While watching Brady chat and lie about deflated balls ESPN stated at the bottom of the screen that Brian Hoyer's agent said that the Browns want him back. The new OC said he doesn't know if the next QB of the Browns is on the roster now or not. I think that's Hoyer's agent trying to get his client signed. But we may bring him back.
I'm curious as to what exactly Suh's market will be. There are only so many teams that are going to be willing to put up a big number, the Browns being one, but his market is going to be tempered some and if he is signed to a long term deal the cap hit could be realistically less than what it was last season. You also have to remember that the possibility of signing a franchise QB away from another team is not going to exist for another 4 years (minimum) considering all the existing ones are on teams without a back-up on the roster to be groomed to start and this years draft will not present that possibility. More than likely next years will not either. That means if you end up with a franchise QB he will come from the draft and it will cost you considerably less (for the first 3 to 4 seasons depending on what round he is drafted in) making Suh all the more affordable. If he is signed long term the deal will essentially become the same as the typical QB deal and be renegotiated every couple seasons to ease the cap hit. A decision has to be made as to where the strength of this team is going to be until the opportunity presents itself to buy or pay for a franchise QB that you drafted. I would rather have Kreuger and Suh on the line chasing the QB and putting my former first round pick at OLB on the field as a starter and teaming him up with Kirskey who I feel has the potential to start next season. I have no problem letting Gipson walk if Searcy comes in and Whitner moves to FS. Would you rather spend big money on a high impact player that is going to make the defense exponentially better or hold on to the money hoping that somewhere down the road you get an opportunity to make this drastic of an improvement again? At some point a large contract is going to be given out and I know that Cleveland does not want to see another 'Andre Rison' type of deal but money is going to have to be spent to make this team get over the hump and the d-line is a solid place to spend that cash. I know I personally would rather spend large dollars on a pass rusher than on a guard.
I don't believe he is going to get J.J. Watt's contract (6yrs, 100M) but as a point of comparison: Year Base Prorated Roster Cap Number 2015 10 2 10 22 2016 10.5 2 12.5 2017 10.5 2 12.5 2018 11 2 13 2019 13 13 2020 15.5 15.5 2021 17.5 17.5 J.J. is a good comparison because Houston had the cap room to front load his deal and make the rest of his contract very affordable. By the 4th or 5th year of J.J.'s deal he'll be lucky to be among the Top 5 paid players at his position. Suh has already made a boatload of money (64M) and he still plays with a great motor. If there were ever a safe free agent signing Suh is the guy.
p.s. If the Texans need the cap room they will likely guarantee Watt's roster bonus and reduce his 2015 salary by 8 million. Naturally this will also raise his '16-'19 cap numbers by 2M per year.
Thanks for those number beach. This is actually a sound structure for the Browns to follow considering they could make the move this season and afford the large cap number while having more flexibility in the following years that he is on the roster. By the time the back end of the contract comes up it should be renegotiated, once again lessening the blow.
Tim, I read on SB Nation earlier in the week that the Browns should trade our 2 1st rd picks for Mariota. Basically trade the Titans. Then they take OLB Beasley at #12 and RT Clemmings at #19. Now on here you say to sign Suh for say $17m-$22m a year. Why? We are 1 of the only teams that could pay that much with over $49m to spend. Bleacher Report last week put some of the top FA at all positions in a list with what they think each player would get like. We need a TE if we don't resign Cameron. Bleacher Report thinks that... 1. Julius Thomas 4y 23m 2. Charles Clay 3y 14.7m So for $6m a year you could land 1 of the best TE in the game or $5m a year another good young TE. So I'll split that at $5.5m for a TE. This team needs help on the right side of the line. I agree with Irish that Schwartz isn't going anywhere. He never misses a game. So instead you can sign a guard to play the right side. 1. Mike Iupoti 4y 12m 2. Orlando Franklin 3y 9m 3. James Carpenter 4y 15.5m 4. Joe Reitz 4y 12m So say for another $4.5m a year you just improved the right side of the offensive line. So Tim for around $8m a year we could add TE's Thomas or Clay and G's Iupoti or Carpenter. If we then want to add WR they have R. Cobb going for 4y at $35m. So add $9m to that $8m and your at $17m a year for Cobb, Thomas and Iupoti. Look at those weapons! Trade Gordon like you said. Cobb becomes your #1. Plus you have Thomas or Clay at TE. Line help with Carpenter, Iupoti or Franklin. Bring in a QB or resign Hoyer. That will be about $3.5m. So now you are at $20.5m. Since we don't know what defense the Browns are running I'm not bringing up defensive players. But $20.5m will be what it will cost to sign Suh. I would rather have Thomas,Iupoti, Cobb and sign a QB whether that's Hoyer or not for 20.5m than just Suh.
