Thanks to Sam Ingro of Buckeye State Sports, I found a little more out about Byrd, including the fact that he caught seven passes this preseason. Most of the other writers thought this was irrelevant, citing the one regular season catch in his career.
This is pretty common--it's been done to Brian Hoyer, Mitchell Schwartze, and others. It's the Memorex Moron treatment.
This happens where the writer is too dumb or too lazy to examine timelines, and just takes aggregate career stats to sum up who a player is.
This is really stupid. With few exceptions (Edwards, Little, Anderson for example), players improve with time and experience. They'll be better in the second half of their first season. If they've had some playing time, they'll then make a big jump from year one to year two, and really hit their stride near the end of year three.
Byrd was pretty raw coming out of college, and has had almost zero playing time beyond preseasons. This is why this preseason is telling. Seven catches is pretty good, even if it was against scrubs. This is a player who is just hitting his stride.
Dallas didn't need him, but the Browns do. I compared him to Brian Robiskie, and that's still sort of accurate. But he is bigger and taller. He's not going to scare anybody deep, and he's not explosive enough to get much separation. However, he uses his great reach and size well enough that it often doesn't matter how well he's covered. He's a red zone threat and possession guy.
As I'd hoped, Ray Farmer's delayed release of Johnson was meant to sneak him onto the practice squad. I'm impressed. I still think that we could well see a more polished version back on the field in the second half of this season.
I thank the Bleacher Report for this link to Josh Alper's article on Vinston Painter, a guard/tackle who was just swiped from the Denver Broncos.
Painter was a defensive lineman in college, and has the athleticism of a 3-4 defensive end or a penetrating defensive tackle. He's 6'4", 310, but is often described as "huge". That's because he looks more like a defensive end than an offensive lineman--most of that 310 is solid muscle.
He was picked 173rd overall by Denver two seasons ago. Because he had to learn a whole new position, any meaningful contribution by him as a rookie was out of the question, and he probably still needs at least another season to develop.
Most analysts, including those in Denver, yawn and say Cleveland probably wanted him because he was versatile, and that at right tackle other guys handled "power" better, and that's all.
But once this converted defensive lineman learns the ropes, he could grow into a LEFT tackle. For the moment, he's a perfect fit for Shanahan's zone-blocking scheme. I also think the Denver writer is behind the curve on the right tackle position.
As we've seen with Mitchell Schwartze, opposing defenses are aiming their quickest, fastest passrushers at typical right tackles like Schwartze rather than trying to get around guys like Joe Thomas.
Even the horrific preaseason play in which Kerrington used Mitchell as a turnstile to sack the QB was mostly possible because Schwartze was retreating fast in order to shrink this faster player's attack angle...
Since this has been so poorly analyzed and needs to be corrected, let's start over on that play:
Kerrington is a lighter, faster DE/OLB type, who Schwartze knew was too quick for him. If Schwartze was certain that he'd try to get around outside him, he could take care of that. But Kerrington can be very sneaky and might also cross his face to dart between him and the guard.
In order to prevent this, Schwartze retreated rapidly at the snap, which brought him closer to the guard and the QB. This was meant to deprive Kerrington of the inside option, and position Schwartze so that he could stop Kerrington trying to get around him on the outside with one step and a punch.
It was well-done, except that Kerrington went right at Schwartze and got under his pads before he was fully set (Note: this was still Schwartze's fault because he had time--he was just taken by surprise). He gave Mitchell a hard upward shove, and peeled off for the sack.
It looked like a bull rush to lazy and dumb people, but a bull rush starts at the line, and the blocker is driven back from there. Schwartze retreated deliberately. Now dumb people will say that he can be bull rushed, and that's rediculous. Just another way to kick a guy while he's down.
Painter is a much different player than Schwartze, though. If/when he's ready to get on the field, speed rushers like Kerrington won't have the edge on him, and he won't need to back up much to shrink attack angles like Schwartze has to (and by the way is certainly coached to).
I'm short on time, but the 5'8" fullback they signed is also pretty good.
Will Burge of the Bleacher Report broke down Brian Hoyer's sub-par season. This was another very smart and insightful article. but I need to put it in context:
Brian did screw up in the ways Will illustrated, and you certainly won't see Peyton or Rodgers do that except once in a blue moon--so he's definitely got work to do...to be as good as they are......
However, Will doesn't mention the other reasons for Hoyer's sub-par preseason: DROPS and BLOWN PATTERNS. If the recievers hadn't screwed up so much, Hoyer wouldn't have even had a sub-par preseason for Will to write about.
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