DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Off-season wish list.

Today this.
For 27+ years, the Browns have looked every offseason for players and coaches from outside to come in and improve the Browns.
I'd wish this offseason the Browns would look inside their own situation and further a commitment to the Gems they already have!

Garoppolo is not good.
Tannehill is not good.
Roethlisberger is not good.
Carr is not good.
Hurts is not good.

All of these QB's were in the playoffs this year.

I would do it every time.

We need a kicker we can feel good about. I think chase could be the guy. Idk

I know - he sucks.

Jimmy G has his team in the NFC Championship game, playing for a Super Bowl. Just a few weeks ago, posters were debating and saying Baker was Jimmy G. I'd take that.

And Like I said in the game day predictions thread, I think Cincy has enough to go all the way this year. They just made the AFC championship game. What an embarrassment for Browns fans… we beat them twice but couldn't seal the deal.

To be honest I think I would like to see a 2 year deal for him. I've never been very good at worrying about the money though.

With Clowney’s injury history I would much rather have him for only one year even if it was a little bit more expensive.

While that sounds great in theory, after his performance this season we will be competing for his services. His value has shot up. I don't think under those circumstances we can get away with a one year deal this time around.

I believe they're talking about placing the franchise tag on him...

I wouldn't say an embarrassment to the fans, but we probably have a few players on the team who feel like punks.

As of 2021 the franchise tag for DE was $16,069,000.

DE Leonard Williams, NYG, $19,351,200 (2nd tag) was his offer in 2021.

https://www.spotrac.com/spots/2021-nfl-franchise-transition-tags-1182/

I expect the cost will be much higher than that for the 2022 season. Not saying the Browns won't do it, but that's a lot of money.

Myles contract is a 5 year $125 million deal and his salary for 2021 the way the details of the contract are written, Clowney would be making a LOT more money in 2022 than Myles if they tag him.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Yeah I think they (FrankZ and cfrs) were guessing about 17.5M...


Not sure where that number will land. I really like Clowney, but that is a truckload of cash! When do tags have to be placed?

The franchise tag for ends is going to be about $20 million.

https://overthecap.com/franchise-transition-and-rfa-tenders/

I would franchise Clowney with no worries.

Yeah, that's almost 4 million over 2021. A 20 mil. cap hit is something I think the FO may worry about.

He should get a 3-year deal. I hope we can manage it.

Not until July 15th at 4:00 P.M. That's the final deadline but if a team isn't going to use the franchise tag they often announce it before then.

We his is incorrect.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...-and-other-key-offseason-dates-revealed/

Teams have until March 8th.

Sorry about that. You are correct. The deadline for players who have received a franchise tag to sign a multi-year extension is 4 p.m. ET on July 15.

It will be interesting. In the end I doubt we tag him. Not so much because it is a 1 year total more than Myles. Myles is still making more money. Being more money over 1 year shouldn't make any difference.

In the end, it will just be too much money for the yearly cap. I hope a 2-3 year deal that fits our cap situation is good enough money for him. It might be less than cap money for one year, but over 2-3 years it would work out much better in guarantees. I might be wrong, but I think Clowney is still young enough in a volatile sport that 2-3 years of security means something.

I hope you're right. But nobody seemed to trust signing him when we picked him up on the cheap. That's not the case and we will have competition signing him.

I used a different site but cost may still be an issue for the front office.

Even given his injury history I am happy to try to get him for 2 years based on what we saw this year. I wonder if would give us an edge (snicker) over other teams that want him for on a year try out deal.

After this season do you really think he won't get a mutil year offer from other teams as well?

Not exactly what I said.

Move along.

Not exactly but it would be easy to take it that way.

My off-season wish is for a strength and conditioning program that minimizes the ridiculous number of lower body injuries we're plagued with. Here's an interesting season conditioning idea:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/super-bowl-contending-buffalo-bills-150000611.html

Super Bowl-contending Buffalo Bills cut squats from their workouts during the season — and trainers say that may explain why they're the least-injured team in the playoffs

Wish we would have kept Jordan Poyer. Turned into an All Pro

It's just the way we are. In all seriousness, I have been talking about the Browns hiring a yoga coach on and off for maybe 15 or more years. I recently saw john johnso talk about it....I hope it works and we begin to do something about stretching these guys out rather than simply build them up in the weight room until their muscles are a taught as piano string.

