Just for fun, I checked out USA Today's Tim Torch as he recommends 9 free agents for the Browns.
Guard Brandon Scherff (28) fits the DePodesta/Berry m/o, as they spent serious long-term money to add Kevin Zeitler and JC Tretter to Joe Bitonio to create one of the best interior lines in the NFL.
Scherff, an OT at Iowa, was drafted 5th overall in 2015. He didn't work out at Left Tackle in the NFL, and I believe he had some injuries, but he's recently become an impressive guard for the Redskins.
Tim did a nice job of analysis on him, but I need to add that possibly he could be a candidate for Right Tackle for the Browns in 2020, and OL Coach Bill Callahan, who coached Scherff in Washington, will know.
Tim likes Arik Armstead (a little better than Chris Jones) at DE next. Poor Tim doesn't seem to get that Olivier Vernon and his 15.5 mil salary are going to get released, so he calls Armstead a "pie in the sky" option, as he will cost a fortune (Tim thinks 20 mil/year).
Armstead is only 26 years old, and had 10 sacks with the Niners last season.
Chris also didn't check out Vernon's dead cap money, as he doesn't get that the switch from Vernon to Armstead would literally cost the Browns less than 5 mil net.
This one is shaky for me, as DePodesta isn't going to want to spend 20 mil/year on a position he may be able to fill for comparative peanuts in the draft.
Since he was drafted in 2015, Armstead never approached double-digit sacks until his contract year in 2019. The Browns will let some Dorsey-like foodball guy massively overpay Armstead...20 mil seriously? Really?
TE Austin Hooper (projected at a little under 10 mil). I like this guy a lot as a receiver. He's not a big-play guy, but gets open and is reliable as hell. He's actually a decent in-line blocker too, and is only 25 years old.
Those who ass ume that David Njoku is persona non grata with Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski are competing for the olympic record in the conclusion-leap, but Hooper is really interesting.
First, the Browns have the option to retain Njoku through 2021. They have to excersize this by March...15th(?) 2020, but there is no urgency to get rid of him.
Hooper/Njoku in 2-TE sets could be a great option for Mayfield and Stefanski in 2020, and signing Hooper long-term would be great insurance in the unlikely case that Njoku craps out.
More realistically, DePodesta might look at trading either Tight End in 2021 for more draft picks.
Jack Conklin is my favorite RT too, but the Jags have the cap space to keep him, and probably will. Too bad. He's great.
I don't know Kendall Fuller, but Tim (and PFF) say that he was the best slot corner in the NFL in 2017, then got traded to the Chiefs and disappeared for the last 2 seasons.
Tim is right that Fuller will be Flea-market cheap, and DePodesta may well seek to ruthlessly exploit Kendall's misfortune (unless Berry tells him not to).
Case Keenum absotively!!! The ideal Mayfield backup/mentor. Been there! Done that! Stefanski was his position coach when he kicked ass with the Vikings. Amen!
Jimmy Ward yes: Ward (28) was the Niners utility DB, playing Free safety 2/3rds of the time for them. He shouldn't be very expensive, considering his versatility and solid FS performance.
Ward can play every DB position (well) and (per Tim) missed only 3 tackles in 2019.
Ward is a little like Austin Hooper. Above average, versatile, and hyper-reliable. These guys are rediculously undervalued by foodball guyz.
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (27) is another Flea Market safety that Tim dug up.
Dix was a first round draft pick with prototype measurables and tape, but hasn't lived up to that. Dix has been a good player, however, and Tim Torch (I like this guy) smells another bargain for DePodesta to exploit (bring us your first-round busts, your injured, your out-of-position, your underrated...)
SS Karl Joseph (another 1st round pick) is 26. Another very solid and reliable guy without the shiny object stats which attract foodball guyz big money.
I gotta say, Tim Torch has impressed the hell out of me with this list of good Browns' free agent targets.
It's so refreshing for me to go through NINE whole guys and find so little dumbassitude!
Just a note to Tim: Olivier Vernon will be released, with almost zero dead money. This regime will absolutely NOT offer Arik Armstead even that much.
But everything else you wrote was brilliant.
This Njoku-bashing is outta hand, as this article from behind the Steel Curtain demonstrates:
This writer thinks that the Steelers should consider offering a FOURTH ROUND PICK for Njoku, to take him off the Browns' hands.
Obviously, this is a dumb article, but you people need to consider what spawned it: Dumbassitude over here!
The Steeler writer was actually smarter than our local dumbasses, since at least he thinks David Njoku doesn't suck, ok?
Still, it bugs me that this Steelers guy expects Andrew Berry and a newly-empowered Paul DePodesta to be as stupid as the people they succeeded.
A FOURTH ROUND PICK?
I can't get past that okbye
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