DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns News & Notes (Continued)

Only QB I would take this year would be Sam Howell if he is available in the 2nd round. I do feel that Kenny Pickett is the best QB coming out this year but the gap between him and Howell are not that great probably just the 2 inch taller issue separates the two.

I would sign Mitchell Trubiski in Free Agency on a 1 year contract as an upgrade over Case Keenum. If Baker got hurt again this talented team needs a veteran back up that can win some games next year.

Sign Howell if available in the 2nd round to be long term back up and possible replacement if Baker's struggles continue.

Hope is Baker proves to be the Browns long term starter and then in 2023 Baker is #1 and Howell is the back up.

Neither am I. There are a few guys who might be good, but for me anyway, no guys I would call sure 1st rounders. Next year looks way better for QBs...assuming they go out which almost everybody does these days.

I agree. I could see drafting a qb this year with the plan for him to me more or less a back-up and anything better would be a bonus. It's time to move on from Keenum. He isn't going to develop in to a top starter, so I would rather go with a younger guy as a back-up who might be able to be better. I would rather see that more towards the 3rd round, but I wouldn't be upset if it was the 2nd round.

We do have two 4th rounders. That gives us some trade up ammo if desired. The two 4th rounders could get us back in to the late 3rd round or the 3rd and 4th round picks back in to the 2nd round. I don't need to get draft value charted to death. My point is we do have some wiggle room for a trade up. We also have room to trade down and gain picks for next year. That is what I think will happen.

jc
Maybe I missed it in the 10 pages of this topic, but how much of Baker's issues were the result of poor play calling? I recall on just about every game wondering why we are running the ball at will and get to the red zone and KS calls some out of left field bootleg or some such fancy play or we are killing them with the passing game and try to run against one of the top run defenses and settle for a field goal or goes for it on 4th down and turns the ball over on downs. I'm sorry but KS needs an OC and keep to being a Head Coach, his play calling baffles me frequently.
I'm not saying Baker doesn't need to improve his vision and accuracy. It was evident his play fell off after the injury. Just my $0.02 worth, but with inflation let's make it $0.186.

SWD...good question that will likely never be answered.

So far, we have not heard anyone from the Browns admit to 'poor play calling'.

I have the same questions, and it was not just a few games in only last season. Playoff year we were healthier and nastier and had more success ITO of play calling results. But the NFL has book on us now; you saw us stopped, run and pass, regularly; and it was often in similar ways.
Not to rationalize and explain away our repeated shortcomings, but you are undeniably your record, it stands as proof of your analytics, choices, all judgments and decisions. They are validated or not by wins and losses. We came up short too often IMO. Game plan, personnel packages, players, plays, adjustments are part of analyzing failure.
I guess my frustration is my assessment that we did not seem to learn from our mistakes enough. A lot of lousy play seemed to crop up weekly, sometimes more than once a game. SWD, I also wonder why we abandoned the run after it got us to the red zone, scratched my head about why some exotic play got called. KS seems to place a premium on tricking the opponent with some bizarro call, usually the worst situational game decision. His game management and OC execution are wanting. I am willing to risk VP, regardless of how spiffy swell they say their relationship remains. This must be an ego thing IMO; it can't be win driven. BM needs help in judgment as well as mechanics and has proved it. Might as well address a number of issues. Part of that is the play palette from which we choose. If your choices fail, then you missed on the winner while deciding, and we certainly could do more to challenge folks. We ignore parts of the field and 3 tights isn't the answer.

The injury situation handcuffed our playcalling, I believe. Looking back, it looks like our options were throwing a rookie out there at RT before he was ready or starting a backup guard. We also shuffled our Oline quite a bit (again, due to injuries). Not to mention injuries at the skill positions. I think that partially explains the not-good-enough playcalling that seemed to pop up more and more as the season progressed on (nobody was complaining about playcalling when we were putting up 35+ points early on).

Lots of different issues owned by lots of different people. Some issues compounded with each other.

J/C

I sort of fall under the "if not Baker, then who?" category. I hate that he was injured this year which leads to a 5th year "prove it" year, but that seems to be what it is. A healthy year 4 Baker would have put us so much further ahead in the evaluation (obviously), but hypotheticals don't matter at this point. I don't see Rogers or Wilson coming here. I like Carr, but his availability will have a lot to do with what LV does with its coaching hire. I believe that Cousins is better than Mayfield at this point not not enough to justify a trade and/or that salary. I'd be fine with drafting a guy like Pickett (big, tall, strong, etc.) but I don't think 13 is the place, and I'm guessing he'd be gone before our round 2 pick.

As far as trading Mayfield, I don't realistically see how we could get much more than a 3rd (maybe even that's too much) for a QB with his inconsistencies and coming off a shoulder surgery.

You nailed it oob. People always bring up all of our injuries when talking about Baker and how it impacted him but then never speak about how those same injuries limited the play calling.

I suspect we ( the board ) will have the Baker vers KS fault on the Offensive whoa's this year up into mid season next year . Posters will line up and take sides as usual ..

Looking back , KS did not do a very good job of improvising. KS had a Gamr plan for the season and then a Game plan within the Game plan on any game day. Did that make sense ? There were really three missing pieces that KS couldn't account for . ( lack of WR goes on the FO ) .. Baker /Hunt / Conklin injures were to much for him to handle. Hunt loss was bigger than most of as realized , and Conklin was the icing on the cake.

Actually, I do not think our Left Tackle Jedrick Wills was 100% all season after the high ancle sprain in the first game.

There is a lot of animosity and snark on this thread, so I want to start off by stating that this is a serious question, and not me trying to be antagonistic.

I have not seen Howell play, but see he is listed at 6'1". Baker is listed at a little over 6', so the height difference is not much. I know these things tend to get overstated a bit, but that is done across the board. So no matter what the actual heights are, I would think Howell is at most an inch taller than Baker. Is that a concern? We have seen Baker get a lot of passes batted down, and I think one of the reason behind him sailing some other passes is him trying to avoid the batted passes.

Agreed, watch the play calling the first two games compared to the rest. I'm only going off memory now (so correct if wrong), but we were seeing more creative/gimmick plays last year and the first couple games. What I mean by that, is the reverses to Jarvis, the reverse pass/throws. I don't remember if we were using TE screens then or not.

Yes, height would be a concern but I just think he is the best of the QB's that could be available in the 2nd round. I like his arm much better than the QB at Liberty and Cincinnati. I think the best QB Kenny Pickett at 6'3 is the best but he possibly will be gone before 1st round pick at 13.

The Browns could ruin an 8 foot tall quarterback.

Oh, there you go, we agree again. Twice in just a couple of months.