lhslep134;1182741 wrote:I'm not impressed by Weeden looking good in rookie camp and OTA's. Let's not forget one of the major knocks on him before the draft was his below average performance under pressure, and he's not facing anything like that right now. I'm not saying he can't/won't be good, just saying it's not that big of a deal to look good in practice.

I agree that the proof will be in the pudding when he's under fire.

I think the reason for all of this early optimism is that he LOOKS like a "real" QB....something Cleveland hasn't seen in a long time. Derek Anderson looked like he could be "it", but he was Fool's Gold. Since then the Browns have had nothing but inaccurate, weak armed QB's or washed up (Delhomme) signal callers. Pretty much every QB has had some kind of "warts' (too short/small, weak arm, poor accuracy, etc).

Weeden's biggest question mark is his age and that won't matter if he brings 5-6 solid years.

*The great Jim Brown might not see anything outstanding in Trent Richardson, but the Browns office sure did. In fact, the name “Adrian Peterson” came up in the Browns offices when they were evaluating Richardson. The Browns acknowledge Peterson is a little faster, but they think Richardson is better in pass protection, and they believe he is one of the best backs to enter the league in quite awhile. The Browns love his versatility and plan on getting a lot of out of Richardson ASAP. They are not the only ones who think Richardson will be a quick study. Richardson’s presence does not mean the team is giving up on injury-prone Montario Hardesty, however. The hope is that Hardesty can stay on the field and give the Browns a pair of pounders.

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/NFP-Sunday-Blitz-7629.html

Keeping Hardesty around is the right move. Obviouslt Trent is your main back, but you want to keep him fresh and maximize his production. Keeping 3 backs in the rotation with Hardesty and Jackson backing up Trent would solidify that position IMO.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/19175801/brown-namath-get-icon-status-downgrade-when-swiping-at-former-teams

Keeping Hardesty around is the right move.

They traded into the second round to get him, there is no way they would fut bait with him this quickly. They will give him any and every opportunity to contribute until either they are gone, or he proves too unreliable to keep on a roster.

IggyPride00;1182966 wrote:They traded into the second round to get him, there is no way they would fut bait with him this quickly. They will give him any and every opportunity to contribute until either they are gone, or he proves too unreliable to keep on a roster.

Or they just drafted Richardson and he should be a good spell back for him. What are you even talking about with this post?

They days of the single workhorse back are behind us....Most teams have a couple backs to try and keep everyone fresh.

Cleveland Browns stacking up talent at cornerback: Terry Pluto's Talkin'

Published: Sunday, May 27, 2012, 3:46 AM Updated: Sunday, May 27, 2012, 4:01 AM

By Terry Pluto, The Plain Dealer



Joshua Gunter, The Plain DealerThe Browns believe second-year corner back Buster Skrine (22) could soon challenge to be a starter.
ABOUT THE BROWNS' DEFENSIVE BACKS . . .

1. The Browns remain sold on Sheldon Brown being a cornerback, as coach Pat Shurmur has made clear. Can he beat out Joe Haden? No. Can he beat out Dimitri Patterson? The Browns are paying Patterson like a starter. Patterson has $6 million guaranteed this season between his signing bonus and 2012 salary. It's $4.5 million in 2013 and $5.3 million in 2014. It sure looks as if the 28-year-old Patterson is being primed to start.
2. Brown is 33, and makes $3.7 million. That's a lot of money (and salary-cap room) for a veteran who may be a nickel back. The Browns do love his leadership, and perhaps they believe he will be a positive influence on the younger players -- and supply depth in case of injuries.
3. But the Browns also have Buster Skrine, who impressed them when playing some cornerback at the end of last season. They do believe the second-year pro could develop into a starter at some point, and he certainly can play in passing situations right now. So that gives them four cornerbacks: Haden, Patterson, Brown and Skrine. General Manager Tom Heckert has talked about the need for extra players at this position, so he may be content with keeping Brown for the final year of the veteran's contract.
4. The Browns did take Trevin Wade in the seventh round, a cornerback from Arizona who received very mixed reviews from scouts. But a year ago, Eric Hagg was a seventh-round pick and he has played his way into the team's plans as a backup safety. Skrine was a fifth-rounder and really is liked by the coaches. So we'll see if Wade can surprise.
5. With Michael Adams signing with Denver, the Browns appear content with T.J. Ward and Usama Young as their starting safeties with Hagg in reserve. But the Browns coaches have been so pleased with Hagg in the early camps (and how he played late last season), they believe he could end up starting some games.
6. The Browns' stats show they play three corners in more than 60 percent of the snaps in this pass-happy league, so they believe they are well-stocked at that position -- and want to keep Brown playing the spot where he has the most experience.

