DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Delhome Fiitting Right In With Browns: ABJ

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I'd like to know why anyone would think (if they think this) that the Browns won't be one of the worst 3 passing teams in the NFL this year.

Hell I'd like someone to make the case that we won't be the absolute worst.

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it's already been stated that we have to hope that last year was an anomaly for Jake. it's really all we have. if he has lost it mentally/emotionally and is Chuck Noblauch, then he's toast.

I think at first, at least, he'll be fine. but, i'll be really interested what happens after he throws his first INT. if he comes back and continues to play the same way as before that INT, I'll feel much more comfortable.

and our passing offense might actually utilize the wildcat for passing too, which might help boost those overall passing numbers (another argument for out of the bottom3 for you )

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Hell I'd like someone to make the case that we won't be the absolute worst.

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Heres my case.

1. Oakland
2. Tampa Bay.
3. St Louis

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I knew there was someone I was forgetting, And I put Oakland in there not because of J.C. but because of the rest of the pieces around him. And there coaching staff.

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Going with the drift here, the offensive line in Oakland could be very....er....offensive.

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Going with the drift here, the offensive line in Oakland could be very....er....offensive.

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Will my prize be mailed to me?

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Going with the drift here, the offensive line in Oakland could be very....er....offensive.

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Do you think it's worse than Buffalo, St Louis and Tampa? I don't. Especially considering that J.C is much better than all of the starting QB's for those teams.

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Just to throw this out there...our 129.8 passing yards per game was the fourth worst team performance of the last 10 years.

I'm not optimistic but there are reasons for legitimate hope. The best case scenario in my mind is about 25th in the league. The worst is another cover your eyes awful last in the NFL.

We shall see.

I'm excited to see what Hardesty brings though after hearing from Holmgren. I love running the ball and good defense. Maybe we have a shot to be good there.

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INSIDE SLANT

All eyes will be on Jake Delhomme(notes) now through the end of August to learn whether he can turn back the clock and prove his disastrous 2009 season with the Carolina Panthers was a fluke.


Coach Eric Mangini and team president Mike Holmgren are convinced the Delhomme that threw eight touchdown passes and 18 interceptions last season is not the same guy they are paying $7 million in 2010 to play for the Browns.


Holmgren and Mangini say Delhomme and Seneca Wallace(notes) will battle to be the starter, but on Wednesday, the first day OTAs were open to the media, Delhomme got the bulk of the work followed by Wallace and then rookie Colt McCoy(notes) and Brett Ratliff(notes).


Delhomme looked in command while calling plays and throwing the ball.


“He’s got great energy,” Mangini said. “I don’t like making comparisons. But I will. He reminds me a little bit of (Brett) Favre in terms of enjoying practice and being around the guys. He’s able to be serious and still keep things light. He has good rapport with the offensive guys and defensive guys. You see it in the weight room and all the different areas.”


Spring practice is a far cry from what real football is like because players are not in pads and Delhomme wasn’t dealing with snarling pass rushers, but his throws were on the money. Three passes in particular stood out; one was a lob in the deep right corner of the end zone to Brian Robiskie(notes). Cornerback Eric Wright(notes) had tight coverage on Chansi Stuckey(notes) on another play, so Delhomme threw the ball so that Stuckey had to extend his arms. He threw the ball perfectly, where only Stuckey could catch it. He made a similar throw intentionally low to the ground to Robiskie with Sheldon Brown(notes) all over the second-year receiver. Robiskie caught the ball for a touchdown.


“When you change to a new team you do get a fresh start,” Delhomme said. “To be here is very refreshing. It’s like you get new life injected into you.


“It could have been very easy to walk away and go home or go hold a clipboard some other place, but I wanted a chance to compete. That’s all I ask.”


Delhomme and the Panthers played for the NFC championship after the 2008 season. Delhomme threw five interceptions against Arizona in that championship game. On Wednesday he said he put so much pressure on himself the next season to atone for letting down his team and Panther fans he never got back into the groove.


