If they were going to go elsewhere, they’d go. It’s not like anybody wants to play in Cleveland for an organization that isn’t going anywhere. They’re there because the Browns are paying them.
But when contract time comes up, and/or free agents are deciding where to go, it’s a significant factor. Everything is a balancing act - if we give a little more money, they might come here - but factor in the rumors of overworking and suddenly we have to pay way over market price for the same quality of player.
Someone’s post about a Jerome Harrison radio interview:
Fucking coaching retards. He’s going to be a star somewhere and people will be wondering why the fuck he managed to get like 150 carries over 4 years here.
They still have him blocking for kicks.
What a strange year. Peter King’s preseason predictions in SI had the Browns going 2-14, which I thought was ridiculous. I figured they’d be mediocre, but with their schedule I expected 5 wins. I never expected them to start off so awful. Yet they’ve managed to finish right where I expected them to, they’re playing how I expected them to play, they’ve provided a clear indication of what their strengths and weaknesses are, and they made me at least reconsider keeping Mangini. It should be an interesting offseason.
Maybe it WAS all Kokinis’ fault. They were 1-7 with him, 4-4 without him.
I think that’s a coincidence, but it is certainly weird.
It’s no coincidence. Jerome Harrison is so awesome that he can single handedly carry a crappy team on his back.
I sort of kid there, but he really was the difference. And that’s what’s irritating. Clearly the team is playing hard - and ripping off 4 straight wins even if they came from scrubs like the Steelers is still impressive. And so there’s a temptation to say that Mangini is making progress and to keep him. But the main reason for the difference in play is the usage of Jerome Harrison. And that works against Mangini - he sat on Harrison all year and decided Jamal “2 yards into my guard’s back” Lewis was a better option. He only gave Harrison a chance when he was forced to. So the main factor in the winning streak is essentially an accident rather than good coaching. If Jamal stays healthy, we probably win 2 games instead and Mangini is probably gone.
The defense has played decently overall through this 4 game win streak but nothing great, not dominant. And in the Browns 5 wins this year, you know how many passes were completed? 2, 6, 10, 8, and 7. Seriously. So no passing game, decent but not great defense, and a 4 game win streak - all on the basis of dominating running and great special teams.
Yeah, but just think how many wins we’d have with a passing game. If we can keep the running game at it’s current level and compliment that with even a middle of the pack passing game, we could win some games next year.
Out of curiosity, did any of the players Mangini got from the Jets contribute at all to their four game winning streak to end the season?
Man, he’d look great splitting carries with Forte in 2010.
Abe Elam is the best of the bunch, he’s a pretty decent safety sometimes. Justin (Jason?) Trusnik has had to fill in at ILB due to injury and he’s done a pretty solid job for a 5th round special teamer.
Barton has been starting all season and he’s a bit old and slow but not horrible - none of them had been horrible, but most of them have been in the mediocre to decent range.
Well he’s RFA if there’s no CBA next year. I’m hoping Holmgren or someone can kiss his ass and tell him they’re sorry he was shafted like he was.
This whole thing has been both vindicating (I’ve been Jerome Harrison’s biggest pimp in the world as far as I can tell - I’ve only mentioned him here a few times but I defend him all the time on Browns message boards) but it has also been infuriating. I knew from the start that he had this in him, and for utterly mysterious reasons he never got the chance. Finally when the coaching staff was backed into a corner, they were forced to give him a chance and look what he’s done. He even flashed it early in the season - he put up over 150 combined yards against a good Cinci defense, and as soon as Jamal was feeling better the next week they went right back to him.
It angers me because Harrison has been the entire offense for 3 of these 4 wins (edit: Cribbs deserves credit too), and he could’ve been doing the same for this team for the last 4 years, not just 6 games in the last year of his rookie contract.
Mangini is trying to take credit for this too (or Harrison is trying to give him credit for some reason) by talking about a few weeks ago where they had a talk and Harrison started shaping up and trying harder in practice. Yep, Mangini, you worked your hardass magic and turned Harrison from clay into gold. Wait, no - he was talented all along but I guess he had to kiss your ass to get on the field, and now you want to claim that that ass kissing requirement was good coaching and a turning point.
I’m guessing that the Bears won’t be able to come up with the 1st and 3rd round picks that they will need to pry him away once the Browns tender him an offer.
Yeah, it obviously assumes he’d end up and UFA under a new CBA. A guy can dream! But you have to assume that he’d be eager to go anywhere else regardless of money if he were a UFA.
Why would he be eager to go anywhere else regardless of money? Money is about the only thing that matters. Besides, why would he want to go to Chicago just to get tackled behind the line of scrimmage all day?
Because he’s been shafted here the entire time and probably wants to get the fuck out of here ASAP, even if we offer good money.
He’ll forget all that if he gets a good offer. He’d be the clear starter in Cleveland with not much of a platoon going initially. His body hasn’t taken a beating through the last couple of crap seasons and he’ll have an entire season to show the league what he’s made of. He also has pretty good run blocking here, especially if they bring back Vickers.
I’d probably be happier with crap run blocking and only seven defenders in the box.
Rumor is that the Browns have signed (or are close to signing) Eagles GM Tom Heckart. Any idea why he’d make a lateral move? Is he unhappy in Philly?
Edit: From his wikipedia page
“Although Heckert has the title of general manager, he serves primarily in an advisory role to Eagles head coach and executive vice president of football operations Andy Reid, who has the final say in all football-related matters.”
I guess that may be it. He may be the top guy here.
Wouldn’t he just be trading Andy Reid for Mike Holmgren? Considering where Reid came from, I don’t think the situation would be very different.