worry about Josh. I don't. He is here until he isn't, and when he is, he is maybe the best in the league.

Landry hasn't even played a preseason game, or even finish one OTAs as a Brown, let's not count him in this.

Gordon, you already said the ingredients of the magic formula there, "if he stays clean" but yeah. If JG plays, he'll excel and be elite IMO. There's no question about it. Hue was asked a good one today and this is JGs for time being here in uniform this time of year in Hue's coaching span here lol... ouch.

On the grounds of including JG and Landry, then yes - I would also have to go with the LB core being the weakest group. I oddly thought we were going on years before/people we've seen play here in our systems.

The fact that landry hasn't played here isn't germane to the discussion. His track history is as solid as it gets.


Now if you are saying he was good because he played elsewhere and will be jinxed here, that's another discussion.

Next time u wanna tie my legs together also or is tying my hands behind my back good enough ... ...

Landry is on our team now ... hes REALLY GOOD ...

When can i start counting him ..

j/c:

Well, there is some football talk in this thread.

In my opinion, our LBers are not our weakest unit. They might end up being the weakest link, but they were ahead of so many position groups that it's wrong to say they are the worst.

I will say this about our LBers:

--Collins is extremely overrated by Browns fans. He was once good, but BB traded him for a reason. A freaking 3rd round pick. The guy was dead last in pass coverage in his first season here. He was one of the lower ranked LBers by PFF in the entire NFL last year. Sashi traded for him and gave him the big contract. Dorsey did not. I would not be overly surprised if we move on, but I am saying that w/out any idea of the financial ramifications.

--Kirksey is a high energy guy who plays well down hill. He's pretty fast and can knife between gaps. He struggles to get off blocks because he isn't very strong.

--Schobert plays w/a ton of energy and grit. However, he is undersized for the Mike and while racking up a lot of tackles, he is typically late. I think he would be better utilized as a situational player.

--I think Burgess is highly underrated by most on here. He has good speed and covers the flat well. He is also a pretty sure tackler. I want to keep him for situational situations, depth, and as a special teams guy.

It's funny. Schobert was supposed to be the 1st LB off the field when 3rd downs rolled around ..... but he wasn't. He was supposed to be replaced with a DB ..... except that he wasn't.

We had 5 players who played every single snap on either offense or defense. Kirksey, Zeitler, Tretter, Bitonio .... and Schobert. Schobert also played 135 snaps on special teams.

I think that he was one of the biggest surprises on the team last year. He forced 3 fumbles, had 3 sacks, 4 passes defensed, and an INT. He also seemed to make a lot of plays near the LOS.

I think that the original plan was for him to play 40-50% of the defensive snaps, but he wound up being too good to take off the field.

Nice post, YTown. I really like Schobert. I agree w/a lot of what you say, but I do think he made a lot of tackles too late. No big deal.

I really respect the way you countered my post, though. I'm good w/us disagreeing and it's good for the board to see both perspectives.

Nice job!

I will also say that I agree with you about Collins. Man was I disappointed in his play last year.

I think that Burgess is a solid backup/situational type guy. He did make some big plays, he also blew some plays badly. I don't want to see him as a starter, but he is a decent backup/solid special teams guy.

If LB isn't our weakest unit, what would it be? Serious question.

To me one might say QB, but QB is a 1 position unit and i think we strengthened it a great deal this year.


Backer is a 3 position unit with not much behind the 3 starters. I like Burgess as well, but still, it's pretty weak.

what?

Linebacker is our weakest unit? I keep hearing it but it was no where near the glaring weakness that the secondary was. The LBs were involved in the improved run defense. In obvious passing downs one came off the field and and the extra DB still didn't help stop big chunk plays on third sometimes fourth downs.

Just wonder how much the concussion (s) play into this ? Might be a reason to take a look at Kendricks.

Our inability to cover TEs and RBs in the past has haunted us; let's hope this is not the case this season.

j/c

We could do far worse than Collins, Schobert, Kirksey, Burgess, Carder, Orchard...

I like them, but we were 0-16. If we're not looking to improve every single position we're not doing it right...

j/c

I'm reading a lot of "is" being debated against "was" here. I think our LB unit will be the weak link THIS year...but they were just one of many weak links LAST year. We have brought in competition at every position of weakness last year - including vet competition - but only picked up a mid-round pick for the LB group. Not sure if that was by design or happenstance.

I think Shobert will improve in his 3rd year. However, I still don't think he's an every down, every play guy. In his whopping two years in the league, he's played in two very different schemes in each year and transformed his body in his first off season.

I think Collins has been...well...disappointing here. However, he joined the team "late" in '16 and got hurt in '17. In his two "short" years here, he's played in two very different defensive schemes. So...who knows?

I also think Kirksey has been disappointing. I didn't see much of a jump in his play in any one year from the other. However, just when he should be developing, we switched up our defensive schemes over two of his prime developmental years.

None of these guys are "special" even though they all are keepers. New schemes coupled with injuries and inexperience with a FS standing back in the lake...how could we make a really good evaluation of any of these guys?

I agree that none of these guys are special (Collins SHOULD be special because of his contract). I'd also say that we don't have the worst LBs in the NFL. The fact that it's a weakness is probably a good thing

Mychal Kendricks - LB - Free Agent

Free agent Mychal Kendricks visited the Browns on Friday.

The former Eagle visited the Raiders and Vikings earlier this week. Linebacker isn't the Browns' biggest need but coach Hue Jackson said the team is not in the business of turning down "good football players." Kendricks is expected to make his decision by the end of the week. His younger brother Eric plays middle linebacker for the Vikings.

Related: Browns

Source: Akron Beacon-Journal Jun 1 - 1:40 PM

Browns Sign Kendricks


https://twitter.com/CLEsportsTalk/status/1003355163824984064/photo/1