DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Trading deadline Oct 20th. Do we get more more picks ?

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If you took a job for $50,000 a year and for whatever reason 2 years from now your skills became incredibly more marketable, would you continue with your current employer for your 4% per year pay increase if another employer was offering you $100,000?

Or.. say you are some type of manager making $50,000 a year and you find out that a similar manager for a different company was making $100,000 for doing roughly the same job, would you stay with your current employer?

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If you took a job for $50,000 a year and for whatever reason 2 years from now your skills became incredibly more marketable, would you continue with your current employer for your 4% per year pay increase if another employer was offering you $100,000?

Or.. say you are some type of manager making $50,000 a year and you find out that a similar manager for a different company was making $100,000 for doing roughly the same job, would you stay with your current employer?

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jc Does anyone know what Cribbs is asking for? If it's around what the best ST'er in the league is getting, pay him and end this BS. He's the only widely recognized high performer on the team. We need a high profile face that the average fan can identify with while the rebuilding goes on, and Cribbs is the only one to fit the bill.

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Don't view this as absolute,, but the way I remember it, he is now asking for an extension of the contract. He is no longer looking for Hester money...

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Agent for special teams ace Josh Cribbs asks Cleveland Browns for a new contract or a trade
By Mary Kay Cabot
October 16, 2009, 8:04PM
Mary Kay Cabot

Plain Dealer Reporter

The agent for Josh Cribbs said Friday that the Browns are being unfair to Cribbs and that they should either pay him or trade him.

The remarks came in response to Browns coach Eric Mangini saying, "[There's] no interest in moving Josh Cribbs" before Tuesday's 4 p.m. trading deadline.

"It's unfair for the Browns to hold Joshua back," said current agent J.R. Rickert. "They should either give him an extension or allow another team to acquire him. Their current position of doing nothing is no longer fair or appropriate. We are asking them to give him the extension he's earned."

At least six teams have expressed interest in trading for Cribbs, according to NFL.com. They are Miami, Kansas City, Oakland, Indianapolis, Jacksonville and San Francisco. At least some of those teams are willing to re-do Cribbs' contract in the short term, a source said.

Cribbs' previous agent, Andre Colona, negotiated a six-year, $6.77 million extension through 2012 that Cribbs, a Pro Bowler, has clearly outperformed. The Browns have indicated a willingness to re-do the deal sometime in the future and Mangini said it's "an ongoing process," but Cribbs' side is no longer satisfied with that answer.

Question is, what will Cribbs do if the Browns refuse to trade him by Tuesday and won't agree to extend his contract?

"I'm going to be stuck," said Cribbs. "I don't know what I'm going to do right now. It will disappoint me tremendously if nothing gets done, and that's no secret. I'll be very disappointed. I play as hard as I can and I give my heart and soul to this team."

Cribbs, who said he's letting his agent speak for him on the business side, indicated that walking out and not playing is not in his nature. He contemplated doing it at the start of the season, but decided not to.

"I just can't leave my guys on the battlefield without me," he said. "I love playing in Cleveland. I love the fans. That's what ultimately drives me on to play as well as I'm able to play. It would hurt the fans to not see me on the field. I'm not going to play bad because I'm not getting a contract."

Cribbs said he hasn't asked for a trade, and technically that's true. Mangini confirmed it. But his representatives did ask permission to seek one and were denied, a source said. Therefore, teams have to go directly to the Browns if they want to get anywhere.

But Mangini is believed to be dead-set against trading Cribbs and would have to be blown away to budge. Cribbs is the quintessential Mangini guy -- passionate, dedicated, team player, versatile and a threat in potentially all three phases of the game.

"Coach Mangini has been very forward with me," said Cribbs. "We discuss it all the time. He's trying to help me out. You have to just wait for yours, I guess. I'm just trying to be patient and play football, because when all else fails, that's all I know how to do right now is play football."

Mangini indicated he's not about to let Cribbs get away.

"Josh and I have a great relationship," he said. "I really like him. I like the things that he does. Josh will be a Cleveland Brown."

But he will at least listen to the offers.

"We take all the calls," he said. "You always listen to everything. You have to. You're always trying to improve the team. In terms of reports of this team or that team, there are a lot of things that are reported that really aren't true."

Cribbs, who's seemed down in the locker room this week, admitted that "off the field it weighs on me. On the field, I'm Josh Cribbs. I've got to show up for my team. I'm a captain, I'm a leader. I've got to set an example by my play on the field."

