Obscure things that happened this season that really made we wonder. The weird blackballing of Higgins. The Njoku stay home decision. The Calloway welcome back, now go get em, without earning it. Game day personnel decisions that just made no sense to me, and made me wonder what and why Freddie made those decisions. It just reeked of a guy who couldn't see the big picture, and instead was focussed on some kind of slight or disrespect he felt was committed. These are things that really make me think Freddie had lost perspective, and it has to have made his team wonder if winning was really the priority, or was it showing Freddie respect. Not a winning attitude. I wish Freddie well, and will always like him as a human being, but he's not ready to be HC, unfortunately. Dorsey has to swallow his pride and make the tough call. He has to do it for the team. He has to do it to rescue his own reputation. He has to do it to show his owners, he's a big enough man to admit his error.
Once players start talking about getting out of Cleveland it’s going to be hard to get others to come. Something is seriously wrong there and I’m very sorry for you guys because you are some very very loyal and suffering fans. You guys could use some Marty ball with the stable of RBs you have. His son is the OC in Seattle and they are second in the league in rushing. He would probably run this offense similar to Seattle’s offense.
I love how "come get me" said to an opposing player is automatically translated to "please have your general manager trade assets to acquire my contract from Cleveland". No one is asking to get out of Cleveland. This is...
It could be notorious click-bait artists like Mike Silver who have almost no credibility and also have a huge ax to grind on behalf of their man-friend (and disgraced former coach) are trying to start something where nothing exists.
Regarding players taking plays off, for those (looking at you, Steelers fans) who may not have watched that Arizona game... The defense flat out did not show up. That's an indictment on not just the players, who without Myles Garrett are looking like a Bottom 3 unit, but also the coordinator who -- spoiler ahead -- was the one-and-done head coach of said team. Nothing says "prove 'em right" like laying an egg so massive that you give the team their first two-touchdown win in over two seasons. There is a lot that has to change for 2020. Steve Wilks and Todd Monken are two of those things. I don't think Freddie is.
We don’t actually know that to be the case. There are reports going all the way back to initially after the OBJ trade that suggested Beckham may not want to be in CLE. I’m not saying I trust the reporting, because I am always skeptical of those in the ‘know’. However, I do take notice of repeating patterns that happen at intervals that have enough distance between them to make the possibility of a coordinated narrative have longer odds than the chance that what’s being reported is truth. Basically, the smoke has been lightly coming off of a slow smoldering ember. We’ll find out over the next few weeks whether or not it’s just smoke or if Odell is fanning the flames in the locker room and a fire is breaking out.
To wit: What happened to Baker Mayfield? In October, former offensive line coach and disappointed walrus, Bob Wylie said Al Saunders and Ken Zampese were the ones scheming up the gameplan for Mayfield in 2018 and deserved the credit, not Freddie. Now some of that is probably resentment towards being poop-canned, but there's also some truth in there. Mayfield looked much better with Saunders and Zampese coaching him up and with Freddie calling plays out of Haley's playbook. Whether or not this is truly Freddie's (or a hybrid of Freddie and Monken) playbook is debatable. What's not is Mayfield's very clear regression, despite elite tools. Lindley and Monken - in my opinion - have been disasters and should be replaced.
We know the same about people in this situation as with any other team in the NFL. Unless we, as casual fans, are in the inner circle of these players, then we only have their words to the media on the subject. Odell has said he wants to be here. Landry has said he wants to be here. Anything else is no more conjecture that for any other team, so I'm not sure why -- other than folks simply trying to start something -- we would still be having this discussion otherwise.
But that, quickly turns into this: Despite the fact that Odell has said he's happy in Cleveland. That Jarvis has said he's not going anywhere. That the Browns have his rights through 2023. And that he's actively recruiting other players to come to Cleveland. But sure... let's go with a extremely unreliable rumor-monger and continue to give legs to a non-story. You know who wants to believe the rumors that Beckham would be traded? Fans of teams with shitty wide receivers.
I seem to remember SAS doubting the voracity of what people like Hue Jackson said in pressers, reading into and inferring from various "sources" on Twitter, etc. But he would only do that if he were an insane, hypocritical homer who shuts out all semblance of feedback from outside of his chosen bubble. And that doesn't sound right...
I can understand your frustration with it, but to clarify my own position - My reply to you had more to do with your position of an absolute fact that no one wants out of Cleveland. We simply don’t know that to be fact regardless of what a player may say when questioned. We all know that what is expressed in interviews and in front of cameras doesn’t always accurately reflect what is being said off screen and away from the microphone. The rest of my post was my personal opinion on the possibility that Odell may want out of CLE.
My problem with it is that this is true of 100% of players 100% of the time. Julio Jones may want out of ATL. Von Miller may want out of DEN. LeVeon Bell may want out of NYJ. We're using an unreliable source and an - at best - *generous* interpretation of something said on gameday to determine what Odell, or Jarvis, want? You are, of course, completely free to speculate about what might could happen in the offseason. I just think it's crazy to lean on tweet from Mike Silver that Odell wants traded to a three win Arizona team. (To be clear, not saying you are, but enough are that it's become part of the discussion.)
That's a fair criticism of this Browns team. Lord knows they've completely failed to live up to expectations. I don't know that "directionless" is a fair assignment, but they are certainly listless this season. They're a team that's two seasons removed from 0-16. The combined record from 2015-2017 was 4-44. In the past two seasons, they've turned over 64% of the roster, had three head coaches, three offensive coordinators, two defensive coordinators, and still gone 13-16-1 with two games yet this year. I, like evidently most of the players, thought they'd cruise this year. Turns out, this was a growing year. Not happy with the results, but it's pretty darn obvious where this team needs to improve in order to learn from this year's mistakes and improve next season.
