Ok these clueless people keep talking about the "wide receiver challenged" Browns, and I just don't get it.
Let's start with the two healthy (drafted) rookies:
Antonio Callaway has finally started catching a majority of the passes thrown to him. Baker Mayfield and I seem to be the only ones who noticed.
Dameion Ratley lucked out on that one catch he bobbled before securing it, but generally has been reliable.
Both of these players have extremely high cielings and game-breaking quickness and speed.
The other thing they have in common is that they are rookies. That means they are getting better, and should continue to improve game by game (like Baker Mayfield).
How does this get turned into "they both suck"?
Is Jarvis Landry washed up? Oh I hear ya Mary Kay "they focus on Landry and it's over".
No it's not, because Ratley and Callaway are improving game by game, and will start making defenses pay dearly for that strategy.
That's three. Rashard Higgins might be back this sunday. He IS very reliable, and more dangerous than anybody (including me) ever suspected. Mayfield is very comfortable with him.
Higgins is a big tall strong guy as well, who has worked every wide receiver position including X.
That's four, and even if you inexplicably want to flush ALL the rookie wideouts down the terlet based on their uneven performances up to the middle of their rookie seasons, Higgins and Landry are tried and true.
And here again is Duke Johnson. He can line up inside or outside at wide receiver, get open, and catch what is thrown to him short or intermediate!
Dammit Todd Haley refused to use Duke in that role (like Hue did use him in 2017), and here you are trying to say Duke doesn't count! Bullcrap! He Proved it last season! And that's FIVE, by the way!
I like the other two injured rookies a lot too. These guys might not get back on the field in 2018, but they've proven they belong in the NFL.
Making some spastic trade right now guarantees that one or both of these guys gets cut in 2019 WHY?
You people are also blaming these receivers for not getting open when the majority of their routes have been vertical, with Baker Mayfield stuck in a predictable pocket and getting kitchen-sinked and stomped into the ground all game long!
That's not the wide receivers dammit that's the COACH!
1: Baker Mayfield is athletic and does throw accurately on the move. He is 6' tall and can't shrug guys off like Big Ben. He is quick and decisive, and does get rid of the ball quickly if he has an option to do so.
2: It's much easier for press corners to cover vertical routes than crosses or slants in the first couple seconds after the snap.
3: Both Ratley and Callaway have the suddenness and speed to run West Coast type patterns, and consistently shake coverage short and quick.
Indeed, this is what Callaway does BEST, and it's most of what Landry did in Miami!
Haley used Landry more aggressively, which was good, but he went to the other extreme, and all but did away with ALL his short routes! Landry is more than he showed in Miami, but he's NOT an X receiver: Todd Haley was not making the most of him.
4: Haley did exactly what Hue Jackson did to DeShone Kizer last season, and Chris Palmer did to Tim Couch:
He ran a vertical passing offense with a pocket. Predictable and slow-developing.
Baker Mayfield managed to turn some lemons into lemonade when he squirted out of a couple of his death-traps (he reminds me of Brian Sipe, the way he does that), but generally, well...
Todd Haley screwed him and the receivers over, okay?
And the pundits are oblivious to that so far (not for long, since as usual some scumbag will steal this and pretend he thought of it himself), but this is why he was fired.
Jimmy Haslam isn't a "football guy", but John Dorsey, and probably at least two consultants Jimmy has hired are.
I guarantee you that the "football guy"consennsus was "what the hell is he doing!?!"
Remember Cam Newton? Rob Chudzinski (long before Chip Kelly by the way) "imported" some of Cam's college offense to help him out as a rookie.
It worked. And here was Cam, with barely over one season's worth of college starts, marginal accuracy, expected to be a "project"...and he just kicks ass as a rookie!
As I've mentioned, Todd Haley or Chris Palmer might well have Kizerized Cam Newton. He might be a bad joke today.
I know Robert Griffin III hit the rocks after his rookie season, but took the NFL by storm as a rookie, because his own coaches adapted their offense to him.
Most of the "crazy" college concepts these adaptable coaches introduced to the NFL were copied by other teams, and persist to this day, probably in every playbook.
Why couldn't Todd Haley have done that for Baker Mayfield (and Ratley/Callaway/Duke)?
Is any of this sinking in yet?
I hardly care about Hue Jackson, but for me, the Haley firing was definitely good news.
Pat McNanoman wrote an unusually good article in which he brings up current Green Bay Head Coach Mike McCarthy as a potential Head Coach candidate in 2019, should the Packers cut him loose.
But Pat is overly dismissive of Gregg Williams because he went 17-31 as Head Coach of the Buffalo Bills.
As I recall, those Bills had NO TALENT AND NO QUARTERBACK, so I'm not writing Gregg off just yet.
Tony Grossi finds the current Browns organizational structure "insane", as the Head Coach and General Manager have equal access to the owner.
Tony should never run a company.
This is a fact: When a GM and Head Coach disagree, the GM is wrong about as often as the Head Coach is. Tony thinks the Head Coach needs to answer to the GM, even if the GM is an idiot...
Clearly, Tony thinks Jimmy is an easily manipulated idiot. Dorsey wasn't being politically correct when he said "the owner wants to hear both sides" (or something like that). He could as well have said "Big deal!"
Take a pill, Tony!
Pat took "same scheme and same plays" at face value. WRONG!
This was hopefully a bald-faced lie...
Looking back on Haley's carreer, he hasn't worked with any quarterbacks like Baker Mayfield. The closest one to Baker was Kurt Warner.
Kurt Warner was actually a basketball star, and a lot more athletic than he looked as a quarterback. Haley kept him in the pocket too.
Haley DID use Ebineezer Bell at wide receiver a lot, so there is a place for Duke Johnson there, but I'm not sure if Todd has ANY read-options, run-pass options, or rollouts at all in his playbook.
God, I dearly hope Kitchens and company are lying, because if they keep doing what Haley did...please, for the love of God, kill me (and cross your fingers I beat Baker Mayfield to heaven...it might be a close race).
I now think that Todd Haley has been lucky, and was overrated (including by me). Throughout his carreer, he's had outstanding quarterbacks and veteran talent to work with.
Good-to-great offensive lines, too.
My bad. I've been calling Haley the Savior. Nah!
Okay who do the Browns play next?
...Uh-oh...okbye
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