ABOUT THE BROWNS . . .
View full sizeAP fileKellen Winslow Jr. is now with Seattle.
1. In case you missed it, Tampa Bay traded Kellen Winslow Jr. to Seattle for a conditional draft pick -- probably a future seventh-rounder. The price was so low because Winslow has had six different knee operations. He also has three years -- at $3.3 million, $4.5 million and $5.5 million -- left on his contract. If he had been cut, more teams would have been interested because they could have negotiated a new, cheaper deal.
2. In the past three years with the Bucs, Winslow caught 77, 66 and 75 passes, averaging 11.1 yards per catch. He's mostly a possession receiving tight end with good hands. The knee surgeries have robbed Winslow of his speed and blocking ability. Tampa Bay didn't think he was worth the cash, so they put him on the market.
3. The Browns traded Winslow to the Bucs before the 2009 season, then-coach Eric Mangini adding second- and fifth-round draft picks. The second-rounder became Mohamed Massaquoi, the fifth-rounder was part of the deal (along with Alex Hall) that brought Chris Gocong and Sheldon Brown to the Browns. And yes, the Browns did pick Winslow over Ben Roethlisberger, partly because they had signed Jeff Garcia and believed he would be their quarterback in 2004.
4. Shurmur listed Massaquoi as the starting receiver along with Greg Little -- and the Browns are very excited about Little losing some weight, adding flexibility and being very serious about taking a major step forward in his second season. Massaquoi has had three concussions in the past two seasons, and has not done much in his three years with the Browns: catching 31, 36 and 34 passes in those seasons, seven for touchdowns. The door is wide open for him, but don't be surprised if Joshua Cribbs grabs some of his playing time -- as Cribbs did last year.
5. The Browns were happy with third-rounder John Hughes and sixth-rounder Billy Winn in the early camps. The two rookie defensive tackles now are more important with Phil Taylor out for at least the first eight games because of surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle. No one is tackling yet, so it's hard to draw grand conclusions. But the Browns drafted Hughes with the idea that he can immediately become a rotation player in the middle of the line.
6. The Browns had Winn rated higher than the sixth round, and they were extremely pleased to grab him at the bottom of the draft. Heckert's approach to defense is to stack up the linemen and cornerbacks.
7. Interesting comment from linebacker Scott Fujita, "This is the most experienced defensive coaching staff that I've been around." Coordinator Dick Jauron was a head coach (Chicago, Buffalo), linebacker coach Bill Davis has been a defensive coordinator for Arizona and San Francisco. Defensive special assistant Ray Rhodes was a head coach for five years. The experience on defense last season helped the team quickly adjust from the 3-4 to the 4-3 defense.
8. By bringing in former head coach Brad Childress as coordinator and Nolan Cromwell as offensive assistant, Shurmur has added experience on the offensive side. Cromwell has been a wide receivers coach for three different NFL teams and an offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. The coaches will have plenty to do as they break in a rookie quarterback (Brandon Weeden), running back (Trent Richardson) and right tackle (Mitchell Schwartz) to the starting lineup

Story on Mitchell Schwartz....

http://www.cantonrep.com/browns/x1832950976/Browns-Schwartz-takes-road-less-traveled-to-Cleveland