Cribbs, who's seeking a four-year extension that would enable him to finish his career in Cleveland, made it clear that's what he wants to do.

"Leaving Cleveland would be disappointing," he said. "These fans are tremendous fans. I don't want to play for anybody else. The fans won't be the same, it won't be the same atmosphere."

As for Rickert's assertion that the Browns are being unfair by not trading him or extending him, Cribbs said: "That's who I chose to represent me and I do my part on the field. That's how I express myself. As far as the business matter, I'll let my agent speak for me. I just make the final decision on what I want to do with my career."

Mangini said the Browns haven't set a timetable for when re-working Cribbs' deal. "What we're both doing right now, Josh and I, are trying to get ready for the [Steelers] game Sunday."

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Here I just found this.. it seems new..

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I knew I read it or heard it somewhere,, there you go Hack...

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It would almost have to be about more guaranteed money then?

HACK

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If we trade Cribbs, I won't watch another game until "Mankok" is gone.

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If we bench Kosar, I won't watch another game until "Bellyache" is gone.

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I fixed it for him... a lot of people felt that way... the truth was, Kosar was pretty much done... and Belichick is considered one of the greatest coaches of all time... the moral of the story isn't that this situation is the same, it's that sometimes football people know more than us fans who are all wrapped up in emotion.....

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Now, I hear they offered Brown AND picks for him. WE ARE CRAZY if we turn that down. Absolutely crazy.

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Now, I hear they offered Brown AND picks for him. WE ARE CRAZY if we turn that down. Absolutely crazy.

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Wow you're right man. The browns would be crazier then hell to turn that deal down. It's so crazy that theres no way it's true. I have a feeling that Mangini won't resign Jerome Harrison so he can go after Leon Washington if he becomes a FA. Leon could also return kicks for us.

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I doubt that was the offer....over on the Dolphins board they keep saying like a 3rd or 4th for a ST only player....LOL

On a related note....rumors are swirling that Packers want Joe Thomas and might offer a block buster package??? That one made me laugh too.


HACK

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Now, I hear they offered Brown AND picks for him. WE ARE CRAZY if we turn that down. Absolutely crazy.

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Wow you're right man. The browns would be crazier then hell to turn that deal down. It's so crazy that theres no way it's true. I have a feeling that Mangini won't resign Jerome Harrison so he can go after Leon Washington if he becomes a FA. Leon could also return kicks for us.

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On a related note....rumors are swirling that Packers want Joe Thomas and might offer a block buster package??? That one made me laugh too.

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i'm all for fixing his contract too but seriously, what do you pay him? what is reasonable for what he is? he's a great special teams player and that's about it.

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Because of the length of the deal, I don't believe he has any right to demand anything this soon. After the season? Sure. Right now? No [bleeping] way.

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Cribbs and his agent, regardless of how hollow the delivery, are gaining traction in regards to leverage.

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I'm not sure I believe that (ok, I'm being polite. No way do I believe that, hehe).

Now, why do I feel that way................Because when the all the rhetoric and emotion go by the wayside and you get down to the bottom line, Cribbs is nothing more than a special-teams player.

Think back to the talk on this board. While it's just a "few" fans in terms of the total populous, it's a very good barometer for how the majority of fans feel. So, keeping that in mind, when this topic first came up in camp, the fans believed he deserved a big raise because they felt he would become a bigger offensive weapon, and even bought into the silly talk that he'd become a defensive player. Had Cribbs accomplished something more than just being a return man, he'd have a case.

But he hasn't.

Really, all that's happening here is that Cribbs has had some very good special teams days, and they want to strike the iron while it's hot hot HOT! It's a pure business move, and since it's all about business, there's no reason for the team to change their position from where it was just five weeks ago.

Finally, when push really comes to shove, what is Cribbs going to do? Sit out? How bad will that hurt the team? Not badly at all. Yeah, he's an excellent return man, but is he a QB? Is he a key to our defensive being dominant? Is he a key to our offense being top-10? Nope, he's none of those, and the team knows it. So why should they feel any pressure from anyone, especially right now? Is he going to sit out next year and ruin our chances at a championship?

Cribbs is behind the same 8-ball now that he was in camp. He signed a bad deal, and has been trying to get the Browns to give him a do-over. We didn't then, and based on the fact that he's a good special-teamer and not much else, they won't now.

