DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Free Agency discussion continued....

Don't get me wrong he's great player but I just don't think he's worth that much. The guy has issues, most of his highlight reels are kicking a guy in the nads or doing something else stupid.

[quote=cfrs15]He's not J.J. Watt, but no one is. Suh has been a top five defensive player the entire time he's been in the league. [/quote

Yeah and a top 5 d bag also. He is the ric flair of football. ...the dirtiest player in the game

Those don't sound like highlight reels.

Without taking into consideration the price tag,

Maclin is and has been my #1 choice. It will be interesting to see how much he will get compared to Hartline and Shorts. (obviously if we are going to over pay by a lot, I would rather have either one of those two instead)



Cobb's contract 4 years 40 million, you think he will get more or less than that?

Similar, probably more.

It was a fake account I think

Eagles re-sign The Great Sanchito (aka Mark Sanchez)



Link


Torrey Smith will not re-sign with the Ravens

I guess we'll see if the Dolphins feel like they are getting their moneys worth when he's suspended a couple games for the next heel stomp....

How many games has been Suh been suspended in the NFL? How many games has Josh Gordon been suspended for? Yet, the vast majority of posters were all about keeping Gordon.

I would take Suh in a heartbeat.

I would rather have a guy who stepped on people rather than a guy who is on the Drank. But, that's just me.

The point about Suh being suspended is that his BS has finally gotten him to that point i.e. last year's initial 1 game suspension levied against him for stepping on Rodgers. Of course he won the appeal and got fined instead.

I wouldn't take Suh in a heart beat. Given the history of the Cleveland Browns and weird stuff happening, I'm fully confident that had we signed him, the first time Suh acts like an a-hole and stomps on someone's leg he injures them to the point they are out a number of games. The fair and proper punishment is suspending him for a like number of games. If he were in a Browns uniform I have no doubt that is what would happen.

Just my opinion though.

A difference of opinion. No big deal.

If you believe bad thing will always happen to the Browns because bad things have always happened to the Browns, why do you root for the team?

So Sanchez got $2 million less in guarantees than McCown.

I'd rather have Sanchez.

"6. If the Browns wind up adding a veteran quarterback, Pettine said he would be "open" to working with Mark Sanchez again after they teamed together with the New York Jets."

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000471219/article/mike-pettine-visited-johnny-manziel-in-rehab

Chiefs get Jeremy Maclin

Looks like Hughes is going back to buffalo

Indeed.

Hard to fault our team for not signing guys when many of the guys we were interested never actually made it to the market.

Simply put, because I have low self esteem. I have very little to live for or show to validate my existence. My choice in the NFL team I root for mirrors oh so much else in my personal life. I'm an emotional masochist. I am dead in side. I truly am. If you ever meet me face to face you'll see just how lifeless and soulless my eyes really are. I am a wayward soul of the cosmos that inhabits a weak shell that once resembled a man, forever lost and adrift. Happiness is impossible to find in this life. Happiness for me is as mythological as the Unicorn, the Kraken, the Greek gods, and the pre-NFL Championships I'm told the Browns have won before I was cursed with my birth. The only way I can feel is to subject myself to the emotional and physical torture that loving a woman who will never love me in return can bring, or by putting on one of three different player's jersey's on a Sunday afternoon and driving to the local Backer's bar where I can feel like I'm surrounded by miserable people just like me. Feeling the ecstasy of our team about to pull out a win, then the sharp pain from blowing it because Dwayne Rudd takes his helmet off too early is the only way I feel alive. It's a rush not unlike the feeling you get when you run 150 volts of electricity through a nipple clamp, but it is a fleeting one. So I tune in week after week, season after season, regime after regime, coach after coach, QB after QB, blown draft pick after blown draft pick... in hopes I get to feel alive just ONE more time before I die.

Please don't suspend my fan membership???

Ndamukong Suh reminds me of the Kraken in Clash of The Titans (80's version), with less arms of course.

Suspend??? I think you've earned the conch shell. We will hoist you up into a throne of stcks and bones and call you our anointed spiritual leader, the chosen one. That was some inspired Brownsieness right there, lol!!!!

I would take him on our team in a heartbeat! He would be a perfect fit to go against Pitts and Baltimore.

I hope Suh signs with the Dolphins and he instantly becomes Albert Haynesworth 2.0! Ha, now there would be something to watch.

Got it. Just wanted to be clear.

Be careful or I'll tell you how I REALLy feel LOL

Patriots re-sign Devin McCourty

I sure hope he works out better for them than the last free agent they threw ungodly money at. (Mike Wallace)

I wish he was coming here but in the same breath, i keep saying to myself Albert Haynesworth 2.0

Haynesworth was good, but he had character issues. Being a dirty player and being a bad guy are two different things.

Let this ^ sink in .....

Looks like macklin is off the board. So much for that serious push to sign him.

Jaguars likely to sign TE Julius Thomas


@ProFootballTalk 5m 5 minutes ago

Jaguars the favorites to land Julius Thomas http://wp.me/p14QSB-9IVr

Trying to make sense of the Browns' conservative free agent strategy

he Morning Kickoff …

Method to the madness?: As NFL free agency officially kicks off on Tuesday, it appears the Browns are taking a different approach than is their custom.

Never a major player in free agency, they usually dabble in a few keynote purchases per year that affects their salary structure. The last two years have seen free agent contracts guaranteeing a total of $69.3 million to Paul Kruger, Desmond Bryant, Karlos Dansby, Donte Whitner and Andrew Hawkins.