[h=3]Browns have FS competition[/h]9:20AM ET
[h=5]Cleveland Browns[/h]

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Throughout the course of this offseason, there has been some speculation that veteran Cleveland Browns CB Sheldon Brown would move back to safety, as the 33-year-old does not quite have the wheels that he once had. However, it doesn't appear like that's going to be the case.
"Sheldon Brown is a corner," Browns HC Pat Shurmur declared, per Tony Grossi of ESPN Cleveland. "He is an outstanding player at corner and to move him to safety is not something that we are planning to do."
Perhaps more importantly, the club can't really afford to lose him at CB. Sure, they're set through one spot with Joe Haden, but Buster Skrine has not yet proven he can be a consistent starter, and Dimitri Patterson is more suited for a nickel role. The Brown-less competition at FS, then, will consist of Usama Young and 2011 seventh-rounder Eric Hagg.

If our offense picks up this year, it will give Brown the rest he needs to be able to stay competitive. Not to mention, we've got great depth at DB so I'm not too worried about that.

http://tracking.si.com/2012/05/29/warren-sapp-blasts-monte-kiffin-trent-dilfer-in-book/?sct=hp_t2_a7&eref=sihp

[h=1]Warren Sapp blasts Monte Kiffin, Trent Dilfer in book[/h] Monte Kiffin, NFL, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Trent Dilfer, Warren Sapp | Comments




Former NFL star Warren Sapp blasts former coaches and teammates in new book. (Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)

Former NFL star Warren Sapp has always been a person who isn’t afraid to speak his mind. So when given the chance to write a book, fans should know what to expect.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that new Sapp’s 314-page book, Sapp Attack, goes on the offensive and attacks several former coaches and teammates.
Here is what he had to say about former defensive corridnator Monte Kiffin: “I always believed Kiffin (blitzed) so much because he wanted the glory; it made him feel like a great defensive coordinator.”
Sapp, who retired in 2007 and is now an analyst on the NFL Network, said that former coach “Tony Dungy put the damn cake in the oven, and then Jon Gruden came in and put the icing on it,” when referring to the success of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs won the Super Bowl after the 2002 season, Gruden’s first season with the team after Dungy was fired.
Former quarterback Trent Dilfer got his share of criticism as well.
“Dilfer … basically was an interception waiting to happen,” Sapp wrote. “There were times we practically pleaded with him, ‘We know you’re not going to score a touchdown, but please, just don’t turn it over.”
No word on when the book will be released.

http://www.tmz.com/2012/05/27/jamal-lewis-nfl-bankruptcy/


Retired NFL star Jamal Lewis -- who helped the Baltimore Ravens win the Super Bowl in 2001 -- has filed for bankruptcy, claiming he's a financial train wreck ... and can't pay his eight-figure debt.

Jamal filed the Chapter 11 papers in Atlanta -- according to the docs, he's got $14,455,854 in assets but he's racked up a whopping $10,566,764.18 in debts.

Among his creditors -- Bank Of America has a lien for $947,876, Benz has one for 113k, Chrysler for 15k ... and the list goes on.

As for his assets -- Jamal's got five homes, a bunch of expensive cars, a $500,000 401(k), and 50% ownership in Fort Rapids Indoor Waterpark in Columbus, OH (worth about $6 mil).

According to the docs, Jamal is self-employed and earns approximately $35,000 a month.

By filing Chapter 11 Jamal ... can keep most of what he's got, while negotiating reduced and extended payments to creditors.

Thought this article belonged in here too. Scary stuff.

http://www.cleveland.com/science/index.ssf/2012/05/former_browns_running_back_jam.html

Former Browns running back Jamal Lewis faces the uncertainties of brain injury from concussions

Published: Sunday, May 27, 2012, 5:59 AM

There are alarming holes in Jamal Lewis's memory these days, scary out-of-the-blue failures, like when the 32-year-old is driving around his native Atlanta and forgets where he is.