I expect we won't and this problem will continue. It's about time a starter or two tears a bicep muscle that needs season ending surgery, we haven't had one of those in a year or so.

Technically, no, but you save that for a last resort if you cannot negotiate something before the date to designate tags rolls around and you just absolutely do not want to lose that specific player.
I don't think $17.5 million for a single year would be outrageously too much for him, but I'd be much happier if we got it down to like $10-12 million per year for three or four years.

In either case, I think we need him, and I think we need to draft a guy to start trying to backfill with as Clowney isn't a spring chicken.
There's an out in Myles' contract for after 2024, too. If he isn't playing like Superman at that point then we will likely not continue to pay him at the level he's getting paid.

This is just another example of why the 2-TE and 3-TE sets have been disastrous for the Browns passing game and has a direct reflection on the QB play when the Browns don't have a single TE rated in the top 17 of getting a "Step or More Separation vs. Single-Man"" when almost 50% of your plays are run from this scheme set. Is Stefanski building an offense to the skill set of his QB or running a scheme with pieces outside the QB's control that cannot execute the scheme? Like I've been saying, there's a lot more wrong with the scheme than just the things Baker needs to work on - as Aaron Rodgers so elegantly stated: "The Browns are not putting Baker into good situations."

Post by Dwain McFarland
Step or more separation vs. single-man for tight ends (excludes pick plays and off coverage inviting underneath throws):
(min 40 routes)

67% Andrews
66% Waller
58% Kelce
58% Hunter Henry
57% George Kittle
53% Rob Gronkowski, Tyler Higbee
52% Dawson Knox
49% Cole Kmet

48% NFL average

46% T.J. Hockenson
45% Kyle Pitts (played outside more)
43% Mike Gesicki
41% Evan Engram
40% Noah Fant
38% Pat Freiermuth
33% C.J. Uzomah
31% Tyler Conklin

It won't matter if the Browns get a stud or not. The Browns are weak at WR and refuse to use the skill set of the TE (Hooper). In a different stat, Hooper was rated #3 in the league is getting separation in zone defenses going into the 2020 season. If Stefanski won't build to the players skill sets, going out and getting a different stud TE is fruitless if he's not going to build the offense to the players skill set.

As I previously posted: he chased Diggs out of MIN, he chased OBJ out of CLE, he's out and out refused to use the talent of Hopper, he cut Cousins pass attempts by almost 30% when he was the OC in MIN, and he's done the exact same thing to Baker. The Browns don't have a PFF rated WR in the top 70 league wide, Stefanski's play-calling is suspect at best, Stefanski had no answer when teams stacked the box, he doesn't have a single TE that can beat man coverage even 30% of the time, and he played a franchise QB 12-games after it was known he had an injury that not only required surgery but effected his motion and accuracy.

Now these are all coach's decisions that Stefanski failed at.

All of these documented facts are going to have a serious effect on free agency. Stefanski has shown a stubborn stance to not adjusting his scheme. As of today, any future aspirations for the AFC playoffs and a SB appearance goes through KCC, Buffalo, Cincinnati and Tennessee, Stefanski's current offensive scheme does not allow the Browns to compete with these teams in the near term. Getting the missing pieces is certainly the goal - using those pieces to their fullest extent is the haunting question. Stefanski currently, DOES NOT DO THAT!

Come on. That post is full of hyperbole. The Browns cannot complete against the following teams although, they beat the Bengals twice this year and last year under this head coach once this year on their field by over 20 points. They beat Tennessee in 2020 and gave KC everything they wanted last year and this year. This team is close they just need better QB play. 60% completion % will not cut it. I think a not injured Baker can get there but it is not up to me it is up to Stefanski.

