Oh, gotcha...well it would still be a LOT easier for our 1-15 team to improve to 6-10, than the Titans 9-7 team improving by more than a couple of wins...So I would still debate THEIR having more ammo to improve than the Browns.. Titans top 65 picks: #5 #18 Browns top 65 picks: #1 #12 #33 #52 #65 Titans 2017 salary cap space; $74.2M Browns 2017 salary cap space; $107.8M Resources...the Browns have resources... The Browns could re-sign Pryor to a 4 year $40M contract, with $15M guarantees, front loaded with $13M in the first year...AND re-sign Collins to a 4 year $55M contract with $25M in guarantees, front loaded with $17M in the first year...and STILL have more cap space available than the Titans... If either were offered those contracts, they would jump on them and not even hit free agency...
I believe the Steelers had 1 or 2 TO's remaining. It was a situation where they were at our mercy....IMO there is no question that we butchered it, and that senseless and hugely predictable running play should not have ever been called. It's not worth the risk if winning is truly at the top of the agenda...
Not that TD, it's just that we have enough to complain about with the lack of talent on this team...seemed frivolous is all...
How is a golden opportunity to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers frivolous in any way??? Sending those Yinzers home crying in their stupid towels would have been a wonderful ending to our season... We phuqued that up bad. Geezus, we haven't won over there since Tim Couch was our QB! Are you kidding me? Now THAT is something I have no words for, my friend....lol! C'mon man...It's the Steelers and we had them. It was over if it had been coached properly.... I'm only echoing what Rich Gannon was blathering on about during the CBS telecast, for what seemed like forever, at the end of regulation. It was an embarrassment.....All we had to do was take a couple knees, and it was over. We found a way to screw it up. That's the bottom line as far as I see it, and 100% of the blame should go to Hue, for being dumb at the end...As soon as Terrelle Pryor caught that beautiful hitch and go, and set us up at the 5 yard line, my son (age 12), said, "they should just run out the clock and kick a FG."....smh. #frustration
NO, what you expect is that your professional RB protects the damn ball in that situation. Period!! If you want to complain about something, THAT is what you complain about. Protect the ball!!
Nope. I disagree..... Even if Crowell runs it in for the score it's a stupid call, Irish. You would be leaving the Steelers with 55 seconds and 2 TO's to come back and tie or beat you....Why give them the opportunity? How many plays did it take their back-up QB to drive down and beat us in OT, like 4? With all do respect, I think Browns fans have earned the right to complain about lots of things. We should expect our RB's to protect the ball, just as we should expect our coach to not have his head up his ass in a situation where we can easily put the game away without risk of an untimely "brownslike" fumble fest...
Honestly. Now that I think about it, I'm half surprised that Pittsburgh didn't just let Crowell walk in for the score in that situation. I'll chalk that up to two factors. One: Tomlin is not that great of a coach....and two, they figured, the Browns already turned the ball over twice inside the 5, might as we take a shot. and of course, we obliged. Cleveland finds a way...I'm just glad this shit season is over.
You're right, complain away...I should've kept my big mouth shut...Really none of my business what you complain about, it's your prerogative.
Oh, I think I'm done...It doesn't do much good anyway. I just hate losing, and I especially hate losing to Pittsburgh...We absolutely blew that game yesterday and it pisses me off. That's all... I don't like when my team snatches defeat from the hands of victory, and that's what happened at Heinz Field yesterday...
For the record , I'm not complaining. I'm criticizing. There is a difference. Complaining is what you do if you were upset with ticket prices or beer concessions or something.......I am making direct and pointed criticisms at our coach for mishandling the end of a game that should have resulted in a Browns win over their most hated rival....Not sure when it became "frivolous" in the DPL to discuss such things....
After the huge disappointment Saturday night, I didn't think I'd be able to enjoy college football for the remainder of this season, but this Rose Bowl has been epic...