The landscape suddenly turns unfamiliar, and he has to stop and tell himself not to panic, to wait until his brain somehow reboots and the recollections come trickling back.

Thousands of head blows will do that.

The standout former Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens running back figures he averaged 15 full-speed, helmet-to-helmet collisions per game, 16 games a year, during his decade in the National Football League. It's the equivalent of running head-first into a brick wall 2,400 times. The number doesn't include all the skull-rattling hits Lewis took in practices and pre-season games, or while playing in college and high school.

Concussions? Many of the impacts probably were, but nobody diagnosed them. Nobody even called them that.

"You got your bell rung," Lewis says. "You got dinged. You don't know that, 15 years from now, this hit or this situation can actually hurt you for a lifetime. Somebody's always fighting for your spot. So it's like, 'Suck it up. Get me back out there. Put me in, coach.' "

They put him back in.

It was Sept. 13, 2009, a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon. Browns versus Vikings. The first game of the season. The beginning of the end of Jamal Lewis's football career. The catalyst for a lawsuit that now pits him and more than 2,200 other ex-NFL players against their former employer for concealing the risks of concussions.

Early in the second quarter, the running back grabbed a handoff from quarterback Brady Quinn and sprinted to his left. A Vikings safety shucked his blocker and closed on Lewis like a missile.

"Usually in the first half, I take guys on more, just to kind of, you know, get some respect," the 245-pound Lewis says.

Both players lowered their helmets and collided with a crack. Lewis's head twisted violently, as if he'd been punched. He spun in the air and landed limply on his back, near the Vikings bench. His hands involuntarily clutched at his facemask.

"Normal" football head hits feel like someone's whacked your helmet with a hammer, Lewis says. This one was frighteningly worse, like nothing he'd experienced before.

"My head was just ringing, and everything was like complete silence," Lewis remembers. "I could hear the [Vikings] coach saying, 'Jamal! Jamal!', asking if I was all right. But that's the only person I could really hear. It was like I was zoned out."

Minutes later, though, when his replacement got hurt, he was back on the field. "They asked me the [concussion diagnostic] questions on the sideline, which I'm not even sure if I answered half of, but, you know, the culture of the game is, 'Gotta go.' "

The rest of the game was a blur. He ran patterns by rote, trying to protect his head. "My main thing was [to] get down."

The next day, an MRI showed a neck bruise, but no one, he says, mentioned a concussion or ordered a neurological exam. Though he played in subsequent games that season, he knew something was seriously wrong. He had migraines. Insomnia. Blurry vision. Bright lights bored into his skull like an ice pick. He couldn't keep food down, including his traditional pre-game steak. His brain was woozy, his concentration shot. When the quarterback called two plays at a time in the huddle, Lewis would repeat the assignments over and over, trying to hold them in his head.

He didn't tell Browns coaches or trainers, partly because he says he didn't realize the symptoms' significance, and because he wanted to keep playing. "They're already trying to bench me," he says. "Why give them another excuse?"

After the Browns' bruising 30-6 loss to Chicago on Nov 1– a game in which Lewis became the NFL's 21st leading rusher – he announced plans to retire after the season.

A month later, on the morning of the Browns-Bengals game, Lewis awoke with a ringing headache and an intensified sense of unease.

"I really wasn't feeling like myself," he remembers. "My routine was just thrown off." At the Cincinnati stadium before the game, he went to the training room and asked if he could be tested for a concussion. The trainer, he says, responded, "Well, not right now."

Lewis played the entire game. In the third quarter, the lethargy lifted and he felt a sudden burst of mental clarity and energy, "like a light switch clicked on." His one-yard carry with 14:02 left in the fourth quarter turned out to be the last of his career.

On Monday back in Cleveland, Lewis underwent a brain scan that he says revealed what doctors initially thought was a blood clot. The Browns – who declined to comment for this story– put him on injured reserve. Follow-up tests ruled out brain bleeding, but doctors diagnosed post-concussion syndrome – lingering symptoms from Lewis's early-season head blow, aggravated by additional brain stress from continuing to play.

