The Alex Mack situation: Tony Grossi nails this. The crap I've been hearing about Ray Farmer "bungling" this is the highest grade of pure idiocy I've heard in several days.
To franchise Mack would have cost the Browns around 12 mil for one season. He might well have simply played this out and then left after one year.
You could just franchise him again? What's that--14 million for a center? What's Joe Thomas and his agent going to ask for when his contract comes up?
We would have got two first round picks for him? What are you smoking?
There's a chart which ranks the importance of each position. Agents and teams go by this chart. Quarterback is at the top, then DE, et al. Center is at or near the bottom of this chart. The tag isn't important. The salary is.
If you pay a center 12 million, the agents for Haden, Thomas, Gordon etc. sit up and take notice. The drool a little, and rub their hands together.
Some of you clowns say "it's only a little under two million". That's because you are oblivious to the domino effect.
The transition tag was expensive enough, but by using it on a player who refused to sign, Farmer avoided the possibility of that player just going somewhere else and not coming back.
Knowing this, several other teams who would have been interested and bid on Mack didn't bother, because they knew that unless they got stupid, the Browns would match and they'd have wasted their time.
The end result is that the Browns have nailed Alex Mack down for two or more years for 1.5 million less than the transition tag. This is about what Ray Farmer expected. I know he's glad he ignored everybody else.
Ross Tucker, who played guard and center in the NFL, said that the offer was rediculous for a center, and that whichever team wound up with Mack would be the the dumber part of dumb and dumber.
But there was more to it here: Did you notice Joe Thomas assuring everybody that his good pal Mack would be back? What if the Browns hadn't matched? Joe would be ticked off. This could have pretty nasty consequences down the road, like when Joe's contract comes up again.
I have massive respect for Ross Tucker, and am pretty sure he's as right about this as he is about everything else he says about offensive linemen. But other valued sources, including Pat Kirwan, think that this was a good move, and was handled as well as it could be handled.
Salaries are what salaries are, and this contract makes Alex Mack the highest paid center in the NFL by maybe a half million bucks. If he's the best, that's what it takes. If Khalil and/or another is really better, then they're overpaying--but not by much.
Ross would say that centers in general are being overpaid (this is what he's really saying: he regards center as about the least important offensive line position). But this is the market.
After hearing what Ross said, I was thinking that maybe it would be better not to match this offer, as the Browns could get a viable or even a good center in this draft as low as the fourth round for nickles and dimes. Then they'd save a ton of cap space.
But the market would come back to haunt then in three years anyway, there's the Joe Thomas and continuity factor, and the fact that with one exception, none of the potential centers in this draft appear to have a chance of ever even eventually becoming as good as Mack will be in this new offense,
And each draft pick is valuable. When you lose a veteran starter and have to use a pick to replace him, that's one less option you have. It's a linebacker/fullback/whatever that you have to pass up, or a deal you can't make.
More Idiocy: One film reviewer said that "Draft Day" was a decent film, but had nothing to do with reality, as the Browns have sucked for decades now.
Enough said?
In Rant Sports, I found this article on the Browns biggest offseason mistakes so far. I hate these articles, because the writers assumptions and unrealistic expectations play too large a role.
How much were the Browns supposed to pay the 30-year old D'Qwell Jackson, and for how long? The writer seems to think that they should have signed whatever deal his agent presented to them.
They tried to sign cornerbacks. They failed. I suppose they were supposed to pay any price here again. That's if they could have persuaded any of the candidates to even talk to them!
But here are the dumbest parts of this article: This goober says that failing to interview the Seahawks and Denver assistants for the Head coaching position was a mistake.
If you like the guy in front of you, and don't believe that the other candidates can beat him, you hire him and send the other guys home, period.
Haslam did like Pettine, a lot. and Pettine pretty much gave him an ultimatum: I can't wait two more weeks. Hire me now or I stick with the Bills. So was Haslam supposed to let the bird in the hand go? Mistake my foot.
And this clown thinks they should have franchise tagged Mack. Know why? Because that way the other team would have had to give the Browns two first round picks.
That's right! This guy thinks that some other team giving up two first round picks for a center was a realistic possibility, and that paying Mack like a left tackle for one year would be better than matching an offer from the market!
Where do they get these guys?
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