2015 Cleveland Browns Regular Season Thread

[Amherstcavsfan]

As @AZ_ showed with the PFF numbers yesterday, it's not like he's exactly been stellar on the field anyways.

As a self proclaimed leader, he should still be available. He shouldn't sit because of his finger and ribs are banged up. It's weak mentally and physically to give up like that

 

[spydy13]

As a self proclaimed leader, he should still be available. He shouldn't sit because of his finger and ribs are banged up. It's weak mentally and physically to give up like that

Pettine created another unneeded controversy here. No need to hang Haden out to dry in the media, even if Haden asked out. He should have just said that he decided it would be better to rest Haden and get him healthy for next week, even if that was a lie.

 

[AZ_]

Pettine created another unneeded controversy here. No need to hang Haden out to dry in the media, even if Haden asked out. He should have just said that he decided it would be better to rest Haden and get him healthy for next week, even if that was a lie.

With the NFL investigating, I'd imagine that was calculated.

 

[spydy13]

With the NFL investigating, I'd imagine that was calculated.

Which is bullshit. Probable means 75% chance of playing. That leaves the unlikely, but still possible 25% chance he doesn't play. No need to waste time on that nonsense, but I guess since they are so in bed with fantasy/legalized sports betting that they are trying to protect their money.

 

[The Oi]

Why do leagues investigate why players were benched or not?

I remember the NBA fining Popp for resting his starters a few years ago and it seemed asinine.

 

[spydy13]

Why do leagues investigate why players were benched or not?

I think the official line is that they are trying to make sure that teams are trying to manipulate their injury list to keep the opposing team on their feet as to whether players will play or not.

I remember the NBA fining Popp for resting his starters a few years ago and it seemed asinine.

This had to do with Stern trying to protect his TV rights payers in TNT, who he thought were getting an inferior product due to Pop's resting scheme. Which I think is what most of this is about. The leagues have to "investigate" these things to make sure the money keeps flowing in from TV or fantasy or whatever.

 

[spydy13]

So, should we make anything out of T. Williams and Freddy Kruger calling out O'Neil's defense for being too easy for the opposing team to suss out what we're doing? Or is this just a case of the defense trying to pin the blame on anybody but themselves for their poor performance?

Pet seems to be trying to sweep the chatter under the rug like last week's unnamed TMZ report, but I hope he realizes that if he doesn't get his defense in order he won't have to worry much longer about who's playing QB.

http://espn.go.com/blog/cleveland-b...-rivers-told-browns-what-defense-they-were-in

Tramon doubling down on his claim that Rivers knew what we were doing.

Williams said recognizing what went wrong is important, because the better the teams, the better the quarterback, and if the Browns want to be in and win playoff games they will have to beat players like Rivers.

He added that players "definitely" would be speaking up more.

"Just to make some minor adjustments," he said, "and like I said, hopefully, it gets us to where we want to go."

Hopefully the coaching staff is willing to take the suggestions of the players, especially a vet like Williams. As I've said before, an imploding and potentially mutinous defense could spell doom for a defensive coach in Pettine.

 

[Randolphkeys]

Pettine probably wasn't wuite ready to be a head coach, O'Neil was rushed into DC, Flip flew up from barely coaching QBs at this level to OC pretty fast... but it was less than two years ago when the Browns became a franchise that no veteran NFL coach wants as an employer. We are paying for Truck Stop Jimmy acting like Donald Trump, firing everyone who turned their backs on his lack of boundaries.

I know Jigo loves bringing up failures of ex-Browns front office execs, but there have been good assistants the past few years.

They've had Billy Davis, Dick Jauron, and Ray Horton as defensive assistants. They've had Norv Turner and Kyle Shanahan, who are still some of the best play-callers around. The word was out when they tried to upgrade the coaches. They couldn't find any of their top choices who wanted to join on. Now this is an inexperienced team with inexperienced coaches.

This is the cost.

 

[spydy13]

Pettine probably wasn't wuite ready to be a head coach, O'Neil was rushed into DC, Flip flew up from barely coaching QBs at this level to OC pretty fast... but it was less than two years ago when the Browns became a franchise that no veteran NFL coach wants as an employer. We are paying for Truck Stop Jimmy acting like Donald Trump, firing everyone who turned their backs on his lack of boundaries.

