Archive for February, 2009

The Soldier is moving on. The trade that has been in the making for the past season has finally come true: the Browns have traded TE Kellen Winslow to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for undisclosed draft picks.  It is believed that the picks will end up being the Bucs’ second-round pick in the 2009 draft and a fifth-round pick in the 2010 draft. There is going to be some outcries over this move, but it was the right one to make.  The most telling statistic of Winslow’s career is this: he has played in 44 games and has missed 36.  [...]

Remember how head coach Eric Mangini apparently disrespected NT Shaun Rogers by failing to say hello to him at a public charity function?  That, among some other reasons, have led to Shaun Rogers asking the Browns to not pick up his $6 million option-bonus payment next month. Releasing Rogers would not only mean losing the best defensive player the Browns have, but arguably the best player in the entire organization.  While the Browns have come out and said that Rogers has not asked to be released, Mangini is going to have to smooth things over with the big man. This [...]

OK so here we go again, with the QB’s.  However this time it’s different folks.  March 16, 2009.  Remember this date, now only if it where a day earlier I’d tell you to be aware of that day (my Julius Caesar fans out there know what I’m talking about). So what’s so important you ask yourself about that date, well simply put that’s the day Derek Anderson makes some bank. $5 million of it to be exact, in the form of his roster bonus.  But that’s not the point I’m trying to make here, follow me and my thinking if [...]

There are some recent rumblings about the Browns possibly selecting an offensive lineman with the fifth overall pick in April’s NFL Draft.  Hopefully, they stay as just that: rumors and rumblings.  This time of year is really just a lot of smoke and mirrors as players begin ascending and descending in stock with the Combine making teams extra loopy.  However, there is always the chance that, with the recent injuries to some highly-touted prospects, OL Andre Smith could fall to the Browns. Yes, the right side of the offensive line must be fixed, but is it the most pressing matter?  [...]

Head coach Eric Mangini has continued to round out his coaching staff, as the Browns have announced Matt Eberflus as the new linebackers coach.  A superb linebacker for Toledo (the school where he also began his coaching career), Eberflus has spent the last eight seasons with the Missouri Tigers as their associate head coach/defensive coordinator/safeties coach. I would imagine that Eberflus is going to be praying each and every day for the Browns to draft some linebackers so he can at least have a fighting chance in his new job.  It’s definitely going to be an uphill battle coaching the [...]

When thinking about the number of holes an 0-16 team has, it makes perfect sense why the Browns should keep the Detroit Lions in consideration for QB Derek Anderson’s services.  After all, there is no guarantee that the Lions will pick QB Matt Stafford with the first overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft.  Stafford is not a guaranteed lock, but the Lions desperately need a quarterback and, believe me, no one in Detroit wants to head into the season with Daunte Culpepper sneaking up on that depth chart.  Obtaining a quarterback with a proven track record (DA has a [...]

According to ESPN, umm yeah, Julius Peppers will only agree to a trade of one of four teams, one of which are the Dallas Cowboys.  The other three teams remained unnamed but according to reports two teams are in the NFC. For those who forget, Peppers stated that he would like to play DE in a 3-4 defense, which coincidentally is what the Browns play.  Then all hell broke loose on message boards of a far-fetched dream of landing Peppers.  I guess it’s pretty safe to say that we will not be landing the former Pro-Bowler this off-season.

Head coach Eric Mangini has hired two more assistant coaches in tight-end coach Steve Hagen and running backs coach Gary Brown.  Hagen was with the Browns from 2001-04, the first three years as the tight-end coach and then his last season was spent as the Browns QB coach.  The past two seasons Hagen has been in North Carolina with a former Browns coaching great Butch Davis.  Brown played eight NFL seasons and was last the running backs coach with Rutgers.

The growing sentiment is that ESPN has become too big for its britches; in other words, don’t expect all-around sports news per se, but rather 24/7 East Coast discussion and a constant pining that some team like the Cowboys would just cause some sort of controversy so Scott Van Pelt wouldn’t have to report those boring hockey scores.  There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball?  Since when?  It’s a mess, but it’s hard to let go of ESPN and, even more so, SportsCenter, simply because of the good memories we all have of it. One of the more discouraging [...]

The upcoming 2009 NFL Draft is going to be very important for the Browns, mainly because it will be the first of the Kokinis-Mangini regime, giving fans an idea of how the next three years or so will shake out.  Granted, the new GM will be at a slight disadvantage having been dealt a team without picks in the third, fifth, and seventh rounds.  Something tells me there will be moves made to obtain draft picks.  Here are some of the biggest draft needs of the Browns: Linebacker – The great teams in the AFC North are known for having [...]