Does anyone think he's going to stage a walkout in the middle of the season? Does anyone believe that we'll trade him just because he's unhappy? He and his agent have zero leverage, and the Browns know it. They are trying to go the only route available to them in the hopes that it'll have the effect you're describing. I see no reason to believe it would work. The Browns hold all the cards, and allowing someone to stiff-arm them in the middle of the season would send the wrong message.

The Browns won't cave. They'll revisit this when the season is over, but Camp-Cribbs has no bullets in their holster. In fact, the chances are greater that this will turn the fans against him than they are it'd get him a new deal now.

For a "team player" he's not doing anything for the team by bringing this back up less than two months after it was shelved.

It all comes back to when he signed that last deal. It makes more sense before the start of the 2010 season than in the middle of the 2009 season. On the surface, one might think the difference is meaningless, but in reality, it means everything.

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Camp-Cribbs has no bullets in their holster.

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On a related note....rumors are swirling that Packers want Joe Thomas and might offer a block buster package??? That one made me laugh too.

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My guess is that rumor started with GB fans who remember Thomas at Wisconsin.

Something like "boy, wouldn't it be great if GB traded a bunch of draft picks to Cleveland to bring Joe Thomas home?" Then, the internet just ran with it.

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Cribbs and his agent, regardless of how hollow the delivery, are gaining traction in regards to leverage.

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So pay the kid, he's proven his worth or trade him so he can get his worth. Either way we need to treat the kid fairly. JMO

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t would almost have to be about more guaranteed money then?

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What turns my stomach is that this issue just went away right before the season started................yet here is Cribbs and his agent making a huge distraction out of themselves, again.

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In all fairness I believe the reason we are seeing this distraction now, again, is because we have a trading deadline coming up Tuesday, teams have expressed an interest in Cribbs according to various media sources and because of that our local media's mics are being pushed into Cribbs' face hoping for a story. Of course, his agent's taking advantage of the timing.

After the trade deadline this will go away, again.


I'll say this in favor of Cribbs, football is a game of inches; a game of field position. Without Cribbs on this roster the Browns will suffer greatly in field position and no one needs favorable field position more than the Cleveland Browns offense. He sets up this team almost every game with short drives to the endzone, often at the most critical times. That is not easily replaced.

IIRC he was in the last year of his UDFA contract and had done pretty well at the time and was grateful to sign a long term deal. However, had anyone forecasted that he would become the player he has become since then that deal would have been for a lot more money back then. Savage didn't exactly pull a fast one on Cribbs but the Browns sure made out like a bandit before that six year contract was two years old.

Cribbs had absolutely no leverage back then. In fact, he has none now contract-wise. But it's only common sense to look at what he is getting paid vs. his production on the field and his fit in the locker room to see that he's getting screwed by it now.

If he were the best gunner in the NFL that would be one thing. But dude puts up some serious numbers and gift wraps winning field position for the offense. (If only they could take advantage of it). He gets limited offensive plays but even still, vs. the Bills, he rips of a 31 yard run and could well have told the OC, "There, since you can't do anything else with your offense go on ahead with your bad self and kick a field goal from that spot right there and at least tie the game", which they did.

To me it's a production issue. He's a probowl player who didn't back in. He far out produces anyone else on the team, and he does that consistently, game in and game out, but is still getting paid like a UDFA gunner.

I fully get it that he is only in the middle of his long contract. But in your restaurant gig, if you hire a guy to be the dishwasher but he shows cooking skills and slides into the role of a sous chef and shortly after become your executive chef are you still going to pay him like a dishwasher?

You probably would you cheap bastage.

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What do you guys think ? Do we trade Williams for a 3rd if we can ?
How about Rogers for a 2nd ?

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So pay the kid, he's proven his worth or trade him so he can get his worth. Either way we need to treat the kid fairly. JMO

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I agree we should pay him. the question is How much? and what's going to happen next season as far as it being capped or uncapped. Pay him yes, but not before you find out what next season brings salary cap wise.

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Actually it's not so simple. Very few returners are pure returners. Most actually play a position.

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C'mon Deep...you got more than that...work with me here

Find the best kick returner who pretty much plays sparingly at a position...pay Cribbs 110% of that guys salary. If no such guy exists, take the league minimum and use 110% of that number.

Find the best punt returner who pretty much plays sparingly at a position...pay Cribbs 90% of that guys salary. If no such guy exists, take the league minimum and use 90% of that number.

Add to that the salary of Costanzo.

Done...and it even makes a little sense. Moreso than anything else I've read to date.

Oh...and it's a three year deal.