People keep repeating that John Dorsey is getting rid of all the players he inheritted, and will continue to.
Nah! He traded Shelton, let Telfer and McCourty go, and some deep depth guys like he will again this time next season.
Dorsey has thus far retained the bulk of the higher profile players he was "stuck with" by the incompetent (you wish) Sashi Brown.
Who will be the next to be purged? Well if you said Corey Coleman, maybe you got me there. Dorsey might well want to trade him.
But one thing here: DeShone Kizer wasn't Coleman's fault, any more than he was Gordon's. And Josh was all the way back, and he looked like just "a guy".
But if rumors are true that Coleman is late to meetings and lacks dedication...well that's different.
But after Coleman, who (and Higgins/Louis don't count) gets purged next? Ogbah? Kirksey? Kindred? Duke? Ogunjobi? Bitonio? Tretter? Zietler? Shobert? Collins? DeValve (ok maybe him...I mean if Dorsey gets somebody better...which is unlikely).
Forget about Dorsey's brief stint as Hue Palmer's press secretary and saying the Browns lacked "real football players" okay? That was political, and he knew it was bullcrap when he spewed it. He underestimated (some of) us Browns fans. He backed off in a hurry.
The reality is that he can't go around cutting good players (until he finds better players), and he's still working on that.
Callaway is certainly right in Corey Coleman's face. Avery probably already kicked 1-2 depth linebackers to the curb. I forgot about DeShone Kizer (Tyrod) but for Damarius Randall that was an easy trade to make.
Chris Smith and Chad Thomas are here to duke it out with Nassib and Orchard. Whoever wins can probably be called real football players!
Austin Corbett isn't going to start inside in 2018, but will for sure kick a quality offensive lineman to the curb, and demote another one, because he's likely to start at offensive tackle sometime in 2018 (right or left we don't know yet).
New topic:
1: Spencer Drango is NOT a left tackle candidate. See 2017. He's not going to get better. He won't get any reps there. (I'm not bashing him: He made a valiant effort, but simply lacks the physical tools. He's a good player.)
2: Drango might be the odd man out if Corbett doesn't win the left tackle derby. Corbett can play all five offensive line positions, and is better than Drango at all of them.
3: Austin Reiter has a good shot to stick around as Tretter's primary backup (and possible successor) at center. Reiter is a real athlete who is smart and can block in space. Hanz and Franz have been pumping him up for two years now too.
You can't draw a lot of conclusions from the rookie minicamp, but the coaches worked Corbett at center as well as left tackle (and maybe other positions, for all I know).
I'll be watching to see how they use him when real training begins:
Every left tackle candidate will need reps there, of course, so it's fine with me if Austin Corbett practices at other positions (letting veterans not waste their time and risk injury), but he should be zeroed in on left tackle.
4: Nobody will "replace" Joe Thomas. As Pat Kirwan explains, Big Joe never needed help. In 2017, Drango needed a LOT of help.
This meant that a tight end had to line up left a lot to chip a lot, and defenses knew and predicted it.
Much has been made of Shon Coleman's penalties and surrendered hits and sacks in 2017, but part of this was because he was "on an island" so often, and the opponents used their best passrushers against him...
And he's not Joe Thomas either.
5: Hue Fisher could have used two tight ends more to fix this, especially before Josh Gordon came back, and when the wide receivers were Corey Coleman and guys named Joe but noooo!
6: Todd Haley isn't Hue Palmer, and runs this offense. THANK GOD.
How would Hue handle the offensive personnel the Browns have right now? Almost exactly the same as he handled a much different group last year.
What will Todd Haley do with them?
It starts with the quarterback(s) (and get real Drew Stanton doesn't count):
Run/pass options are obvious. (I get this now): It's a lot like the read-option except that if the quarterback keeps it, he's going to pass instead of run.
It's kind of a glorified play-action fake, except sometimes it's not a fake, and it doesn't require a conventional "pocket", since the quarterback and running back are moving laterally in lockstep (and the offensive line is aware of this...while the passrushers are not).
Nick Foles won the Superbowl partly doing this, and partly from the pocket (it was a brilliant Doug Peterson game-plan, customized just for Foles...Hue would have lost, for sure).
But I digress; anyway, both the read-option and run-pass option work with zone-blocking, since the offensive line is already moving laterally (and being aggressive...I'm leaving stuff out here, but you should get it:
They aren't sure if it's a pass or a run, since the quarterback has to decide that after the snap, see? And since they're moving laterally in the direction the quarterback and running back are going, their opposite numbers have to move with them.
It's not as complicated as it sounds, ok? The passrushers are supposed to out-quick, outmaneuver, or bull-rush offensive linemen, or else to meet them head on and read and react.
The run-pass option blows this up. Defensive coordinators are adapting to it, of course...probably with an extra-deep free safety (hmmm) and more emphasis on athletic linebackers and stuff (hmmm...)
But there's really no answer. Axe Lord Insideous in New England.
But I digress again: The offensive line gets to block it as if it's a run. If the defenders attack a "pocket" which was never intended to materialize in the first place, some are way out of position, and some are ear-holed oh, the humanity!
But (unless an offensive coordinator is dumb enough to abandon conventional pockets and power/man altogether), they can't sell out to stop the RPO either.
Todd Haley has Tyrod Taylor and Baker Mayfield now. He has an athletic (and "nasty") offensive line. Two athletic freak tight ends (and Darren Fells; a BIGGER, BLOCKING freak).
He has what looks to be at least a slight weakness at left tackle (well I mean in a Hue Palmer offense that is)...
He has Jarvis Landry, Duke, Hyde, Chubb...
This is all obvious to me already, but it's past last call here, so I'll need to spell the rest out to you guys later.
Stay tuned.
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