The doctors advised him to retire, immediately. Lewis says one told him, "You get out there and get hit again like this, who knows what could happen?" Another said, "You want to be able to run around with your kids. We don't want, 15 years from now, for you to develop Alzheimer's."

No one knows if the damage to Lewis's brain is permanent, and whether the symptoms he continues to suffer more than two years after quitting football – the bouts of memory loss, headaches, nausea, sleeplessness and light sensitivity – eventually will fade, or are the precursors of something worse.

He's read about Dave Duerson, the former NFL all-pro safety whose life unraveled and who suspected his numerous football concussions were to blame. Duerson, killed himself last year. He aimed the gun at his chest rather than his head, leaving instructions that doctors examine his brain. They did, and found it was riddled with the dementia-causing damage characteristic of multiple concussions. Duerson was 50.

"I'm 32," Lewis says. "Thank God I'm 32, but it's like, where is this thing going? You wonder what you've already done."

Joining the tide of concussion-related lawsuits against the NFL, Lewis says, is a way of trying to hold the league accountable, while also sending a message to current and future players to protect themselves.

"The NFL has a responsibility," he says. "It's a game that a lot of guys want to participate in, but just because it's a privilege . . . doesn't mean that you should be shorted the information. I know I can go out and tear up my knee or my ankle or my shoulder. But I never knew that from these constant hits to your head, they could cause long-term effects.

"I probably wouldn't have done some of the things I did. A lot of the hits I went to take on for one yard, when I already got 30, I wouldn't have done. I looked at a lot of [running] backs who used to jump out of bounds like, 'You sucker!' But now I look at that guy and say, 'You were a smart runner.' "

As a kid, Lewis played football in Atlanta's hardscrabble neighborhood parks, on playing fields that were more rocks and dirt than grass. "I think that's what made me pretty good," he laughs, "because I didn't want to hit the ground. So I found a way to get out of tackles and keep going."

Sometimes now, he cringes when he watches youth football. "I can take you around here in Atlanta and you would think you were at a dog fight," he says. "You're trying to break kids and make them tough. You want your team to intimidate everybody else's team, and it's all about hitting."

He tries to temper that message, with his own youth team and in talks with parents, coaches and players. He emphasizes proper tackling techniques – no lowering the head – and the importance of removing players from games after head blows, getting proper medical attention, and watching them closely through the season for behavioral changes.

Choosing not to play is OK, too.

A couple of years ago, Lewis's son, then 6, took up his father's sport. He played tight end and nose guard on a team that won a championship.

"At the end of the season," Lewis says, "I asked him if he was going to play again, and he said no. I [asked] why, and he said, 'I keep getting headaches, and I get tired of getting headaches.' When he said that, I was like, no problem."

LOL...Arena Leaguer talking shit. I'd be more concerned about making the Steelers roster, benchwarmer....

http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d7C5j?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=cleveland-browns

Sounds like Troy Smith is a bandwagoning trollin' POS.

BR1986FB;1184597 wrote:LOL...Arena Leaguer talking shit. I'd be more concerned about making the Steelers roster, benchwarmer....

http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d7C5j?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=cleveland-browns

Two things incorrect with this statement:

1. He's never played in any type of arena league
2. He's not wrong

Y-Town Steelhound;1184765 wrote:Two things incorrect with this statement:

1. He's never played in any type of arena league
2. He's not wrong

1. He's an arena league "caliber" type player

and

2. He's only talking shit because, as the gents like to say on here, he's "butt hurt" that the Browns didn't sign him when he was practically BEGGING to play here on the radio.

^^^

So are you saying what he says is wrong? The Browns haven't been making baffling decisions for years now?

What I'm saying is that he has an axe to grind because he wanted to play for the Browns and they didn't want him. Comes across as bitter to me knowing his history of professed "love' for the Browns.

