Dan Justik wrote a great article on the Browns' safeties. I have only one correction to make:
Briean Boddy-Calhoun is working at free safety in order to further refine his skills at that position. He might have been the best nickel corner in the NFL last season, and is absolutely not fighting for a roster spot.
Dan erred on this, but was correct about Calhoun being a good coverage safety, and quite possibly Randall's top backup.
He will be the primary nickel corner.
I have zero problems with Jarvis Landry saying that he believes he is the best wide receiver in the NFL. I think if you ask Josh Gordon what he thinks about that statement, he'd grin and say "Well he might be second-best."
Jarvis points to his blocking, ability to play outside and in the backfield, and his "playmaking ability" (ok nine touchdowns in 2017 cut down on the eye-rolls and snorts please).
More interesting is Tyrod Taylor asserting that Landry has the biggest catch radius of any receiver he's ever worked with.
W...w...what? Landry is 5'11"!!!
But Tyrod is a quarterback, and not an analyst. PFF or Numberfire would blow him out of the water here, but he simply mispoke:
Tyrod should have said "if I get it anywhere near him, he catches it." That's what he meant.
I've been forced to re-examine Landry and his draft profiles.
His unimpressive combine numbers don't reflect his performance when it counts.
Landry excels at adjusting to the ball in the air. He's not a great athlete, but he has great instincts, and thinks fast. He decieves defensive backs and establishes leverage early. When the ball is in the air, he accidentally/on purpose "bumps" them (he's 208 lbs, ya know).
Jarvis Landry isn't a physical "specimen", but might be a mental "specimen".
As you know, I didn't like the trade which brought Jarvis Landry here, but what Tyrod Taylor said about him makes me think that John Dorsey just might be better at this than I am.
Now, what about Duke? I love the guy, but he's made himself really expensive, and Landry just all but eliminated his role as a slot/wide receiver.
Carlos Hyde is actually an effective pass-catcher out of the backfield (earlier post), and so is Nick Chubb (believe it or not see earlier post), so Duke's role here is greatly diminished, and the Browns are unlikely to be the highest bidder for him.
That's even before bringing up the dirt-cheap Matthew Dayes, who is damn near a Duke clone.
Duke Johnson is probably a GMF. Business is business, too bad yadda yadda deal with it.
You don't get this stuff anywhere else, do you? Everybody else is putting Dayes on the bubble, right?
Dorsey is almost certainly trying to trade Duke right now, and he might get good value for him. Duke is a swiss army knife. Everybody wants him. Many teams would be okay with paying him over 5 mil/year and using him a lot.
But those teams don't have Hyde, Chubb, Dayes, and Landry.
Another amatuer article assumed that Carlos Hyde would be the workhorse here, and Chubb a situational player and backup.
Unlikely. Hyde is an above average running back, but Chubb is better than that. I personally screwed up in saying he needed work as a receiver, but admit now that I was fulla beans.
Hyde has no edge on Nick Chubb, and Chubb is just plain better than Hyde.
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