+ 1 ..he sucks big time . i wish we would have signed a guard in FA ..maybe Gilkey can take that spot over ? Lavaou & Stinkston both need to goooooooooooooo . nothing more than backups and not very good backups . Heckert swung & missed on those two guards .
A look at the players on each AFC North team entering a contract year who must deliver in 2013: Cleveland Browns: Strong safety T.J. Ward. The Browns need another big season out of Ward because he is one of two established starters in the secondary. There's no question about Ward's ability to tackle. He's one of the top run-supporting safeties in the league. Ward, one of the more underrated players in the division, also allowed just 12 receptions in coverage, according to Pro Football Focus. What Ward has to do is prove he can stay on the field. A second-round pick in 2010, Ward has finished the past two seasons on injured reserve. A sprained right foot sidelined him for the final eight games in 2011, and a bone bruise in his knee kept him out for the final two games last season. Still, the Browns know Ward's value and could sign him to an extension before the season. http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnor...-for-a-contract
At one point in the life of real (mostly) NFL free agency, June 2 was a big day. Under labor deals finalized before 2006 (and, of course, after free agency began), teams could cut players on June 2 with reduced cap consequences. It created a second wave of free agency, and a spike in NFL news and interest as the media chased down and/or speculated on who would be cut as of June 2, and where they would land. As of 2006, teams received the ability to cut two players per franchise after the start of the league year in March, and to designate them as post-June 1 cuts. This dynamic, coupled with the willingness of plenty of teams to absorb the full cap charge resulting from cutting a guy in the current year because plenty of teams have plenty of cap space, has turned the second wave of free agency into a puddle of Brownian motion (look it up, it?ll count as the one new thing you learn today). This year, 10 teams took advantage of the ability to use the post-June 1 designation. Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, they are the Bills, Cardinals, Chargers, Cowboys, Dolphins, Falcons, Panthers, Raiders, Ravens, and Steelers. The players who were cut with the post-June 1 designation are, based on the official PFT Commodore 64?s database of Brownian motion (aren?t you glad you looked it up?), former Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, former Cardinals guard Adam Snyder, former Chargers tackle Jared Gaither, former Cowboys linebacker Marcus Spears, former Dolphins linebackers Kevin Burnett and Karlos Dansby, former Falcons tackle Tyson Clabo, former Panthers linebacker James Anderson, former Raiders safety Michael Huff, former Steelers tackle Willie Colon, and former Ravens safety Bernard Pollard. The Raiders did not cut Richard Seymour with the post-June 1 designation; they elected to void his contract in February. Here?s how it all works. Let?s assume a player signs a five-year deal with a $5 million signing bonus. Ordinarily, $1 million would be charged to each of the five years of the deal to account for the signing bonus. If, after two seasons, the team decides to move on, cutting the player before June 2 (and without the post-June 1 designation) would result in a $3 million cap charge. Cutting him as of June 2 (or with the post-June 1 designation) freezes the current year?s dead money at $1 million, with the final $2 million hitting the cap in the next league year. The June 2 cap bump comes from the team?s inability to process the transaction financially until June 2. So if the player with the $5 million signing bonus on a five-year deal has a $5 million base salary, the team carries the $6 million cap charge until June 2, at which time the $5 million base salary disappears. The player still counts for $1 million in the current year, with the remaining $2 million in signing bonus allocation hitting the cap in the next league year. As a result, teams like the Falcons have picked up $4.5 million in cap space via the processing of the departure of Clabo. This gives them more cap space to sign the aforementioned Seymour. Which gives us a chance to close this out with G.M. Thomas Dimitroff?s recent appearance on PFT Live, during which he addressed the reports that Seymour could be a Falcon. It also gives the Falcons more wiggle room to extend quarterback Matt Ryan?s deal. Which, coincidentally, is one of the other topics addressed by Dimitroff below.
Maybe they are hoping Faulk will be healthy and be able to take that spot. He graded as a first round pick at the beginning of the season, before he tore up his knee. And he supposedly would have been one next year had he stayed healthy in the upcoming season. Could end up being a steal of an UFA signing.
i think he is a year away yet . i would stash him on IR for the rest of the season . get him healthy . he had a very high grade before the injury . its why i didnt mention him for this year . 7th round pick Gilkey has a shot this year .
