I gotta agree. There is nothing Tough, Smart, or Accountable in what our Browns leadership is doing IMO Smart: 3 years of 1st rounders, ghosting your #1 draft pick, who'll you'll be lucky to have to come back to, when DeShaun goes to the prom with some other girl. And doing this without the answer to the Baker question? Accountable: OK who's taking responsibility for begging a QB who has inspired 22 sexual charges against women he employed, and who's going to defend the next three years of no 1st rounders to the team when they need to upgrade anywhere else on the team? Tough: apparently not tough enough to face and engage high profile players like men. Random thought If Baker had shut it down after AZ game would we even be in this embarassing DeShaun sweepstakes? Your own QB who put you in the playoffs last year, won one playoff game, and came within a score of a championship game. Started the next season with a game that fell apart due to things that had nothing to do with his play. Through 5 games had very good numbers, even after dislocating his shoulder. Then goes to AZ and totally F**** his shoulder, and instead of going for surgery, tries to play through it, and doesn't do well, and you as front office and coach don't recognize your responsiblity to sit him down and get him surgery, so his play and your season disintegrates, your locker room fractures, and your star players are at odds. Yeah, that sounds like a QB problem
I agree… My point is, if you are going to replace Baker with someone like Marcus Mariota, you may as well call Kaepernick who has accomplished more than all of these guys on the street.
Well if we do get Watson, at least many Browns fans are already good at actively rooting against the QB playing for the team they supposedly root for....So we got that going for us.
This is what lends credibility to the rumors/speculation that they've been trying to get rid of Baker since 2020. The speculation was they were ready to move on with a new QB but they had the "unexpected" success in 2020, 11-5, post season for the first time in 18 years, a post season win for the first time in 26 years. They had to bring Baker back. Playing him through a horrific injury and watching his play deteriorate -- in addition to providing zero support or scheme change to help manage it -- was their 'out'. "Look at how bad he is... we can't work with this." And then they could wash their hands after this season.
Confirmed by the GOAT (Schefter). Garafolo's tweet is interesting, considering they kept Baker in the dark from most reports and then decided to trash him on the way to Deshaun by quoting things to the media like "we want an adult".
Hallelujah, the same player they pursued has saved them more headache to heartache. Now, take the assets you almost gave away and turn them into useable positive assets to help this team win games. As for Baker, I’m still in, he needs to grow up and focus on rehab rather than wasting time on writing letters to us. Real fans don’t care who leads them to the promised land as long as they aren’t criminals. We care who is on board the train that is moving towards a championship. LFG
So if Baker switched teams, would they do a commercial of a moving company moving him from the Cleveland stadium to the new stadium?
This Haslam talking point -------- is there any verifiable evidence? I'm not a Haslam, not sure who is, other than family members, cause his hand at the wheel has been nothing but inept up to this point. I thought he'd grown out of meddling in the personnel side of things, but if this is true, gotta believe we are heading down the rabbit hole once again. Does anyone get to talk to DePodesta? Where is his input into this ? I've felt like he sat in the cat bird's seat in all of this: no accountability, and seemingly direct to Haslam's ear. Berry and Stephanski are betting their careers on being able to get DeShaun. It's a risky bet, but if they pull it off it may bear fruit. It's a Big IF, and they may well be sacrificing 2022 with their tarnished QB spending 6 weeks in suspension, or if the NFL decides to wait for the outcome of the civil suits, at some random point in the not too distant futurre. When you wish upon a "star"? I might feel better about this if I felt this regime had "proven" anything, like their capability of dealing with adversity like games lost, player dissention, and alienation of key player personnel. They haven't and so they don't deserve the benefit of a doubt IMO. I know I'm being harsh, but I just don't see where they've earned any slack. Stephanski got lots of kudos for his first year, and deservedly so. Then year 2 begins and within 2 weeks their QB is hurt, OBJ just starts playing (or at least takes the field), Jarvis F's up his knee, your right tackle is injured, Hunt goes down, AZ ends Mayfield's sesaon but you don't act to minimize it, and Odel's dad forces you to your knees. And your answer is: Mayfield just isn't the answer. I don't think you understand the question.
