As I write this, I know that Brock Osweiler has joined the dearly departed, and just now Parkey and X Cooper.
Damn, these guys don't screw around! I'm losing track, but I think they're already within 7 players of the final roster!
The only cut that surprised me so far was CB Stribling, but I bet you they want him on the practice squad.
Indeed, the fact that the Browns moved so massively and early may well have been calculated to increase their chances of getting certain of their own players to their practice squad, and of positioning themselves to raid other teams' waiver wires for even more Calhounses and Coleyses.
I now know that Sashi Brown is an excellent liar. Obviously, the Browns will keep three quarterbacks, and I'm now cautiously optimistic that Kevin Hogan will be one of them.
Whew!
Terry Pluto gets it now. Better late than never, but I can't pick on him much. I was also intrigued by Brockytop, and (until this preseason) almost as dismissive of Hogan as Terry and everybody else was.
But Terry is right: Hogan should not only be here, but has to be seriously considered at number two (ahead of Kessler).
Terry is also right about Kessler doing okay last week; Cody Kessler might be kinda like Colt McCoy, but does not suck, ok?
I was surprised by the called qb runs with Kessler, along with how well he executed them. My first impression was that the Brain crust was promoting him as trade-bait.
Given more time to ruminationalize, I now think that, while this was true, Kessler carried the ball so often because Hue Jackson wanted to see whether or not Cody could execute an offense built around DeShone Kizer (and to show future opponents that if Kessler takes over, you can't ignore his legs).
Also, Hue deliberately put him in harm's way. Kessler proved that he's a real football player; he's tough. He needed to prove that, including to my humble self.
I was again unable to watch this game, but it sounded to me like Kessler was aggressive, and went downfield more. Like to oh, I don't know...RODNEY LESLIEFIELD?
Terry is sticking with his size/arm/Jackson "type" crap in re Kessler...I'm sorry but he's still just plain about 66% fulla beans.
Enough defending Kessler: Rodney Hoganfield is better than Kessler is right now.
Jordon Leslie survived the initial cuts, but I can't believe I'm still sweating the survival of the second-best wide receiver on this roster.
Chris Pokorney (ahead of the recent cuts) really came around with his final roster projections!
He finally included a fourth tight end J P Holtz, only because the starting fullback (Danny Vitale) was injured, and Holtz filled in there. While JP may have made the roster based on his performance at fullback here, Chris still doesn't grok that this is a BASE two-tight end offense, and four tight ends will probably be retained.
He lists Rodney Lesliefield as the sixth wide receiver, but it's quite possible that only five will be retained, because of a two-tight end and often two running back base with Duke Johnson as the slot receiver why TF does nobody else get this? They've been running this from day one it's OBVIOUS gimme a break!!
And why should...oh excuse the hell outta me Chris only lists FIVE wide receivers, and lists Leslie fifth.
But he ranks Rannell Hall ahead of him! He ranks Britt ahead of Coleman! Britt has not earned that! We can argue about Ricardo Lewis; he's been with the first and second teams, so we can't say that Jordan Leslie is ahead of him merely based on his vastly superior production, but...
Anyway I shouldn't be bashing Chris, since he cuts both Higgins and Payton (giving credit to Sashi Brown for being an objective adult with a rational agenda). I'm nitpicking the guy here--he's better than almost everybody else. Sorry Chris.
...Ok but two tight ends, two running backs (one as the primary slot guy) so just stick with five wide receivers and four tight ends---you accidentally got it right this time!
Many laugh at the Browns 4-0 preseason, and certainly...well the Giants just blew out the Patriots so...
But they also assume that the Steelers will blow them out.
That's irrational. While I do think the Browns are overmatched (for now--because they're veterans running memorized systems, and will exploit every mistake, and don't screw up themselves), they won't win by much, and could even lose.
Concievably. A Peppers return TD? A Kizer bomb? Johnson or Crowell running loose? Coleman not quite contained? The defense not caving in? Peppers, Garrett, Coley, Schobert? Kizer running a Kizer offense?
Note on that: Brady Quinn begs to differ with some Kizer critics: Brady says Kizer was running his own offense late in preseason. He "held the ball" because he was supposed to.
I'll get into that in my next post.
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