BEREA: Fullback is a position, similar to many spots along the offensive line, where a player can be very good at what he does and still not become a household name. Many Browns fans already know Owen Marecic?s name but not for the right reasons. After the Browns took Marecic ? touted as intelligent, versatile and hard-nosed ? in the fourth round of the 2011 draft, he never evolved into the kind of blocker the team had hoped for last season with Trent Richardson running behind him. He then struggled in the passing game as well. According to ProFootballFocus.com, Marecic was thrown at four times last season and dropped all four passes. That all led to his demotion to the inactive list while tight end Alex Smith converted to be the working fullback in Pat Shurmur?s offense. Now with a new playbook, a new staff and most importantly, a new opportunity, Marecic?s eager to redeem himself for a poor showing in 2012. ?It was definitely tough,? he said Thursday after an organized team activity practice. ?I think just as anything in life, you have a little adversity and you just have to fight through it and make a positive out of it. It?s definitely not where I wanted to be and as a player, a teammate, it motivated me this year to come out and give it everything.? What Marecic learned during his frustrating 2012 season, his second in the league, was that urgency in the NFL is a must. ?Big-time urgency,? he said. ?That?s probably the biggest thing with going through it all, being inactive a couple of times last year. Coming back this offseason, the sense of urgency is at its highest point. I?ve gotta make the most of every opportunity I have. That?s the only way I?ll get more opportunities.? He was frustrated with his performance. To his credit, that frustration never led to moping. Marecic still came to work every day, with not only his starting position taken away but his spot on the active roster, as well. ?It?s not a position an athlete, or a professional, wants to find himself in. I think there?s that urgency to prepare every week no matter where you are on the roster. There?s a big responsibility as a teammate to help prepare the team week after week in whatever manner you can. ?There?s not a lot of time for hurt feelings or dejection.? Now on more of an even ground under a new regime, Marecic is excited to be a part of Browns offensive coordinator Norv Turner?s running game, one that?s produced the NFL?s leading rusher five times and at many points prominently featured a fullback. With the Dallas Cowboys, Turner had Daryl Johnston leading the way for Emmitt Smith. In San Diego, it was Lorenzo Neal creating holes for LaDainian Tomlinson. It?s not necessarily a guarantee that Marecic and tight end/fullback Brad Smelley both make the roster, but one or the other should get the opportunity to see quality time on the field. The two could be in competition together through the fall, a battle that continues during the Browns? mandatory minicamp, which runs Tuesday through Thursday. ?There?s no question that the offense works,? he said. ?It?s a great system. But I guess it?s new for everybody. We gotta make sure we nail it down.? He says the biggest question for the offense is whether the players can execute the game plan. And for him, the biggest question is whether he can turn it around in time to hold off Smelley. Marecic won?t care how many Browns fans know his name when Week 1 rolls around, just as long as it?s in the starting lineup. Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com
Word around here is that Lawrence Vickers is the only person that doesn't know he is going to get cut...hmmm...
yes & no . he was strictly one dimensional . a blocker that's it albeit a very good one .the Texans cut him and he isnt long for the Cowboys either because of his limitations . i think i am the only guy on the planet that still has faith in Marecic . he was a beast at Stanford playing both LB / FB ..he knows its go or go home time . i bet he picks it up and we see the guy i saw at Stanford .there is room for both Marecic & Smelley who i like a lot .
Hey, I'd take one-dimensional to a 'triple-threat' any day -- Marecic's triple-threat being he can't rush, he can't catch and he can't block. He's a dud and I'd be shocked if he found himself on the final 53-man roster. Heck, I'd rather convert Timmy Tebow to FB and plant him in front of Richardson.
The Cleveland Browns will host a three-day mandatory minicamp, beginning Tuesday at the team?s Berea training facility. The Cleveland Browns will complete the veteran portion of the offseason with this week?s minicamp, Tuesday through Thursday, at the Berea training facility. For coach Rob Chudzinski and his staff, they are looking at the execution of plays after installing the offensive and defensive schemes through the first nine weeks of the offseason with meetings and organized team activities. Following last week?s final OTA practices, Chudzinski said the Browns would not install anything new during the mandatory minicamp. ?We?ve got it all in, so now, we can go back and find the stuff that we?re really good at,? quarterback Brandon Weeden said. ?Some of the stuff may not fit what we do or who we have or whatever it may be. ?Now, we can go back and critique everything we do well and move forward there. That?s the nice thing. They have an idea of what routes guys can run and what routes I can throw. Now, it?s sitting back and taking a deep breath and going and playing football.? Third-year tight end Jordan Cameron said the players are adapting to the new offensive scheme well, noting that the use of iPads rather than a binder-style playbook has aided in learning the plays coordinator Norv Turner plans on utilizing this fall. ?I think we learned a lot,? Cameron said. ?They threw a lot at us, but most importantly, I think we?re jelling together and Brandon?s making the right reads. Everyone?s running the right routes. Mistakes happen, but that?s natural with this offense. ?There?s a lot going into it. It?s a lot of at-home studying. They send the film to us right way. It definitely helps having that available to us. These coaches are making it easy on us. They?re throwing us into the fire, but I think it helps to throw it at us all at once so they can coach us up. During camp, we?ve seen everything already, so we?re not surprised. We?ve already done it during OTAs, and I think that?s what they want out of this period.? Defensively, the Browns have come ?along real well,? according to fourth-year safety T.J. Ward. ?Every week is a learning experience,? Ward said. ?From the first minicamp to these few weeks of OTAs and the last minicamp, it?s a progression. We?re taking it slow and fast at the same time. ?We just want to solidify that we know exactly what we?re doing. We?re not going to be perfect coming out of OTAs and minicamp, but we want to solidify the basics of the defense, make sure everyone knows their roles and knows what they?re doing on each play. The timing and everything else is coming together.?
https://twitter.com/WillBurge/statuses/341915637439946752 Might have to drop it from 4-12 to 3-13 with this news. Anyone starting to miss this guy?
Still a better fullback than Owen Marecic. And more playoff wins than: Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, Matt Stafford, Brandon Weeden, Ryan Tannehill, Christian Ponder.....
Montario Hardesty is getting the first-team reps at OTAs. Trent Richardson is nursing a shin injury and may not even be ready for camp. Considering T-Rich's injury history, Hardesty is shaping up as a must-own handcuff. He averaged 4.16 YPC and scored one touchdown on 65 carries last season. The Browns have one of the game's best offensive lines.
i do miss him . to bad he is %) . when Joe Thomas who has been very quiet his whole time here speaks out against Hillis i listen .he is still out there as no team has shown any interest in him . he was fun to watch that one year . shame .