Or.... maybe the FO / Coach are right, and Baker is the kid saying "the dog ate my homework"? Was he given one of the best rosters in football, and simply was the weak link? I can see an argument for either side, but think the truth is more a simple mismatch between what the Browns wanted in a QB, and what Baker is. Baker is a larger than life kind of guy, and the organization wants to be buttoned up, conservative. they want singles hitters, not home run hitters who also pop out or strike out. Fair enough, and Baker for all his swagger wasn't keen to accept responsibility for being part of the problem, which I believe helped turn the locker room divisive. People like your swagger when you are winning, but if you're losing, and not playing well it just feels like hot air. That's on him, and may be his biggest problem in finding another team to trade for him, as his days in Cleveland are over. How can you sell your players that Baker is the man, when you were ready to sell the future to make him go away? OK, so it's on to the next guy, since rumors are that Cleveland is out of the DeShaun sweepstakes. So are planning to make a move on Matt Ryan if DeShaun chooses Atlanta? If we're in "win now" mode, that would seem our best option, then sell the farm next year to get your future franchise QB, before Matt goes to the mat. A poorly thought out plan IMO. Should have seen they would be a "dark horse" shot. Thus would have been better off telling Baker he was their man, even if they didn't believe it themselves, so they could take the better chance, that he'd play at his 2020 level, then trade him at a higher value, to pursue your future QB Fault on both sides, but I see the mismatch between Baker as a person, and the Browns blueprint for their QB at the root of this messy divorce. The messy part is in the miscalculation by the FO that they had a shot at Watson. Just one more miscalculation on the resume for both Berry and Stephanski. God help us.
Another shoe yet to drop -- and more collateral to sort out -- will be once they leak what was included in that trade. How many picks? How many players? Which ones? 2022 + 2023 first round picks 2022 + 2023 second round picks Denzel Ward Kareem Hunt Joel Bitonio Those are just some of the rumors and speculation. And to those folks who keep chirping "this F/O always has a plan"... do they? Because this certainly feels like a "superstar" QB became legally available and the owner put his two (billion) cents in and demanded they pursue him. I think if the F/O had simply made the call to Houston: "hey... what's the price, and what're the chances he waives his NTC for a northern, cold-weather team in the tougher conference?" and got the realistic answers: (A) a shit load, and (B) no chance -- had that been the end of it? Baker wouldn't be upset and requesting a trade. We wouldn't have had to endure the speculation, media circus, and fan in-fighting. Instead, they gassed up the private jet and took a slew of the big wigs (rumored at least Stefanski and Haslam were on board), sat with a 22-time accused pervert, and *literally* begged him to waive an NTC for them. Damn right Baker's pissed! And now? "This F/O has a plan"... really? Because the reports are now that our Plan B was the old guy under contract. Derek Carr (not an upgrade) just got a superstar wide receiver and looks to be in line for a big-time extension. He's not going anywhere. Jordan Love, the backup to Aaron Rodgers? Played like dog poop in his only action so far and Green Bay probably has no issue keeping him around for the next three years. Jimmy Garoppolo (not an upgrade)? First, knowing the Browns could be desperate, the asking price just went up! And two, he's an elite game manager... a better Brian Hoyer. He would certainly captain the Browns' current offense very well but we'd still need everything to go perfectly for the team to win games. He isn't the QB (and this truly isn't the offense) to compete in the hyper-competitive AFC. Free agents Gardner Minshew? Marcus Mariota? Jameis Winston? Hard pass. Hopefully cooler heads eventually prevail. David Njoku was fed up with the team and requested a trade... now he's in line for a big payday and the TE1 role moving forward. Give Bake a few weeks to cool down. Smooth things over. Put the number out there for 2023 if he plays well (spoiler ahead: it needs to be north of $35 mill a season). If he doesn't live up to their expectations? Agree not to tag him, let him sign where he'd like. Baker's MO is playing his best when his back is against the wall, right? I can't think of a better pressure-cooker than what we've seen the last week or so. Let him come out, play lights out, and earn that big money deal. I'm still riding with #6.
I would love to say I agree with this, however, I’m now worried about the locker room. So, let’s say I agree 90% and will adjust accordingly to the cooler heads in a couple of weeks. I’m just not so sure we will get to a couple of weeks. Teams that are interested in Baker probably won’t want to wait for them to make up or break up. Once the Watson drama is moved to a new city, other dominos are going to fall. We may be on the outside looking in. I have two scenarios: 1) if Watson goes to Atlanta, go all in on a Super Bowl run by helping the Falcons get back some of what they gave up for Watkins. His compensation package should be smaller since whomever trades for Ryan takes on his full contract, including the roster bonus due on Tuesday. I would be ok with this. You have a two year window to get your trophy. Have a $39M cap hit in 2022 and a $43M hit in 2023, then he is 38 and a free agent. Ryan might give us our best chance for a Super Bowl in 2022 and 2023. 2) Don’t spend any draft capital on a trade, trade Baker to the Lions for Goff and we take on his $31M cap hit in 2022. Baker goes to purgatory. Goff has had more success in this league than Baker has, but just isn’t an elite QB. With the right pieces, we could go deep in the playoffs as he did with the Rams during his pro bowl seasons. We should be able to get something added to the pot in this scenario. The biggest issue with scenario #1 is that you are probably competing with the Colts for Ryan. It could drive up the price, as well as Ryan might rather play home games in a dome.