Thomas goes against the idea for the offense in that he is a piss poor run blocker. Plus, no one knows how he would fair being the primary target in an offense without a premier QB. Carpenter more than likely gets resigned by Seattle, not sure about Iupoti but I am hesitant to give an interior lineman a huge contract. Clay is still an unknown but he could be targeted regardless of signing Suh or not and might actually be a better fit than Thomas. I would still opt for Niles Paul if the price is right and favor him more over both considering his skill set for the Browns offense. Cobb would prefer to stay in GB, so if they can offer him a fair deal he doesn't move. He will more than likely be overpaid if he leaves making the question change to 'do you believe he is as good as an Antonio Brown?'. He would have to become the primary receiver in this offense without Aaron Rodgers throwing him the ball, without Jordy Nelson on the other side and he would have to be 'the man' on every play, every week unless they go after another receiver. We have a difference in opinion on what would be better for the Browns.
I think the Julius Thomas and Mike Iupati contracts are really unrealistic. I would look at what Tenn gave the guard from Buffalo as a comparison for Iupati. I can't think of a move TE that actually reached free agency for a Thomas comparison but I think you're looking at 8-10M per if he does. The NFL is about match ups. JT is a big match up problem for defenses. But I don't think he's getting out of Denver for the same reason. They will tag him IMO.
I know what you are saying. Like J. Thomas makes 800k now. Iupoti makes 1.4m and Cobb makes 1.2m now. You can look up their contracts. I got these numbers from Bleacher Report. So if Thomas makes 4.5m, Iupoti makes 4.5m and Cobb makes almost 9m, well I'm a union worker and don't get those types of raises. But as I was saying these are not my numbers but Bleacher Reports. I think that Bulaga won't make it out of GB. Which means Cobb, Kuhn and Lattimore will. If Manning goes back for 17m a year then JT, D. Thomas, O.Franklin, T. Knighton and N. Irving wont be able to sign there. Maybe 1/2 of them but not all. There are 2/3 players right there in that group the Browns could sign. We have the money and the picks to finally turn this team around this year. If the Browns can't vastly improve this roster this off season with the ammo they have to improve it then they should move to L.A. It is a lost cause!
Tim we have a new OC, how do you know what the offense will be? Manning has stated he want's to return to Denver. They have 24.5m left. He makes 17.5m, that will give them 6.5m to resign D. Thomas, J. Thomas and O. Franklin. We could pay 2 of any 3 there. Do you think Manning will take a pay cut? 10m maybe so they can resign the Thomas's. Will they take pay cuts to stay there?
Els, I believe Tim was only commenting about the offense WE thought we would end up with given our current QB situation and the dire outlook for any vast improvement at the position. I know I certainly don't see too many options beside three yards and a cloud of dust.
Those contracts are all rookie deals Els...The "raise" is their real market value.. beach is saying your numbers are low, not high. Julius Thomas is in line to make closer to $7-8M as a top option TE, not the $5.5-6M you have listed and Iupati is going to be pretty high up the list of guards, which will put him more into the $6M range, not $3M which is what his rookie deal paid him. Be careful with Bleacher Report, many of the things on there are from bloggers, they get confused on the numbers some times. All that said, I agree the Suh money could buy TOP recruits for other positions, most likely about 3 upper free agents for the price of Suh.
