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Browns Free Agency 2015

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but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect some of the other ones to get filled.

With the worst Run D in the league last year and a relatively strong group of D lineman that were free agents it can't be considered anything but a disappointment we did nothing to improve the talent level with that group.

That is one area where they bungled free agency because we need beyond just a 3rd tier rotational player to upgrade that group.

Now we are forced to use our draft picks for needs rather than best player available and that just never goes well when teams are forced to draft that way.
 
With the worst Run D in the league last year and a relatively strong group of D lineman that were free agents it can't be considered anything but a disappointment we did nothing to improve the talent level with that group.

That is one area where they bungled free agency because we need beyond just a 3rd tier rotational player to upgrade that group.

Now we are forced to use our draft picks for needs rather than best player available and that just never goes well when teams are forced to draft that way.

You really are insufferable. If Danny Shelton or Malcom Brown are on the board at 12 they are most likely the best available players on the board AND they fill a need.

Outside of QBs, Danny Shelton might be the best fit for the Browns at any pick.
 
Serious question for people that are happy with the roster right now and that things are going great. How good will be the draft need to be for this team to win 10 games and make the playoffs this year? How many roles can they realistically fix long term and short term in one draft?
 
Since the Hughes re-signing is still somehow being turned into a negative, I'll post this from when he was named a secret superstar by PFF between 2013-14.

Playing as the rotational run-stopper that he was originally pegged for, Hughes finished with a +16.0 run defense grade in 2013. That tied for the seventh-best mark at his position, despite the fact that he played less than half the snaps of many of his peers. He increased his Run Stop Percentage from 6.9 in 2012 to 8.9 last season.

He was only able to play 18% of defensive snaps last season. Being healthy this year and able to play closer to 60% would may very quietly help correct a lot of the issues with the defense.
 
Serious question for people that are happy with the roster right now and that things are going great. How good will be the draft need to be for this team to win 10 games and make the playoffs this year? How many roles can they realistically fix long term and short term in one draft?
I wouldn't say fans are happy,and I don't know how anyone could be upset with what the FO has done already or didn't do. The top names in FA weren't coming here without being severely overpaid. We still don't have a QB to rely on, so we can be upset nothing has happened on that front, but FA isn't over and the draft is still to come.

I'd love to see the draft start out with NT, QB, WR, and RT. Doesn't have to be in that order, but to me those are the positions that we need to get to being a .500 team and over.
 
Lateral move? Miles may retire. I'd rather have b00bie on the field than someone who isn't employed by the NFL.

Let's not pretend Hartline is someone's trash we just picked up one our way to goodwill. For a guy who almost died, he came back and put up 2 1000 yard seasons. He was phased out this year due to the emergence of Lamar Miller, Jarvis Landry, the inline/joker TE duo (Clay and Sims) and a spread offense that passed the ball around a ton (8 players had 21 receptions or more - Browns had 5). He's 2.5 years younger than Miles and 2 hamstrings better.

I thought Miles did an very good job last year being a chain mover. And I expect Hartline to be much, much better.
He was phased out because he has limited RAC ability and didn't fit what the offense was looking for (yes, they also spread the ball around more including to backs more often). Hartline's bread and butter are comebacks and outs (he works the sideline great), neither of which were used extensively like they were under Mike Sherman. You could potentially point to Landry as part of why Hartline's #s were down, but not Clay or Sims, as TEs saw essentially the same number of targets as the previous year.

I hope he does well in Cleveland, he always seemed like a hard worker.

Edit: He may move better this year as well, as he may have had some lingering effects from offseason knee surgery (although he never complained publicly).
 
QB market is the QB market. McCown is to Hoyer what beige wallpaper is to greige wallpaper. The big difference between the 2 is Hoyer doesn't know who he is - McCown does.

I know why McCown is here and Hoyer isn't. Hoyer is in his prime and wants an honest shot to see the field, McCown is 35 and really shouldn't be on the field. He knows DeFilippo's system and can help develop a young QB. But, that shouldn't be considered an upgrade in the product on the field. The OC is a QB development specialist, so is O'Connell, Lewis and McCown or mentor types as well. They are hoping zero competition and an overkill of mentors will develop a young QB. I think the plan lacks diversification.