This coach thinks he entitled or something...Hue u won 1 game man...stop w the guarantees and the crazy predictions...smh...learn how 2 b a HC before u keep popping off shuld b ur #1 off season priority
Cleveland Browns Scribbles about the front office, free agents, quarterbacks -- Terry Pluto BEREA, Ohio -- Scribbles in my Cleveland Browns notebook while listening to the postseason press conference on Monday: 1. Keep their own players. That was the first thing Jimmy Haslam mentioned when the owner spoke to the media Sunday after the Browns 27-24 loss to the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Haslam mentioned three things the Browns must do: the others were draft better and wisely use free agency. 2. Most Browns fans know Jamie Collins and Terrelle Pryor are the key players heading into free agency. I believe it will be hard to keep both. Once players come close to the open market, they and their agents usually prefer to see what offers come their way. 3. Picking between Collins and Pryor is easy for me. I'd pay Collins. He has been a good linebacker for four NFL seasons. He wants to be paid. The Browns have oodles of salary cap cash. Pay him. 4. I bet Collins would be a top-five pick if he were in this draft. The No. 5 pick in the 2016 draft was cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who signed a four-year, $23 million deal -- $15 million guaranteed -- with the Jacksonville Jaguars. That's for an unproven player. 5. That's why a four-year deal in the $10 million to $12 million annual range for Collins is not excessive, especially when the Browns have the cash to spend. At the age of 27, he should be in his prime. 6. But the real work for the Browns is signing players before they reach their free agent seasons. That was the mistake they made with Alex Mack. He was interested in signing an extension after his third season -- the first year NFL rules allowed him to do so. The Browns didn't make a move to do that. 7. That led to the star center becoming a free agent in 2013. The Browns made him a transition player. Jacksonville gave him an offer sheet. It was a mess and he was ready to go when the door opened in 2015. 8. Because the Browns kept changing front offices, they weren't thinking ahead. Veteran Joe Thomas mentioned this Monday. He talked about how the Browns have allowed too many viable NFL players to leave via free agency because they didn't sign them to early extensions. 9. Some of the names of good players who walked out: Jabaal Sheard, Buster Skrine, T.J. Ward -- all after the 2013 season. Browns fans know about the exodus last March: Mitchell Schwartz, Travis Benjamin, Craig Robertson, Tashaun Gipson and Mack. 10. There are other players. I'm not going to dwell on all the names. The only one from 2015 who bothered me was Schwartz, because he is a durable right tackle with above-average ability. 11. Three names: Chris Kirksey, Joel Bitonio and Jamie Meder. All are eligible to sign extensions in the off-season. None are free agents yet. They are what Thomas called "middle-class players," the kind very important to a team. Kirksey and Bitonio have Pro Bowl potential. 12. It's imperative that the Sashi Brown front office not only work on retaining Collins and perhaps Pryor. But they also must sign up the better young players now while they are still on their rookie contracts. 13. I do believe Brown and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta have all the data on when it's best to sign players -- and certainly waiting until free agency opens in March is not a good time. So let's see what they do 14. There will be no significant additions to the football operation. I thought it was odd when there was a report coach Hue Jackson wanted to bring in someone. 15. Jackson has a lot of influence when it comes to picking quarterbacks and other roster issues. He is the most experienced football man in the group. The others are player personnel director Andrew Berry, Brown and DePodesta. It's in his interest to keep that position, not add someone else. 16. Jackson had a strong voice in the signing of Robert Griffin III. He obviously liked Cody Kessler in the draft. Remember the "trust me" comment about the rookie from USC. 17. To be fair to Jackson, once the decision was made to trade down and not select a quarterback at No. 2 -- finding a quarterback wasn't easy. 18. I checked the list of free agent QBs available in 2016. Sam Bradford was the best, and he re-signed with Philadelphia. Other names: Brock Osweiler, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Chase Daniel, Brian Hoyer, Matt Cassel, Brandon Weeden, Michael Vick and Griffin. Not much there. 19. Kirk Cousins is the big free agent name. But Washington won't let him go. He'll be re-signed, or Washington will use the franchise tag on him. Other names include Mike Glennon, Geno Smith and Hoyer. Veterans who may be released -- Jay Cutler, Colin Kaepernick and Tyrod Taylor. 20. Trades are more likely, which is why you hear the Jimmy Garoppolo rumors. It's hard to find quarterbacks, period.
Me, I am glad they lost. They did what they set out to do... intentionally tank a season to position themselves with the best overall draft capital. Winning that game does nothing this year. With that being said... without absolutely crushing the draft coming up and picking multiple high-impact players, this entire season was a kick in the dick for nothing and I'll be first in line to turn in my jersey and start rooting for Buffalo. Spoiler
lol! always on cue with the pics... I agree that the FO neads to crush it with the next draft, but I gotta disagree with the notion that a win in Pittsburgh would have meant nothing. IMO this fan base and this organization needs any W they can get. By my count, we should have won 4 or 5 games this season, but the inexplicable always seems to happen to this team, just as it did last Sunday....How many times do we actually look back at the draft and see that the truly best player was taken #1 anyway? I get what you are saying, about how it really doesn't help us, and technically that's correct. But I think a win in Pittsburgh, and a mini two game win streak would have been a good way to end an otherwise miserable season, and would have helped morale throughout the organization...Just my take. I've talked to other Browns fans that thought it best we lose as well...
