DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Camp surprise.

I can see the first two, but not Higgins. But it was called "shocking" cuts for a reason.

The problem we've been hoping for since 2000.

Yup. This is one of the few times that a single stat actually says quite a bit without requiring additional context.


Quite simply: when given opportunities, he produces at a high level.

Thats some nice company

IMO, the competition at lots of spots will be FIERCE. Just because you were drafted doesn't guarantee a spot on the roster. Dbacks and Dline, lots of options AND none a chumps. The FSU undrafted guy gets big money for undrafted. He could make the squad. And WRs, WOW, we be cutting some good players. How this all plays out will be interesting. Go Browns!!!!

Good yards/target means he's catching the ball well AND making plays. This might be a captain obvious statement, but just trying to emphasize

same thing I have.

I expect Wilson to be cut. He is not as good as his tweets are. He doesn't play special teams and he was not good his rookie year and he was worse last year.

Taki I think will also has a great chance to be cut.
Walker JOK and Fields are for sure keepers and we also have Malcolm Smith, Lee, and Phillips are likely to stay

that's 7


Johnson could be a surprise cut. I don't think so though.
Higgs I hope we don't cut

J/C

I really can’t see us cutting Higgins or Elliott. I could see us cutting Wilson or Natson

I think Natson being gone is already a foregone conclusion. I think he'd have to jump pretty big to be more than just a camp body.

for some of you, this may be a surprise



I've been saying this for 2 years.

Yup. Because of you and a few others, I think we all adopted 4-2-5 a long, long time ago around these parts.

I just hope we actually do it. I could really see line up in a 4-1-6 | 5-1-5 | or 5-6.

We have so much talent. If we stay healthy, we could have the most dangerous defense in the league.

Personally, I'd love to see a 5-1-5 on obvious passing situions with some combo of Garrett//Billings/Clowney/McKinley/Elliot/JOK rushing (possibly JOK rushing next to Garrett or Clowney)

Walker/JOK/Johnson in the middle

Ward/Newsome/Williams
Johson/Delpit/HIll

I think Joe Woods has to be drooling over the pieces he has. He just has to not be afraid to put the best players on the field and build schemes for it. We also should move players like Smith/Taki/Phillips on and off the field as needed based on obvious situations.

There is no way they always have 4 or more DL on the field.

Always is a large amount of time, so probably not. Almost always probably fits. We are bound to play a prevent every now and then.

I think it really can be amorphous depending on who we play. When we play KC, I could see us going with dime or even quarter packages. I imagine guys like Malcom Smith who are better in coverage get more snaps. Troy Hill would see a lot of time in that game, too to cover the slot.

Contrast that with playing a team like Tennessee (I know we're not playing them this year). I think you'd probably see a more traditional 4-3, with guys like Walker getting more snaps. Might even add JOK in as a safety so it's like a 4-3.5, haha.

We definitely have the pieces parts to put any look on the field that we need to. We can definitely match up with any personnel group from any offense.

"it's a passing league" and all that, but I'm hoping we're always keeping an eye on Baltimore, and have an answer for their running attack.

I think that right there is why Takitaki will make the 53.

Oh for sure. I think the Chargers found the blueprint two years ago for how you stop the Ravens. I don't think there's any real secret. I think it's just whether or not you have the personnel and the disciplined, savvy mindset in the players to pull it off. We definitely did not have either last year.

I hope I don't eat these words, but I also think that is why the Ravens have a very slim chance to the AFC Championship or win a Super Bowl. Unless they get lucky, they're going to come across a team who is capable of effectively pulling off that scheme in the playoffs.

What will be interesting to me is how the Ravens will ultimately deal with having to pay LJ. They will have to sacrifice some pieces on that defense. I suppose it will turn into how well they hit on their draft picks that follow. In fairness to them, they are historically pretty good at doing that.

You don't honestly think we have forgotten about that, do you?

I didn't think so.

I think we are taking steps to neutralize, or at least minimize the threat Jackson brings to their run game. If we can do that, I don't think their running game is any better than anybody elses.

Do I honestly think we'll show up to play Balt and be like "uh oh, they run the ball too"? No.

But I do think people get swept up in the 'it's a passing game' shtick. We've clearly spent a lot of time and effort on the roster on our backend, and our defensive scheme seems to favor putting smaller bodies out on the field.

It's interesting. There are some teams out there that take advantage of the NFL trend of going to a smaller body defense. Tennessee is a prime example with the way they run Henry. Hell, we are, too.

With Baltimore, however, I think you can stop their run with the smaller body approach. The Chargers did it with 3 safeties. Guard the middle, rush 4, and have those four maintain gap integrity. Leave a spy in. Try to get Jackson to throw to the sidelines.

Oh, and score first.

For the record, they simply did what we had done to stop them.

I think the biggest danger here now is outsmarting ourselves, creating and dropping in to more looks than we may need to because we can instead of what we need.

I doubt this will be the case though because its pretty clear how disciplined we are top to bottom.

No doubt you can overthink things. To show a new look just because you haven't doesn't make much sense.

I agree about not being surprised if Taki is cut. I have seen few people talking about not retaining Taki and my memory may be bad or even selective, but I remember a lot of missed tackles, in the open field especially. He also appeared somewhat slow.

Don't get me wrong, I like Taki and maybe I am not aware of his football intellect and knowledge of the defense, so coaches may find him valuable in spite of my "expert observations".

As a Browns fan I normally support all the players so I just want the best players and am not used to good players possibly being cut because of the team's depth of talent.

We played the Ravens the game prior and had success, despite ultimately losing the game. I almost forgot about that one.

Between Ward, Greedy, and Newsome, can one of them play inside? I know Greedy probably can't.

I expect Greedy to play a role, but I don't have high expectations. He struggled when he was last on the field, and it has been forever and a day since then.

Mitchell played far better last year than Greedy did the last time he played, so he needs to make a pretty big jump.


Hill plays inside.

" Almost always probably fits."

In Short, I'm about to make the argument that each and every player in the 10+ man group of the Browns front DL (iol) DE seems more like a 3-4 player than a 4-3 player,
and for that matter, the two who most resemble a 4-3 player would be Sheldon Richardson and Ogunjobi both gone.

Yes there are guys with flexibility but except for Goaline and 4th and short situations.

We're just splitting hairs because, if a 6'3 260 pound player as or similar to Takk McKinley lines up outside of the tight end and rushes the Qb on one play, and drops into coverage on the next play or provides run support from an outside to inside angle

If it walks like a duck? If they all want to walk like a 3-4 OLB, and have the size of a 3-4 OLB, and the team wants to line them all up in a 4 man line or we can call them 4-3 DL linemen,
fine just win baby. that's the best 4-3 3-4 3-3-5 end combination I've seen in a while.

That's all well and good, but the fact still remains that the times he has seen the field thus far, he has struggled and my memory is telling me that this included camp of last year, prior to his injury, which was under Joe Woods.

He absolutely can overcome, but let's not pretend he is more than he is. He's a risk that, at this point, is less proven than Newsome.

Joe Woods did an interview recently where he mentioned that Newsome displayed the ability to play inside during OTAs...and that that development was essentially a pleasant surprise.

I know we have Hill and other designated slot DBs, but my understanding is that a defense that has more DBs on the field benefits greatly when you have flexibility in where you can deploy pieces in your secondary.