Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Yannick Who? Rodney Clowneyfield, PFF, Uncommon Sense, and the Browns

Inevitably, the Browns are rumored to be interested in trading for Jagwires passrusher Yannick Ngakoue.

While unlike Gramps Williams, Yannick is only 25 years old, he's already turned down 19 mil/year, and seems to be demanding around 2.4 million per sack.

He's making 19.3 mil on the Franchise Tag, and making noise about "taking care of his family".

This is a terrific player who would look great opposite Myles Garrett, but he's not the best EDGE in the NFL, and if they pay this guy like he is, what is Myles Garrett going to expect in a couple years?  Are you going to pay 46-47 million on two players?

The Jagwires are indeed under pressure to get rid of this locker room poison, but he's worth at least a first round draft pick, and that is part of their asking price for him.

Look, you people: John Dorsey is gone, and Andrew Berry isn't going to do this, for obvious reasons.

Jadeveon Clowney might be signed for 16-17 mil without coughing up a high draft pick.  Everson Griffin could hold the or less than that.  No draft picks.

Every time the Browns save up some money, you people start pointing at every shiny object you can see and telling mommy to buy it for you.

If this guy had TWICE as many sacks (ie 16) as he got in 2019, trading for him and paying him his astronomical asking price might be worth discussing, but as it is...

Sorry, Jagwires (and I really mean that.  Ya know at least Antonio Brown and Ebineezer Bell really were elite at their positions...where is this guy getting his swollen head from?)

I respect Steven A Smith, but he's wrong when he says that the Browns should have drafted Sam Darnold instead of Baker Mayfield.

Steven seems to think that Baker spending a total of a couple hours to make a bunch of commercials means he lacks focus or something.  Everybody makes such a big deal about those commercials, as if he's making feature-length movies or something.

These people are right about his stupid twitter-wars and feuds and thin skin and stuff, but that's not why he sucked in year 2.

Darnold would have sucked last season in Cleveland too.  Hell, Aaron Rodgers would have had a hard time breaking even!

(I take that back: Rodgers wouldn't have been a "good soldier" like Mayfield was, and it woulda got ugly.  Ditto Wilson or any veteran QB under John Dorsey Freddie Kitchens in 2019).

(No I still think Freddie got a raw deal and wasn't the incompetant boob you say he was.  I think Dorsey was telling him what to do, and screwed Freddie up as surely as he screwed Mayfield up.)

Shawn Stevenson (SI--like the Swami Pete Smith) gets into the Browns' current and projected cap situations.

The numbers aren't debatable, but some of Shawn's apparent opinions of certain players bothered me:

1: While the Browns could save another 3 mil by dumping CB Terrence Mitchell, why would they do that?  He's 27 years old and a starting quality press/man cornerback.

2: What's the big deal about picking up Njoku's 5th year option?  It's nickles and dimes jeez look at Austin Hooper's contract!  If Njoku only matches his 2018 numbers, he's dirt cheap on the option (6.25 million oh, the humanity)

That's all for the corrections, as Shawn was otherwise excellent, including the fact that Andrew Berry has been really smart with his cap-spending so far.

Shawn also mentions that Sashi Brown taught Berry some of this.

That's true, because before Brown was elevated to GM, he negotiated contracts and was the resident "capologist"; this was his field.

Shawn guessed at a 26 mil/3 year extention for Larry Ogunjobi, and estimates 2021 cap space (sans a Vernon release now) and stuff, but the rest of this article is nothing new for you guys, as I've already told you the rest often/repeatedly.

PFF's Aaron Schatz discusses Conklin, Hooper, and Clowney vs Vernon on 92.3 (*I haven't heard the show yet*).

Aaron came up with a bunch of stats that indicate that Clowney's paltry 3 sacks in 2019 don't tell the whole story.

I know that he brought up pressures and deeper stats in comparing these two passrushers, and no doubt Clowney won.

NFL Coaches talk about "effecting" the Quarterback whenever they're asked about sacks.  That's not political correctness or politics.

Sacks are shiny objects for simpletonians to latch onto, but long before PFF or Numberfire existed, the real pros judged passrushers on a much deeper level.

If you force the Quarterback to throw the ball away, throw it early (disrupt his timing and accuracy), move him off his spot, force him to run, deflect a pass, etc etc etc all that matters.

It forces 2nd or 3rd and longs and turnovers, and at worst turns TDs into Field Goals.

Myles Garrett was averaging a sack per-game when he got suspended last season, but he's mainly a Right DE who gets to match up with Guards and Centers sometimes, and doesn't stand up or cover.

Both Olivier Vernon and Jadeveon Clowney are a little different.  Both are shorter and lighter.

Both have played a lot as linebackers, and not base DEs like Garrett.  

Clowney can move inside (to DT) situationally.  Vernon can't (or at least shouldn't).

I haven't bothered to check this out yet, but bet that Jadeveon Clowney has outperformed Olivier Vernon in EVERY category and sub-category (and missed fewer pro-rata games).

PFF no doubt separated the "down lineman" and Linebacker snaps for each player,  and found that the much taller and quicker Clowney is significantly better than Vernon there---

Ok I'm trying hard to not pick on Olivier Vernon here but Clowney is just the better player at everything, and if the Browns can replace Vernon with Clowney DUH.

BUT here again, Jadeveon Clowney is a real linebacker who can cover Tight Ends too!  You can't ask Vernon to cover like that.

Joe Woods professes to be a 4-3 guy, but has experience with 3-4s, and replacing Vernon with Clowney would open up new horizons, especially now that Andrew Billings is here.

...ok sorry but as you know, the real "base" front today is some kind of nickel with a front SIX.

Everybody is talking about Safetybackers and Swiss Army DBs, but the smartest coaches are not copycats, ok?

If I have a Clowney and a Richardson and a Wilson (and ideally a Chinn too) I DARE you to pull that 2-TE stuff on me!  

Too deep here sorry: Clowney would be a down lineman/a 4-man front would be there 75% of the time, but Woods could throw some curveballs and rotate some of his best trench-warriors off the field this way.

The predominant NFL Offense remains a 3-wide, but 2 Tight Ends are becoming more prevalent, as are running backs who can line up at WR, as are BIG possession slot receivers, and I hope Berry signs Clowney and Joe Woods is either not a copycat or reads this Blog -blush-blush-













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