Delhomme was 4-7 as a starter in 2009 before a hand injury ended his season. Prior to 2009 he was 50-31 as a starter with the Panthers. He was 10-5 as a starter in 2003 when Carolina was in the Super Bowl. He was 11-5 in 2005 and 12-4 in 2008.


Delhomme played only three games in 2007 before an elbow injury ended his season. He had Tommy John surgery to repair it and bounced back to complete 246 of 414 passes for 3,288 yards, 15 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 2008.


NOTES, QUOTES

• WR Brian Robiskie, last year’s second-round draft pick from Ohio State is looking like a different player from a year ago when he caught only seven passes.


• LB Matt Roth(notes) is one of five restricted free agents sitting out the voluntary OTAs. The others are linebacker D’Qwell Jackson(notes), running back Jerome Harrison(notes), fullback Lawrence Vickers(notes) and safety Abe Elam.


Elam and Jackson want multi-year contracts. Roth wants to be traded. General Manager Tom Heckert said Roth will not be dealt.


“It’s like that with everybody,” Heckert said. “Normally when guys are unhappy with their contacts, the first thing out of their mouth is give me a new deal or trade me. It isn’t the first time we’ve heard that and it won’t be the last.”


Roth played six games and recorded four sacks for the Browns after being picked up on waivers from the Dolphins late in the season.


Heckert said he is reluctant to give long-term deals to the players holding out because neither he nor team president Mike Holmgren saw them play last season.


• Josh Cribbs was at the Akron Browns Backers banquet Monday night to receive the Player of the Year award from the Cleveland Chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America.


Before entering the banquet hall the Browns’ special teams star and Wildcat quarterback was cornered by reporters covering the Browns. He was a regular at Cavaliers playoff games and was asked about Cavs star LeBron James possibly playing elsewhere next season.


“I watched him every game,” Cribbs said. “It won’t be the same without him. He’s The King here. LeBron James is King being in this city and growing up in Akron.


“If he goes anywhere else he’ll just be a phenomenal, extraordinary athlete, but he will not be The King in any other city but Cleveland.”


• Scott Fujita(notes), who played the last four seasons with the Saints, knows Browns new quarterback Jake Delhomme as well as anybody.


“I’ve known Jake for a long time and have nothing but respect for him,” Fujita said after an OTA practice. “I think I’ve played him eight or nine times and lost to him almost every time.


“I like having him on my side. I’ve played with some great quarterbacks (including Drew Brees(notes) in New Orleans), but Jake is a great guy, great in the locker room and a heckuva competitor. He’s had some injuries the last couple years, but watching him come back and work the way he has this offseason, he looked sharp. I know he’s in great shape because I’ve been running with him almost every day.”


Quote To Note: “Feels like a rookie. You put in a lot of different terminology, a lot different from the terminology I had in Philadelphia. I’m in the playbook a lot and it’s tough. It’s tough.”—Cornerback Sheldon Brown, on being traded from the Eagles to the Browns.


STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

Contrary to many reports the Browns are not changing over to a West Coast offense.


It was assumed they would become a West Coast team because team president Mike Holmgren coached the West Coast in Green Bay and Seattle a total of 17 years. Then he traded for Seneca Wallace, who played in a West Coast offense under Holmgren in Seattle. Jake Delhomme has also played in the West Coast.


But the Browns aren’t using it, Wallace says.


“The offense seems good,” Wallace said. “It’s different. Obviously, it’s not the West Coast offense and I have to get used to the terminology and the things we do offensively, so it’s a learning process. Every time we get on the field, that’s what we’ll do


Wallace wants to play quarterback, but at the very least he will be involved in some plays with Josh Cribbs in Wildcat formations. One could line up as a quarterback and the other as a wide receiver.

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• WR Brian Robiskie, last year’s second-round draft pick from Ohio State is looking like a different player from a year ago when he caught only seven passes.

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It would be great to see Robo emerge from whatever cave he's been living in. Honestly, this year just feels a lot better than any I can remember for a long time.

No catastrophic injuries, no coaching changes, a pretty good draft, QBs looking accurate without any pressure, WRs catching balls. It's kind of eerie not seeing a flaming mountain falling from the sky. I have almost forgotten what a staph infection is.