BR1986FB;1184833 wrote:What I'm saying is that he has an axe to grind because he wanted to play for the Browns and they didn't want him. Comes across as bitter to me knowing his history of professed "love' for the Browns.

So? That doesn't make him wrong.

From OTA's...

http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2012/05/30/weeden-gets-reps-with-first-team/#.T8Zluj4mAvk.facebook

@FredGreethamOBR: C Mitchell drops ball over the middle.

@NateUlrichABJ: #Browns LB Scott Fujita is absent from practice.

@FredGreethamOBR: DL Scott Paxson in Taylor's spot

@RuiterWrongFAN: Holmgren spending lots of time watching QBs today

@RuiterWrongFAN: Weeden fires a strike to Gregg Little prompting a coach to yell "nice throw" 3x - haven't heard that when McCoy is under center yet

@FredGreethamOBR: Reggie Hodges looks recovered from Achilles injury #Browns.

@RuiterWrongFAN: Jordan Norwood fielding lots of punts today


@NateUlrichABJ: 11-on-11 notes: CB Dimitri Patterson stripped ball from WR Greg Little; Weeden nice intermediate comp to Little; Carlton Mitchell had drop.

@RuiterWrongFAN: QB competition should be over - discernible difference in tightness, accuracy, timing and strength in throws from Weeden vs McCoy

@WillBurge: Colt McCoy visibly frustrated in 7 on 7s after a few ugly passes. Swung at the air after one, hit his leg after another #Browns

@WillBurge: Weeden tried to throw off the wrong foot on the move and Eric Hagg picks him off #Browns

@twithersAP: #Browns owner Randy Lerner spent time on sideline watching workout with team president Mike Holmgren.


@WillBurge: After 2 short completions for McCoy he has 2 straight passes batted down by the D-Line #Browns

@FredGreethamOBR: #Browns McCoy takes first reps with offense. Has back to back passes batted down.

@FredGreethamOBR: McCoy throws good ball and Norwood dropped. Weeden up. First pass tipped. #Browns.

@WillBurge: On 3rd and 5 Weeden gets picked off by Trevin Wade on a deep route to Benjamin #Browns

@FredGreethamOBR: Weeden throws deep sideline ball tipped upby Benjamin and intercepted by Wade.#Browns.

@WillBurge: Weeden gets a second run w the 2's. Got Benjamin on an out route for a 1st down & got Cooper on a cross for another. #Browns

@RuiterWrongFAN: Weeden has thrown a couple of picks and not set his feet on a few throws today and still looks 10x better than McCoy

@WillBurge: #Browns coach Pat Shurmur said he would caution against looking at who is taking snaps with what guys

@RuiterWrongFAN: Little told me he lost 11lbs and made sure to take professional approach to offseason; wanted to get leaner; working hard on routes

@ryanlownes: #Browns offense will be more efficient this year & likely much easier to watch, but they'll remain short on explosive (30+ yard) plays.

@NateUlrichABJ: #Browns HC Pat Shurmur said DL Brian Schaefering had surgery on hernia in offseason but ahead of schedule in recovery. Might practice soon.

@NateUlrichABJ: #Browns HC Pat Shurmur said don't read into QB Brandon Weeden starting team drills today. Said QBs still dividing reps.

BR1986FB;1184852 wrote:@FredGreethamOBR: Reggie Hodges looks recovered from Achilles injury #Browns.

Playoffs.

But seriously, let's not forget how our punter last year fucked us over in a few games, including week 1.

Heard they're going to look at Hodges at RB.

he knew something was seriously wrong. He had migraines. Insomnia. Blurry vision. Bright lights bored into his skull like an ice pick. He couldn't keep food down, including his traditional pre-game steak. His brain was woozy, his concentration shot. When the quarterback called two plays at a time in the huddle, Lewis would repeat the assignments over and over, trying to hold them in his head.

He didn't tell Browns coaches or trainers, partly because he says he didn't realize the symptoms' significance, and because he wanted to keep playing.

Huh?