Hartline was a great signing and I'd much rather pay him 2/6 than what Maclin got. As we saw last year when the Browns were clicking, unless they're elite, WR's are reliant on the QBs and the play design. And the last time a top tier WR led a team to a Super Bowl will be the first.

You take the Hartline deal 10 times out of 10. I think it would be smart to draft at least one WR this year because it's a deep position in the draft class with some guys who have way more physical gifts than anyone else on the roster.

Pettine wanted Flip last year - he was force-fed Shanny. It was good, until it wasn't. I honestly think Flip is going to surprise a lot of people this year.

I have no issue with Flip. I wanted him over the retreads after Shanny left. None of that changes the fact that Shanny immediately became the best OC available to other franchises and the way this all went down sent a terrible message throughout the league. Norv, Shanny, then a young guy. It's not a good sign, especially with those other OC still crushing it elsewhere.

Yes, we need another WR. I addressed this in an earlier post but the trio of Hawk/Hartline/Gabriel as slots-possession guys is as good of a trio as their is in the NFL. Need a go to guy for sure, and unless it's Kevin White they should wait until round 2-3 to get one.

Outside of White, I think Funchees has all-world potential. Justin Hardy from ECU and Nelson Agholar from USC are 2 names to keep an eye on (been hearing Hardy's name for a bit now)

Funchess showed he is a Mushin Mohammad type, creates mismatches but doesn't have certain things to be elite. I'm wary of Hardy only because he is so similar to Hawkins and Gabriel. Agholar is a smooth player, not a freak receiver prospect and not terribly physical but doesn't have weakness. Other years he would be a late first round prospect.

Pass catching TE's are being phased out. They're great to have, but they're aren't many teams that incorporate dual TE threats. There are a ton of joker TE's - there's a reason for this.

Flip utilizes an H back who is a little more like Tom Rathman from the 49ers glory years. The guy will be a big part of the game plan and that's why they are going all in on Clay, who has those skills. Cameron wasn't the best fit because he shies away from blocking.

As for Fairley, not going after a DT and re-signing one of their own, I have to think, is by design. One, Hughes is a very good 2 down lineman and is homegrown. Two, they're going to draft a DT in round 1 or 2. Taylor, Hughes, Draft Pick is a pretty solid rotation. Add Fairley to that mix and you're using cap room on a room on a rotational DT who happens to be a malcontent. The Lions just lost Suh - you'd think they'd want to retain Fairley but they didn't even put up a fight.

Loved keeping Hughes, I was just shocked by the sticker price. He hasn't been a starter and had an injury year. Add to that, it's not like the Browns have a reputation as a run stopping team. Good player, just surprised by his salary.

League isn't passing them by. They're being calculative with their spending habits and banking on grooming their own talent to re-sign. This is what smart teams do. Conversely,they're stuck in the mud because they don't have a QB and they have an owner who's a lunatic.

Manziel just spent the past six weeks saying the Serenity Prayer. That is great training for dealing with the Browns.

Not sure if calling him wrong or just copying my new schtick.

TL; DR
 
Here is a post from 603Brown that i agree with. Then again, I agree with many of his posts.

http://603brown.com/2015/03/13/clearing-the-tweetdeck-on-the-browns/

Haslem stated the Browns won't be big players in free agency. The only signings so far have been players cut by other teams and the strategy seems to be to maximize compensation picks in 2016. Instead of following free agents, we will be looking for players cut by cash strapped teams.

This is the chosen strategy. We will see how it plays out.
 
If only our local media would look at us this way, but that's right, we're bumbling idiots.

EDIT: Now I know the immediate response is to list all the bad players we have drafted, but as many people have said that doesn't matter because we have a new guy in charge who hit on basically everyone he took (Johnny and Gilbert certainly didn't perform up to expectations but there is still plenty of time for both to develop).

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/03/14/ravens-play-the-long-game-with-compensatory-picks/

Some teams use free agency to add expensive players and make instant upgrades to their rosters. In Baltimore they take a very different approach.

The Ravens focus on drafting well and retaining most of the good players they draft, but declining to get into bidding wars to keep their own players while also declining to spend a lot of money to attract players away from other teams. As a result, the Ravens are always among the league leaders in compensatory picks.

