The usual Browns/NFL notes follow. But first I'd like to ask that you take a moment and consider contributing a few bucks to a fundraising drive I'm doing. Click here to read all about it. The quick summary is I'm running in the Cleveland Marathon in two weeks and am hoping to raise a little money for Welcome House in the process. It's a great cause, and a marathon is a long freaking way to run -- so your donation will definitely help motivate me to the finish line as well as help a very worthy organization. Thanks, -Mike
After hearing Savage talk about the Browns running back situation with Harrison and Vickers newly drafted, it's starting to sound like Lee Suggs, not William Green, is the odd man out. I guess I like Suggs better but frankly it's hard to care -- neither is likely to rush the Browns to the promised land. But I'd be quite happy if either could 1) be healthy and ready when called upon, and 2) hit the hole with some confidence. Green and Suggs each seem to do one well.
The one thing I'd say in defense of Suggs is that if he earns the backup job behind Droughns that perhaps the lighter load would help him stay healthy. That didn't prove true in '05 though.
There's a thread in the Watercooler that suggests McCutcheon is on the trade block. Is this true?
I like Cutch quite a bit as a 3rd corner. But I can see how he might not fit Crennel's vision of a defensive back because McCutcheon seems a little better iin man coverage than the zone's the Browns are moving to. I think the protypical corner for Crennel is more of a Bodden-type that has a little more size.
If McCutcheon doesn't indeed get traded I'll be sad to see him go. He's the best player drafted by the first new-Browns regime and, for a couple years anyway, was an aggressive and sure tackler that I really enjoyed watching in those hard-to-watch years. He seem to have lost his edge the last few years, however.
Along the same lines as in the above thread, it's true that the Chris Crocker trade stands out as the most curious offseason move. I keep thinking that Savage/Crennel know something they aren't telling when it comes to the depth chart at safety in '06. Or maybe they have designs to arrange guys differently in the defensive backfield. I'd sure like to see something soon from Jones, Perkins, or possibly Minter, and it's going to really suck that we basically won't have a clue about this until the games count.
You know, in the midst of all the local-guy free agent signings I'm still curious why the Browns didn't court Chris Hovan as a DE. Maybe he's not enough of a space-eater, but I think he would have looked good lining up next to Ted Washington.
Some mixed grades for the Browns draft from PD readers. For some reason, I'm more comfortable getting mixed grades than unanimously good or bad ones. It's more important, long-term, than the guys doing the drafting made sense with their selections. I think we can state that rather definitively.
Nick Saban continues to sound like Butch Davis, to my ears anyway. The good thing and bad thing about Saban -- he sounds a little smarter than Butch, which means he has even less of an excuse.
I think it's hilarious that Roger Brown thinks local beat reporters are supposed to be "impartial reporters" who make "ubiased observations". What a fallacy that is --- and it helps explain why Roger Brown writes so much useless drivel. I wonder what Roger thinks of OBR.com when it comes to the Browns -- it's completely biased and partial to the team, yet it manages to cover the Browns better than the PD and even breaks news.
Memo to WKRN program director -- 9-12 host Greg Brinda is un-freaking-listenable. The only good thing about Brinda's show? It serves as a good reminder to me that I should already be at work...