I think we agree on that, we just disagree when those wins should come. For years, hell... decades, the Browns have been trying to "rebuild" the 1999 expansion team but with constant instability ever since Al Lerner passed, it's never happened. I'm all on board with sacrificing wins now (especially since it's over) to, in essence, revert to an expansion team, in order to build it up appropriately from the ground-up. Putting my tin-foil conspiracy theory hat back on for a second... I don't think the Browns were trying to lose, but I also don't think they were trying to win this season. There were several times where Hue Jackson would call a play so inexplicably bad that everyone talked about it for 3 - 4 days after the game... maybe that wasn't just bad play calling? With 100% certainty, they did that against Pittsburgh. First and goal from the two-yard line? 24 Trap. Stuffed? 24 Trap. Stuff again? 24 Trap. That bizarre screen pass was without question the Browns thinking "#1 overall". I think I wrote something about this during the 2016 draft. That the best player is almost never taken #1 overall due to a number of reasons... typically, the top pick is a QB who's wildly over-drafted due to being a quarterback. There's also the lofty expectations that come inherently with that pick. Only five non-QBs have been drafted first overall since 1999. Three of them were DE's (looking at you, Myles) and the other two were LT's (one of which was during the 2013 draft which is/was the worst one in recorded history). I think that's why we have the situation where the best player isn't taken at that pick very frequently. The DE's taken were Courtney Brown who, at the time, looked like the second coming of Reggie White. That was a no-brainer. The others were Mario Williams and Jadeveon Clowney who, like Myles Garrett, were incredibly freakish athletes. Mario Williams has had ups and downs, but is close to 100 career sacks. Clowney has the look of a bust since he can't stay healthy, but that was a knock on him as a prospect, as well as a historically awful work ethic. I want to go back to your quote about how we were in 4 - 5 games. I agree. Without a completely stripped-down roster and play-calling that was more focused on winning than not-winning, this could have been a 5- or 6-win season. Without atrocious calls, we'd have beaten Baltimore and Washington without a doubt. With a semi-competent kicker, we win against Miami. That's 4-wins there. Giants, Titans, and Jets we played closely and a veteran here or a better play-call there and we win those. Heck, that could have been a potential 7-wins. But what does that get us? 7-9, just like Philly and we're picking 12th overall? The F/O rolled the dice on the intentional tank, probably fingers crossed that one of these college QB's would become the next "can't-miss". Dumb luck kept that from happening, so while we likely won't be targeting a signal caller at #1 overall, there's a chance we dip into the QB pool at #12. By tanking, not only do we secure the rights to #1 overall and get the best player (not a QB, like most years) and we can still pick up a QB with all the other draft capital. We have #33 overall, which is a HUGE bargaining chip during the draft since teams now have 24 hours between R1 and R2. We have #1 priority on the waiver wire until the regular season starts... that is huge. First pick of everyone released by other teams. And while the 1-15 wasn't fun, we got a ton of rookies a ton of time on the field that will help them out tremendously moving forward. Yeah, it sucked completely to get to this point, but they've positioned themselves for long-term success. I don't want to make outrageous claims right now, but if they could have won 5 or 6 games with this roster, improving through free agency and the draft, as well as some freaking continuity among the staff... 5 or 6 wins is a must next season and they could honestly be scratching at 8-8 after going 1-15. That's a turn-around that's uncommon but it's become we under-sold 2016.
That's an excellent point about being #1 on the waiver wire SAS, and something I hadn't considered.... Maybe I just need somebody to talk me off the ledge once in a while. Perhaps my hatred for the Steelers runs a little too deep .. Yes, we should have beat Tennessee, Washington and Baltimore, but there were two games that stick out to me as absolute mind numbingly idiotic losses, and that was this past Sunday and the Miami game early in the season. Those games raise red flags to me because it seemed our coaches choked badly down the stretch. We obviously can't have that. Too me, it was so bad that I thought Hue needed called out a little bit....In the end though, I must admit, even if we'd have won all those games mentioned, where would it have gotten us? Deeper into the abyss? Please note; if we are in fact a competitive team next season, I do reserve the right to go ape shit crazy if we have any more "meltdown" finishes like the ones that got me so stirred up this year... jus sayin... Go Browns....Stop apologizing to the fans. That's meaningless...It was awful. We know. Just get better.