The NFL’s compensatory pick formula is complex and not released to the public, but the basics are that teams get compensatory picks in the following year’s draft if they lose more expensive players than they sign in free agency. The bigger the losses in free agency, the better the compensatory picks. That means the Ravens, who have already lost five free agents (receiver Torrey Smith, pass rusher Pernell McPhee, safety Darian Stewart, tight end Owen Daniels and quarterback Tyrod Taylor) and not signed any free agents away from other teams, will get a lot of compensatory picks next year.

This year’s compensatory picks haven’t been awarded yet, but the Ravens had anNFL-high four compensatory picks last year, and an NFL-high four compensatory picks the year before. The Ravens have received more compensatory picks than any other team since the NFL implemented compensatory picks in 1994 — even though the Ravens franchise didn’t exist for the first two years after compensatory picks began. Wisely gaming the system to garner the maximum amount of compensatory picks has been a hallmark of Ozzie Newsome’s tenure as the Ravens’ G.M.

It helps that Newsome is also smart about drafting players good enough to contribute when he uses those compensatory picks. Seven of the eight compensatory picks the Ravens have had in the last two years were spent on players who are still on the roster. It’s a lot easier to build roster depth when you’re consistently getting more draft picks than other teams, and consistently using those picks on players who are good enough to make your team.

So while it may look like the Ravens got worse during the first week of free agency, that’s short-term thinking. The Ravens are thinking about the long term, and about the players they’ll draft next year thanks to the players they lost this year.
 
Let's pretend I am your sales director and we are a young software firm. I go to you and say, "Marcus, I'm going to give you $25,000 and you can spend it however you want. It must be sales oriented. I want a report of areas and assets you want to spend your money on. Go."

Would you spend that entire sum marketing, advertising, chasing 1 client? Or would you invest in sales tools, smart, viral marketing (cheap), and target clients that are 1. attainable and 2. a good return on investment?

As you know, it takes 2 sides to get a deal done. Don't conflate being stonewalled with shirking. One of the golden rules of sales is there are only so many ways you can chase a prospect before you burn yourself.

Who would you have liked for them to target? Suh? Revis? Bradford?

Jesus Christ, would you shut the fuck up?

What a horribly specific analogy.

@Deezus @QuadrupleDouble
 
Serious question for people that are happy with the roster right now and that things are going great. How good will be the draft need to be for this team to win 10 games and make the playoffs this year? How many roles can they realistically fix long term and short term in one draft?

This post has been ignored most of the day and frankly it should have been. I don't think anyone on this board, I can't name anyone, is 'happy' with the roster. I think the ones that aren't jumping off the 480 bridge every time some NFL player signs or is traded are the ones who are patient and want to see the finished product before brining out the pitch forks.

They also are the ones who understand the NFL off season and where the Browns realistically sit in the league. Ray Farmer and Pettine have their own warts but they didn't make the mistakes of Policy/Davis/Savage/Mangini/Hologram/etc at least not yet. Farmer, despite his text gate stuff and the 1st round last year (which like it or not still has an incomplete grade) looks to be pretty solid in early returns. I trust he can find serviceable talent. He needs to nail the 1st round this year but I hold out hope he can.

Without a QB, I don't think a 10 win season is in the cards for 2015. If we had gotten a Bradford (big risk) or Foles, maybe we had a shot at it. But we didn't. At best we can get Mariota but he won't win you 10 games this year. I don't think there were any free agents or collection of free agents that could get us there. I would have liked them to sign some and I thought they'd be more active but I'm not broken up over it. Maybe they will be more active in a trade market now that a lot of the teams have spent their load on FA and need to make roster cuts.
 
[QUOTE I don't think a 10 win season is in the cards for 2015. QUOTE]

Going from 7 to 10 wins is by no means unrealsitic if you use the draft, UDFA, regular FA, and trades to your advantage . You dont even need a great QB to have a 10 win season with a great running game, above average special teams and great coaching staff and solid defense.
No one is expecting this team to magically turn in the Niners of 90's, but no one should be giving them a pass because they settled for McCown, who is going to make it difficult to win games. The fanbase deserves an improved roster that can challenge for the division in 2015 period, the fact that people are using the "hard schedule" and QB play as built excuse is a unacceptable losers mentality.
I dont think most fans are going crazy they have not spent 50 mill in free agency, but Farmer needs to give Pettine enough talent to win games this year. Besides the first round last year, Farmer has done a decent job. Problem is passing up Teddy for Johny may have set this franchise back several years, and could prove to be unforgivable sin.
 
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