The $24.5M remaining cap space already includes Manning's take, he is under contract through the end of 2016, if he doesn't retire. So that is what they have to work with to sign rookies and free agents. Unless they cut down their number of drafts picks (currently 6 picks, with no picks in the 4th or 7th round and an extra 5th), that will take around $7M out of the kitty.
Personnel man????? Sounds more like it's probably Haslam. Wonder who's going to get thrown under the bus for this one. I hope it's the Special Teams coach.
Haslam addressed a number of other topics in his five-minute interview: * On the Browns being investigated for a report that a personnel member texted from the press level to the sidelines: "I know that Ray and Pett and Sasha Brown, our general counselor, are cooperating fully with the NFL and if we did anything wrong I'm sure we'll correct it and make whatever amends. I know we've cooperated fully with the NFL." * On the disappointing finish: "If you evaluate our season, if you said at the first of the year that we were going to be 7-9, what would everybody have said? A pretty good year, right? But the reality is we were 7-4 at one time and so now it looks really bad. We don't have enough depth and the injuries are part of the NFL and everybody has them. The injuries hit a team like us hard and it's one of the reasons why we faltered down the stretch. (He added that a championship-caliber QB is a must). * On Shanahan leaving: "I'm not going to talk about Kyle any. Kyle's a smart guy and he has a great future in coaching and we had a good relationship. I will say this, despite the outside view and I think Ray took the high road, which our organization's always going to do, we work together extremely well. Ray and Pett and Sash and (team president) Alec (Scheiner) and I are going off for three days to do a little strategic planning session and I assure you we'll work very hard, we'll work very close together. Do we have disagreements? Of course. But I would venture to say that wherever you all work there's disagreements every day, too. We work together extremely well.'' * On DeFilippo: "We're really excited about Defilippo and John wants to be here and John's the kind of guy that welcomes a challenge and looks at our quarterback situation, understands where he is and looks at our schedule next year and understands where he is and looks forward to the challenge. That's the kind of person we want to be part of our organization. "I think it's also important to remember we've only been together this group, the five of us, for a little bit less than a year. and it takes time to build the team and we're learning each other, we're learning how to work together with each other and I think we've got a really good group that we're really excited about. we're going to be together Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and I'm personally really looking forward to that session.''
From what I was reading, it sounded more like Farmer than Haslem...but who knows, we may never know..
The Morning Kickoff ? Spring thaw coming?: Three weeks after their season crashed with their fifth loss in a row, the Browns are picking up the pieces. And now that new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo is on board, the pace will quicken to figure out their quarterback situation. Actually, it started a week ago when Sashi Brown, the team?s chief contract negotiator, reached out to Joe Linta, agent for Brian Hoyer, to re-open the lines of communication with their defrocked starting quarterback and free agent-to-be. Starting on Sunday, owner Jimmy Haslam will host what he called ?a little strategic planning session? for three days at an undisclosed location. The executives invited essentially form Haslam?s inner circle on Browns? affairs ? President Alec Scheiner, General Manager Ray Farmer, coach Mike Pettine and Brown, the executive vice president and general counsel. No doubt high on the agenda will be the NFL?s ongoing investigation into improper texting that reportedly went on during games in apparent violation of league rules. But also highly discussed will be the team?s ?muddy, at best? quarterback situation. It is no coincidence that after the inner circle returns to team headquarters in Berea, there are meetings loosely scheduled to be held with Hoyer ? one-on-ones with DeFilippo, Pettine and Farmer. Hoyer will want to know where he stands before he instructs Linta on whether to re-engage in contract talks with the Browns for a new contract or to proceed to Plan B, which is to wait for free agency to begin on March 10. ?Brian would love to stay -- if the situation