Come on, beating the Bengals twice when the last time they sat all their starters is nothing to brag about. The game against KCC was a good game but a loss just the same. Blaming it all on Baker is just BS since he completed 75% of his passes against KCC (uninjured) and (injured) 71.88% against the LAC, and 67.86 against ARI and still lost all 3 games. All that without a #1 WR, no TE that could get separation above 30% in man coverage, and a WR group with the highest rated PFF receiver at 73rd. Even so, did Stefanski put Baker in a position where he could be successful and win the Arizona game? Of course not, in a game where the Browns were down 20-0 with 9:29 left in the second qtr and 23-14 at the half, Stefanski proceeded to have Mayfield throw only 9 passes the entire 2nd half. Arizona ran 75 offensive plays to the Browns 59 and beat the Browns 37-14. Now I'm sure that there's an excuse for this game too and that it was Baker's fault. However, no QB is going to develop any consistency or build a rhythm or have chemistry with their receivers throwing 9 passes in a half. You can continue to blame an injured Baker all you want but ignoring the fact that there's issues much bigger than an injured QB's performance that's holding the Browns back. You just don't want to admit that fact.

When I look at the 3 TE, and think, ?? what is going on, and it's like, I think, well I don't know but I think,
maybe it's analytics, that says, umm, well if the Defense is going to get interceptions then you analyze youll lose the game and if the defense is going to get interceptions then usually they come from the Dbs, so maybe,
maybe, they'll say, umm, if we only throw at linebackers then we won't get ints. and then we'll analyze a % to win a freaking game, because they didn't throw an int. So playing scared.

and to put it in a basketball analogy, they'll analyze a fear of playing offense, to the point they'd never try a 3 point shot, and never drive the lane but, BUT, just think how great the offense would be if they take every time they have the ball and try a 10 foot jumper from an odd angle, well they'd never score very many points, but they would (analyze) to barely have any shots blocked, or barely have any fast breaks and turnovers or even have their players foul out. Ah who cares, I don't know anything,
it just feels like, the rest of the league plays Football, and the Browns play analytics, and analytics sucks, at football, unless you are happy with 7-8 and 2 games a flip of the coin. Hey why sign a plethora of players so the offense can be orchestrated through the 3rd tight end?
Tell us why the 3rd TE, and the Fullback are So much more a part of the offense than the top 2 WR's on an NFL team?
Unless it were an expansion team, or some such overly untalented group.

The "Backups Game" was more competitive for the Bengals than the previous one. If you don't want to count the second Bengals game because of the situation, fine, but then we're only looking at 1 game where the Bengals got boat-raced.

In their house!

Yet one game does not make a season and the Browns are sitting at home and the Bengals are in the Conference Championship game. The Bucs lost twice to the Saints last season (2020) but when it came to the playoffs the Bucs ripped the Saints. Does that make the Saints a better team than the Bucs last year because they beat them twice or are the Bucs better because they won the Super Bowl? Yes, the Browns beat Cincinnati but the Bengals won the division and the Browns finished tied for last. I don't put much credence in a singular win here or there as much as I do about the totality of the season. The Bengals lost less games than the Browns and that's why they are still playing and the Browns are not. I certainly don't believe a victory in week 9 of 2021 would give the Browns any kind of an edge in 2022 especially considering the change in makeup that all teams go through on a yearly basis.

I think it says that we really aren't that far from switching places with the Bengals as it seems.

Their is 1 differenc4e between the Browns and the Bengals and that is Joe Borrow. They found their franchise QB. The Browns Offensive line is better than the Bengals. I would take Chubb, Hunt, and Johnson over their stable of backs although they have a very good RB. Tight End is about the same. They have better receivers no doubt but biggest difference is they found their franchise QB. Heck, they gave up the most sacks in the NFL during the season and won the division, Burrow got sacked 9 times last Saturday and they still won. Now, if he continues to take abuse like that he won't be around long. Your franchise QB needs to be protected and if they don't fix that their will be on crutches soon. The Bengals have a decent set of DE's but I would take Garret and Clowney (if he resigns) over their DE's. They probably have better Defensive tackles although we let Oginjobi walk and thought we up graded that position. We match up with them pretty good at linebacker and the strength of their defense the secondary pretty well. I think the Browns defensive strength is the pass rush when healthy and the secondary just like the Bengals. Bottom line is Burrow is just better than Baker and their receivers are better than ours.

I think the Browns will close the gap some at receiver this off season. I see Berry making fixing that position a priority and he does pretty well when he focuses in on a position of need.