The guys who see the glass as half full of idiot coaches and cheap sandwiches will see things differently, of course, but it's a lot better to be saying "it's just OTAs" about the players doing good things than saying it as an excuse, like the fans in Arizona are.

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Delhomme is learning a new system in Cleveland this season. But it's not completely foreign because he knows the West Coast portion of the scheme from the time he spent with the New Orleans Saints under former assistant Mike McCarthy, who is now the head coach of the Green Bay Packers.

"I think I have a very good background in it," Delhomme said. "Some of the plays, Seneca [Wallace] and I will speak some of the West Coast language, because it's very similar to the system he ran in Seattle and what I ran with Mike."

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You know............just in case anyone missed it and decides to get the wrong idea.

When the bullets start flying for real, the plays are going to be founded in the MWCO. Sure, there'll be some things that came from what worked last year, but that won't change the fact of the basic philosophies of what we're going to be running here.

Seriously..........to think we'd take the minds of guys like Holmgren and Haskell and Heckert........all FOUNDED in the WCO...........and shelve them for the hot-seated minds of Daboll and Mangini is flying in the face of pure logic and conventional wisdom.

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Mangini has said that they are going to take a combination of plays from the WCO and the Belichick tree into one gigantic amalgamation of offensive firepower. (OK, I added the last 5 words for dramatic emphasis)

I think that means that we can expect more screens ... quick hit routes from the WRs ..... but that we are not giving up the power running game we started to establish last year ..... and that we'll still be going downfield in the passing game.

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..... and that we'll still be going downfield in the passing game.

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Wasn't there a thread about how our WR's actually got open down field, but Quinn never saw them, or just refused to make the throw?

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Thanks Ballpeen, i wanted to hear from a Tennessee fan abut Hardesty. i saw the Georgia Tennessee game and Hardesty tore up the Bulldogs. thanks again for the post.

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In essence then, a departure from the DA/BQ/BE/JL/Daboll offensive juggernaut that was the first three-quarters of last season?

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It HAS to be better if we just stop running the middle, going three-and-see ya! Quite a game plan. The kneel down even though we needed points is a real defining metaphor of what level we played at. I want to see us much more aggressively going after scoring.

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Playing to win but coming up short is bad; the cautious and timid playing not to lose (and losing) is ugly bad.

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Go after opponenets every play, regardless of which side of the ball. Intensity and aggression, please.

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In case you missed it, that's exactly what we had those last four games. Sure, we lacked the talent to do it in impressive style. We had no passing game to speak of. Our overall game plan was a rather ugly site and not the glamour you seem to seek in style, but it equated to wins.

So do you take those gambles you speak of? Or do you set your team up to have a shot of winning in the end?

Do you call plays you know you don't have the talent to execute, or do you play to your teams strengths to try to be competative?

What Mangini walked into was a very undiciplined team. One with egos here that thought they were bigger than the team. Playing a style of football they simply couldn't execute.

The egos had to go. The dicipline had to be instilled. He had to trim the playbook down to almost nothing so the talent he had could execute the plays. And in the end, it all worked.

In this world of instant gratification, many really believe Rome can be built in a day, but it's not that simple. Each year we will be assembling talent to turn this team into what MH wants it to be.

That's not going to all happen this year. Probably not next year either. But what you will see is an evolution. The more talent acquired, the more you'll see the playbook open up. This year it will happen more on D than on O. Why? Just look back at what we invested in.

I don't look for this O to be as bland as last years. But one must remember, the biggest investment we made for the future on O, was a RB.



So I wouldn't be expecting some open air arsonal quite yet. But as time goes and the pieces of the puzzle start flowing in that "permit" that to happen, I believe we'll gradually see it more and more.

Right now there's more questions than answers out there. Will JD bounce back from last year? How is our WR core actually developing? Can we pass block well enough?

None of which we can answer right now. I think we all want to see the playbook openned up, but I for one don't want to see it openned up so soon we outguess ourselves and get blown out before half time. You have to be in it to win it.

Basics first and everything else will follow.

jmho