6 better Monday mornings! I have a serious question for you, I know you are just saying this for the point of conversation, but do you really BELIEVE this team tanked the season on purpose to get the #1 pick? If that were truly the case, why win against the Chargers, not knowing until 4 hours later that the 49ers would also end up winning? I really don't think there is a NFL team that intentionally tanks in order to jockey for draft position. I don't think any coaching staff has enough confidence that a rookie will come in and change the franchise enough to tank wins...The front office might have an inkling, hence the movement of key veterans. But, the coaching staff wants wins on their resume, that is how they ink there new contracts. If the front office, and Haslem to be more specific told Hue to tank, then I think Hue would have told him where to go...and if he agreed to do it, I don't think he would have been as emotional when they lost all the games, and eventually won one. Just my two cents... As for the #1 overall pick...Don't be so sure a QB won't be the #1 overall pick in 2017..possibly both #1 and #1 overall...QBs are a commodity every team wishes upon a star for, that's why when they go watch them in shorts and t-shirts, they fall in love with their mechanics and ignore what game film is showing them. GMs know their careers are tied to finding one and the sooner the better, because their jobs are not secured without finding one...so they take a chance more often than not. I believe the Browns may be the only team in need of a QB that do not simply take one because they need one...and because of that, they won't hesitate to trade that pick and move back a few spots knowing that those top picks will be QBs. Now, Hue may fall in love with one of these guys AND the metrics may help back up his decision...that would be the perfect storm...but I don't see it. I think they will take a defensive player because of the value these top players represent in both need, want and metrics. I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see that #1 pick be sold for a premium and the Browns move back to #3-6. Both the Bears and Jets are desperate for change at the QB position, and quite frankly it wouldn't surprise me if the Jaguars were in the mix as well with a new coaching staff coming on board. 2016... Blake Bortles was #35 in QBR in the NFL for all QBs with at least 50 attempts... That is really not good..however, the Bears had Jay Cutler at #36, the Jets had (2) qualify; Fitzpatrick was #43 and Petty(lowest qualifier in the NFL) was #48. The 49ers had Blaine Gabbert who was #44. Now the Browns expected starters weren't great, lower than Bortles, but higher than anything the Jets had...Griffin III #38 and McCown #39...Here's the kicker...the one guy who they said hopefully wouldn't see the field in 2016 had the most snaps and games started on the Browns and he came in at #19 as a rookie. Kessler was fairly efficient with the football, if not a great asset. It's worth noting that the 49ers also had Kaepernick come in just below Kessler at #22. I think Kaep and Gabbert are gone in San Francisco, so unless they manage to get Tony Romo or someone similar, they may be in full on QB mode for the draft. So, if the Bears, who I believe will be rid of Cutler this off season, decides they love one of the QBs, they will need to leap frog the 49ers to get him possibly. Add in the Jets, who as of day one of the new league year do not have a single QB under contract, and you have a bidding war for #1 overall. It may be possible to move to #3 (Bears) get a 2018 first round draft pick AND still get your choice of defender in the process.
100% agreed. I think this regime knew exactly what it was doing this year and was thrilled it worked out the way it did. Jimmy Haslam lined his pockets, the F/O got the top picks/waivers, and the coaches got an extended live look at players and rookies. Again, sucked as fans, but 2016 was basically the extended preseason to 2017. Now, they need to prove they can hit the ground running and deliver. Playing the AFC South and NFC North next year is much easier than playing the NFL's hardest strength of schedule as we did in 2016.[/*] Sign Jamie Collins to a long-term deal.[/*] Franchise Terrelle Pryor.[/*] Add an impact player in free agency (Tony Jefferson, FS).[/*] Add some solid veteran depth.[/*] Draft impact players, ideally, best available at every spot.[/*] Skip QB in at least the first five picks.[/*] Trade out of #33 overall for a future first to secure your franchise guy next year if Cody Kessler doesn't pan out.[/*] Scour the waiver wire for gems that other teams cannot afford to keep.[/*]