I know Jigo loves bringing up failures of ex-Browns front office execs, but there have been good assistants the past few years.

They've had Billy Davis, Dick Jauron, and Ray Horton as defensive assistants. They've had Norv Turner and Kyle Shanahan, who are still some of the best play-callers around. The word was out when they tried to upgrade the coaches. They couldn't find any of their top choices who wanted to join on. Now this is an inexperienced team with inexperienced coaches.

This is the cost.

Firing Chud when they had Turner and Horton here was an incredible blunder.

As for the current group, I think Pettine, being I think a pretty well respected DC (whatever you want to say about him as a HC), needs to be more involved in the defense, whether that's scheming going into the games or actually calling plays on Sundays.

I really don't know what the answer is moving forward. I think it's a bad idea to keep blowing things up, but I'm not sure if these guys are really worth our trust (and I'm talking about Farmer too). As for the toxic nature of the Browns job, at the end of the day it's one of 32 available and should be desirable by quality people as long as Haslam is willing to swallow his pride and go into silent partner/check writer mode.

I was reading ESPN's article (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13457071/nba-how-atlanta-hawks-regime-fell-apart) today about the how the Hawks' FO rose and fell, and it detailed how Ferry was able to write his "golden ticket" that guaranteed that ownership would pony up for new training facilities, the creation of an analytics department, and freedom and longterm job security to rebuild the team and coaching staff in his image. Obviously that whole situation kind of blew up (thanks for writing that report, Chris Grant!), but the idea was clearly working and should continue to work even after Ferry dismissal. I'm not sure if there is an equivalent GM or HC candidate out there that would be worthy of turning over the keys to, but I'm guessing Haslam will have to make a similar commitment to get someone quality in here again if he decides to clean house once again after this year.

 

[AZ_]

Turner and Horton aren't exactly crushing losses IMO.

I liked Horton more than Turner, but those guys aren't exactly world beaters.

 

[MoGottiFor3]

Does Nate Orchard even play? He was drafted in the 2nd round..

 

[Randolphkeys]

Turner and Horton aren't exactly crushing losses IMO.

I liked Horton more than Turner, but those guys aren't exactly world beaters.

The Browns wouldn't be able to retain them all, however the point is that the Browns organization created a reputation. This is a franchise that had a number of experienced assistant coaches turn down a head job to remain an assistant elsewhere. Mistreatment of the coaching fraternity - even the mediocre ones - and attempting to belittle their contribution as they leave has left the Browns with a very inexperienced group whom they were able to successfully hire.

I'm hypothesizing that the reputation still exists if the coaches were fired again this year, but the topic started with: "Why is O'Neil the DC instead of someone with more experience?"

 

[brownindian]

Turner and Horton aren't exactly crushing losses IMO.

I liked Horton more than Turner, but those guys aren't exactly world beaters.

True - But they were also a guide for rookie Headcoach Chud who trusted them both. Also, they did have us playing decently - Sure we were not world beaters in that only season but with consistency we could have become playoff contenders.

Also given our history no world beater is going to come to us - Maybe a wife beater will come to join our RB crew if we are stupid enough !

 

[Birdy89]

During the last 2 coaching searches Joe Banner was the toxic elephant in the room that was drastically limiting the number of coaches that would have realistically even considered taking this job.

No one wanted to work with him given his well earned reputation from Philly.

If Jimmy would be willing to overpay for a decent personnel guy we wouldn't have near the issue with getting a decent coach in the future.

It all starts at the top. No one is interested in working for Ray Farmer because he has shown himself to be wildly in over his head as a GM.

Clean house, and spend whatever is necessary to hire a GM that has shown some level of success at that particular job at least somewhere in his NFL resume. From there let him hire his coach.

No more first timers in that position. No more guys that are trying to outsmart the league and sabotaging the franchise in the process.

Jimmy needs to purge the building of anyone that has any tie to the Banner/Lombardi regime and give the organization a totally fresh start with someone people are willing to believe in because they have at least demonstrated somewhere along the line they can perform their job duties effectively.

The place would stop being toxic overnight.

 

[Tornicade]

The Browns cant just "clean" house . they have to do things to show stability in the organization and rebuild their reputation around the league.
Of course that doesnt mean they cant bring in new people. it just means they have to be conscious of how they go about it and make constructive changes