This year, they appear to be taking a particularly conservative approach for a team still lacking at many positions. They have been linked to no real big-name free agents. They have signed a released quarterback, Josh McCown, and have conducted visits with four other players released by their previous teams -- tight end James Casey and pass rusher Trent Cole, both of the Philadelphia Eagles, receiver Brian Hartline of the Miami Dolphins, and receiver/returner Ted Ginn Jr. of the Arizona Cardinals.

At the same time, the Browns are on the verge of losing five fairly prominent free agents of their own – quarterback Brian Hoyer, tight end Jordan Cameron, outside linebacker Jabaal Sheard, defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin and cornerback Buster Skrine.

When the Browns say they intend to build through the draft, the decisions made in this free agent season could actually set up their 2016 draft. For the first time, they appear to be consciously strategizing to collect compensatory draft picks to augment their normal draft pick allotment.

The zany formula: Each year in March, the NFL awards 32 compensatory draft picks to teams based on a complex formula that analyzes the previous free agent spending season.

Basically, a team that loses more free agents than it signs may qualify for up to four compensatory draft picks. The picks are spread over the end of the third round to the end of the seventh round. Losing a high-priced free agent who then performs for his new team increases the chance of a higher compensatory pick in return. The system rewards “net losses” in free agency, so a team aggressive in signing free agents may not qualify for compensatory picks.

A few points about compensatory picks:

* They are awarded in March based on the previous season’s net losses in free agency. So the computations of this free agent season will not be realized until the 2016 draft.

* The top teams in total compensatory picks since 1994 are the Ravens (41), Packers (33), Cowboys (33), Eagles (30), Titans (30), Rams (30), Steelers (29) and Patriots (27).

* The bottom teams in compensatory picks are the Browns (six), Texans (nine), Broncos (nine), Saints (10) and Redskins (12).

* Compensatory picks can’t be traded. But they make it easier to trade regular picks.

* Only unrestricted and restricted free agent gains and losses factor into the formula. Re-signing one’s own free agents do not affect the formula.

* Players that are released by other teams and subsequently signed do not count against a team in the compensatory pick formula.

The last point is the most important, because it sets up the strategy perfected by the Ravens and perhaps now being emulated by the Browns.

“It’s not that we don’t sign players,” said Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome. “Every year, there are good players that get cut. Sometimes we have to wait (for them). Teams that sign free agents, they’re going to let some guys go.

“You can’t get all involved that the only way to better your football team is in March. Players are released through training camp. It takes some patience. We know that teams in our division and our conference are going to get cut somewhere down the line.”

Said another league source, “The only negative is if the guys who are scheduled free agents hitting the market right now, you have to stay out of this market if you want to maximize your compensatory picks. You’re passing up a group of players, probably overpaid, but definitely some solid guys, to maximize compensatory picks.”

What’s the value?: To employ this strategy, you not only have to limit your free agent spending but also allow your own free agents to leave. And in return, the highest draft pick you’re going to be awarded is the 97th overall pick.

Last year, the Ravens earned four compensatory picks – Nos. 99, 134, 138 and 175.

They used those picks on tight end Crockett Gillmore, defensive tackle Brent Urban, running back Lorenzo Taliaferro, and guard John Urschel. Taliaferro had 91 yards rushing and one touchdown in a Ravens’ win over the Browns in Game 3.

You may strike it rich on a compensatory pick. The last two Super Bowl MVPs were compensatory picks – Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was the 199th pick of the 2000 draft, and Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith was the 242nd pick of the 2011 draft.

But for the most part, adding compensatory picks increases your options on draft weekend.

“It’s a fairly simple philosophy,” said the league source. “Despite everybody thinking they’re smarter than everybody else, the best picking team is not much better than the worst. But the team with the most picks has the best chance of having a successful draft.

"Jimmy Johnson once said if I do very well, I’ll hit on 50 percent of my picks. So if I hit on 50 percent of 12 picks, that’s a lot better than 50 percent of six picks.”

http://espncleveland.com/common/more.php?m=49&action=blog&r=17&post_id=42931

Thanks for the article pblack, very interesting. I found this quote of particular interest It seems to imply that the more successful teams have the highest FA lost/signed ratio, while teams with lesser success have the lowest ratio. Perhaps not a strict correlation but it does reveal a trend. Other factors are likely involved such as the ability to retain your key players, etc. I'd like to see more to the "formula"...

Interesting article.

Not sure how I feel about it as a model, but teams that have clearly have been successful as an organization, seem to use it frequently. Not sure how much of compensatory picks have played a part in that large success (outside of Tom Brady) but it is being employed by a solid group of teams. I guess someone would have look at all those picks used and who was generated....someone else can do that exercise.

I know clevesteve talks about compensatory picks often...maybe he has a more definitive thought on this.

Regarding the Browns, IF they really want to adopt this model, then the approach to let Hoyer walk and sign a QB who was cut HELPS them to some degree. If I read the article correctly, they are not negatively effected by signing a cut player, but could add a pick by losing Hoyer. Add in they're relatively the same player IMO, makes a little more sense if this was the reason.

Losing Rubin and Sheard, who really don't even fit this defense, HELPS.

It would then come down to risk/reward coupled with your desire to re-sign Cameron and Skrine, and by all reports, it looks like the Browns have Skrine higher a priority than Cameron. Re-signing your own guys doesn't hurt your formula, but letting guys walk HELPS it....so what is more valuable?

Suh is a talent but maybe the Lions are getting tired of his antics. he is not too far from a long suspension if he keeps up the dirty play.

yea but the rub is those are teams that draft well. by the time there draft picks got to FA other draft picks are ready to take there spot.

Very likely that is part of it. Another part is retaining your key players. A very interesting and complex subject...

that's it in a nutshell.. Take the Gilbert pick for example... I am sure the plan was for him to be ready to take Skrine's spot ... well if the player you draft sucks... it changes the entire dynamic.