Archive for May, 2009

Cleveland Browns Left Guard, Eric Steinbach, will likely retain his starting position this season, however, it is also likely that he will see less snaps throughout the year. Very little can be gleaned from the ongoing minicamp at this early juncture, but it is one piece of the puzzle.  Steinbach has not been seeing much action at on-field workouts thus far.  Instead, the reps at the left guard position have largely been taken by Rex Hadnot and Floyd “Pork Chop” Womack.  Further, Mangini has made no secret that he wants to increase the size of the offensive line.  Eric has made [...]

The Browns made a smart signing yesterday.  The Team acquired cornerback Rod Hood who had been released by the Arizona Cardinals. ProFootballTalk reports that Hood was a hot commodity throughout the League with strong interest from the Rams, Lions, Bengals, Bears and the Browns.  The Rams reportedly offered a deal that was declined by Hood.  And the Lions thought for sure that Rod would sign with them, according to the Detroit Free Press. It is reported to be a one-year deal.  A short-term contract that will not break the piggy bank is refreshing.  Hood is entering his seventh year in [...]

The Browns held their minicamp last week, and out of it came three very encouraging stories: 1) Head coach Eric Mangini has come out and said that QB Brady Quinn has a slight edge in the quarterback competition, as he has been taking first-team reps.  To me, this is very encouraging, because I have been lobbying for Quinn for some time now.  I have nothing against Derek Anderson; Quinn just represents the direction this team needs to take.  While Mangini doesn’t want anyone looking into this too much, one has to think Mangini will do the right thing eventually. 2) [...]

      A couple of months ago, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell started talking about an expansion of the League’s regular season from the current 16 games to as many as 18 games. The proposal to be ratified by Team owners could take effect as early as 2011.  The plan would be to cut two of the pre-season games in exchange for the two extra regular season matchups so that the total number of games per Team would remain at 20 each season. The rationale for the change is multi-fold.  First and foremost from the League’s perspective, it would mean [...]

Mangini is a big boy;  and he should expect to be criticized often given his position.  But should he not also get some credit every now and then when his approach seems to be successful? Remember the Rogers-Mangini debacle that confronted the Browns shortly after Eric took the helm?  If you have forgotten or were under a rock at the time, here is a link to Bud Shaw’s piece in the Pittsburgh Daily (aka Plain Dealer).  http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/bud_shaw/index.ssf?/base/sports/123564068563660.xml&coll=2 Apparently, Rogers was miffed that Mangini did not recognize him publicly at a banquet and did not greet him in the locker room. I read [...]

Despite promises of the previous regime, WR Josh Cribbs has been without a new contract for the entire offseason.  With that being said, he has decided to skip the team’s voluntary workouts this week unless some sort of progress is made on a new deal.  His current deal was a six-year extension signed in 2007 that was worth $6 million with $2 million guaranteed. The promise to get Cribbs a new deal was made by Phil Savage, the previous GM of the Browns.  When he was fired, owner Randy Lerner apparently told Cribbs he would follow through on that deal.  [...]

In 2007, ESPN ranked the 10 greatest teams in NFL history.  They were: 1. 1985 Chicago Bears – bludgeoned the Patriots in the Super Bowl after a 15-1 regular season behind QB Jim McMahon, RB Walter Payton and an awesome defense. 2. 1972 Miami Dolphins – in our view, overrated.  Sure they were undefeated, but they played awful teams in the regular season and had real troubles in the playoffs. 3. 1962 Green Bay Packers – Lombardi and Bart Starr;  not much more needs to be said. 4. 1991 Washington Redskins – very potent offense with QB Mark Rypien and [...]

Citing those wonderful unnamed sources that everyone is such a fan of, it would seem that the Browns turned down two trade offers for QB Brady Quinn – deals that each included a No. 1 draft pick.  This of course brings up plenty of speculation as to what the Browns are planning to do with their quarterbacks.  To be honest, it is not all that surprising that these offers were rejected, as it has been stated there will be an open quarterback competition in the summer (a phrase that has become vomit-inducing for me in recent years). While the unnamed [...]

So CBS Sports ranks the Cleveland Browns 30th in the NFL, and Peter King of Sports Illustrated ranks the Browns dead-last. I must admit that I am a fan of CBS football coverage;  it is far superior to that of Fox and better than ESPN, although I certainly enjoy the Monday Night Football broadcast. Beware of putting too much emphasis on these rankings, however.  Do not forget that Peter King ranked the Browns dead-last before they went 10-6 in 2007.  For an analogy as to how inaccurate these types of rankings can be, take the predictions for the Browns’ offensive [...]

Don’t expect a decent draft by the Browns to vault them out of the basement of just about everybody’s power rankings.  The same goes for CBS, as their post-draft rankings place the Browns 30th out of 32 NFL teams.  Here’s what had to be said about the Browns: New coach Eric Mangini will build this team the way he wants it. But one has to wonder if that’s a good thing considering his Jets history. I didn’t think anyone would be praising the Browns as a sleeper pick to storm to the Super Bowl next season, but it looks like [...]