DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns Sign Shaun Smith to Offer Sheet!!!

http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2007/03/bengals_wont_match_browns_offe.html

Its offical now...


"The Browns officially have acquired Cincinnati nose tackle Shaun Smith.

The Bengals notified the league they will not match the Browns' offer sheet for the third-year player, which has been reported as $8 million for four years.

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said in a statement read to The Plain Dealer: "We wish Shaun well with his new opportunity. For our offseason and future planning, we have chosen to allocate our cap resources in a different direction"

Excellent..now we have a big 34 NT to play behind Ted...

Package deal
By GEOFF HOBSON
March 16, 2007

Updated: 1 p.m.

Shaun Smith, as ebullient as ever, says he can’t wait for the first Browns game against the Bengals this season because he’s going to pull a Chad Johnson and send his receiver buddies a present.

“It won’t be Pepto-Bismol, but there will be a special delivery for my guys,” Smith said Friday after hearing he’s officially a Brown. “That is going to be a great media week. You’ve got to love the media in Cincinnati.”

And everybody loves Smith in Cincinnati, from teammates, and coaches, and writers, and all the people who have been congratulating the backup defensive tackle for signing an offer sheet with Cleveland last week that reportedly pays him more than $8 million over four years.

“We wish Shaun well with his new opportunity,” said Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis in a news release. “For our offseason and future planning, we have chosen to allocate our cap resources in a different direction.”

But the Cleveland coaches must like him a little more because the Bengals chose not to match the offer and look ready to replace him with a veteran such as Jonathan Fanene and a draft pick.

Smith played in 13 games last season. Although he was active enough when he was in there with 14 tackles and a pass defensed in limited snaps, the coaches decided not to play him in the last three games of his second full season with the Bengals.

“In my exit interview Marvin said he felt it was best for the team if we played some other guys,” said Smith, who sat while Fanene played those last three games. “They’ve got a lot of great players there. Fanene. (Defensive end) Eric Henderson is the next Adalius Thomas. I’m going to miss Paul Brown Stadium. But the Browns are a team on the rise.”

The Browns got Smith to do what they haven’t been able to do against the Bengals and that’s stop the run. In the four games Cincinnati has played against head coach Romeo Crennel’s teams, running back Rudi Johnson has rushed for 126, 169, 145, and 64 yards in compiling a 4-0 record.

The 6-2, 325-pound Smith agrees with others that think he’s a better fit in the Browns’ 3-4 defense as a nose tackle, where he has been told he’ll compete with 16-year veteran Ted Washington.

“That’s what I do. I’m a run-stopper. I can get some push on the pass, but my game is stopping the run,” he said. “I like the 3-4. I played it in practice when we wanted to get a look. I like playing on top of the center. It’s just you and him. Sometimes you have to worry about the guard, but not much.”

Smith, 25, believes the Browns are going off his fine year in ‘05, when he started five games in place of the injured Bryan Robinson and had 38 tackles. He played in the last three games of 2004 after the Bengals picked him up off waivers from the Saints. Cleveland is his fourth and most lucrative stop.

“It means a lot. I’m still going to be the same guy even though I’ve got the money. Joking around, all that,” Smith said. “All it means is I won’t have to hear you guys say, ‘Oh, there’s Smitty. He’s on the bubble.’ And it was true, you had to do your job, but now I can take care of my wife and three kids.”

The move means the Bengals are sticking with their high-priced starting tackles in Sam Adams ($1.5 million salary cap count) and John Thornton ($3.7 million) as well as emerging second-year player Domata Peko, off a good enough rookie year that he’ll press to start.

The oft-injured Fanene, a third-year player hampered by injury who had five tackles in the last three games, can swing between end and tackle, as can Robinson.

The move also indicates they will be looking at a tackle at any point in the draft.

“Anytime you’re playing behind a guy who’s played for 15 years, you can learn a lot,” Smith said. “Just like I learned a lot from Sam, John Thornton, Bryan Robinson. I thank the Bengals, Coach Lewis, for the opportunity.”

There is absolutely no hard feelings. While the offer sat in the Bengals’ offices all week, he chatted with Thornton and Robinson every day.

Of course, wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh was a different story. The gag was that Smith wanted to be a receiver because he spent so much time hanging with them at their lockers trading trash talk.

Smith has taken notes from the Pepto Incident, when Johnson sent each member of the Browns secondary a bottle of Pepto-Bismol because he was going to make them sick.

“T.J.’s my guy. I’ve talked to him two, three times a day,” said Smith, who was revealing nothing about what is going to be in the package.

“A little something,” he said on a day he got a big deal.

I didn;t know that Kelley was an FA...

Django, I actually WELCOME the fact there's a roster crunch. Its a sign that this team is getting better.

The way I see it, only 4 DL are 100% safe

Washington
S.Smith
Roye
R. Smith

Bringing in a DLineman in the draft and letting Fraser, Oshi and Harris fight for a roster spot...well that's music to my ears.

I think with the Smith signing that Babatunde is on the way out. For a big dude, he seemed to get pushed around alot.

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2 mil per, not bad

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Not bad at all, heck in Baseball 2 million a year wont even get ya a has been relief picher with 5 operations on his throwing arm.....So heck it's a good deal

Shaping up to be an interesting offseason.....probably the best since the re-birth in 1999....

Now as long as we don't go QB, RB, Or WR in round1.....

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Or WR in round1

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Draft Calvin and then trade him for another #1, #2 and #3 pick.

I would take Calvin, Joe, or Quinn in a heartbeat

Does anyone know anything about how this guy plays? I'm assuming he has poor lateral movement but does he play with good leverage?

Browns | Contract update: S. Smith
Sat, 17 Mar 2007 21:06:59 -0700

John Murphy, of Yahoo! Sports, reports Cleveland Browns DT Shaun Smith signed a four-year contract worth $8.65 million, according to a league source. He will earn a total of $3 million in the first year of the contract. The deal included a $2.3 million signing bonus and the entire contract could be worth as much as $11 million if all incentives are met.

www.kffl.com/hotw/nfl

Good Done...we got a Solid ready to play NT - TW n him will team up nicely and he could learn a lot from TW.

I hope we sign TW on as an asst. DL coach after this year.

JMHO

"I dont know if Smith has a full grasp of a 3-4 NT. In the Browns 3-4, the NT needs to eat up two blockers...correct?"

I think he has the grasp...Its all about controlling the Center forcing the Offense to utilize more than one blocker. Its not his duty to be a whirling dirvish and spin around and take on more than one blocker...lol

His job is head up on the center...overmatch him so that teams are forced in using more blockers on him. His gap responsibilities remain the same...both A gaps.

JMHO

Exactly.

If the guy is half good he can do that because the center is at a disadvantage just do to the fact he has to snap the ball before he can think about blocking.