were good for all parties,? Linta said Thursday night upon returning from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, AL. ?He?s looking forward to meeting those guys over the next couple of weeks.? The search goes on: As usual when the Browns hold press conferences, talk centered Thursday on the eternally unsettled quarterback situation. It started when Pettine introduced DeFilippo as the successor to Kyle Shanahan, who talked his way out, at least partially, because of internal pressure to play rookie Johnny Manziel. DeFilippo, 36, followed Pettine?s season-ending press conference lead by flatly stating he has no idea who the Browns? starting quarterback will be. ?We?re not sure if our starting quarterback is in the building right now or not,? said the young coach known as Flip. ?If he is, that?s great. If he?s not, that?s great too. Whoever?s in that room is going to be coached hard, be held accountable and be expected to do the things that we expect out of the Cleveland Browns quarterbacks. ?I know this ? whoever?s in our quarterback room is going to have a clean slate.? The talk picked up later in the evening with Haslam at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards in the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. Haslam said, ?Our situation, as coach Pettine said, is still muddy and we don?t know who our quarterback is going to be next year. All I would say to our fans is we?re going to continue to work really hard to find that quarterback who can make us a championship team. ?So we?re going to work ?til we find the right person. I?m not slighting Connor (Shaw) or Johnny ? or Brian if he were to come back. We?re going to work hard ?til we find a quarterback who can help us win and win consistently, which we stated since Day 1 is the goal. It?s not easy, but we understand it?s the mission and we?re going to work hard at it.? It is commonly perceived that Haslam was the driving force to not only draft Manziel but to have him inserted for Hoyer in the season-defining Game 14 against the Cincinnati Bengals. Manziel laid a giant egg and then was knocked out of the following game with a suspicious hamstring injury. Manziel?s serial off-field escapades, which continued immediately following the season with partying in South Beach, FL; Houston, and Aspen, CO; apparently has the owner himself questioning a future commitment to Manziel. ?I think Johnny has to show on and off the field that he can be a professional,? Haslam said. ?He knows that. Everybody in the organization has told him that. It?ll be up to Flip and Pet to decide whether he can be the kind of quarterback we need to be. He knows what we expect of him on and off the field and it?s up to him to prove that he can do that.? The dust has settled: It was interesting to hear Haslam say this: ?We?ve had a little time to evaluate our season. If you?d said at the first of the year that we were going to be 7-9, what would everybody had said? Pretty good year, right? But the reality is we were 7-4 at one time so now it looks real bad.? Yes, the Browns were 7-4 when Hoyer was the undisputed starting QB. As the pressure to play Manziel intersected with the return of receiver Josh Gordon, Hoyer faltered and the bottom dropped out. Shanahan?s exit interview with Haslam certainly had to include his thoughts about the Hoyer v. Manziel debate. And DeFilippo soon will weigh in on which quarterback gives the Browns the greater chance of winning. And then there is this reality: There aren?t a lot of viable options for the Browns to replace Hoyer. The veteran free agent market is not great and the upcoming draft is even worse. Hoyer is looking much better to the Browns now than he did on Dec. 14, when he formally was benched for Manziel. Asked directly about Hoyer getting back into the mix, Haslam said, ?I think every option is on the table for us, in terms of who?s going to play next year.? For a while, it was a foregone conclusion that Hoyer would leave in free agency. Now that tide is turning. It?s possible Linta and the Browns could be sitting down for serious contract talks at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis next month.
Its FRIDAY ....FRIDAY ...FRIDAY . *DANCE* *YAHOO* The only thing not excited about it is my Liver & my check book *DRINK*
we have tickets to see this man tonight along with a group of friends at RT33 Rhythm & Brews ..cool place . a twenties era roadhouse with great food cold adult beverages & and tonight some smoking Bluez [:} [video]http://youtu.be/XOg3V6FFJhU[/video]
Maybe if you wore a dress and prettied yourself up a bit, you could get free drinks like the ladies do.
