I'm liking Chad Porto more and more. He has unique and often uncommon insights, and a delightfully abrasive, sarcastic, and familiar tone at times. I'm glad to see real people writing smart articles.
Anyway, this time, Chad lists 5 free agents who could still help the 2020 Browns in the wake of the draft.
The first one is TE Luke Stocker.
Chad reads signing one Tight End and drafting another as indicative of a lack of confidence in David Njoku.
He's probably right, if you understand that "lack of confidence" means lack of certitude: Njoku is very much in Stefanski's plans, but he still hasn't proven himself as an elite Tight End.
Chad is also right about how irrational pundits are about this 3-Tight End offense--no, they're not going to do that much.
Chad listed the WRs and Janovich, and I'm here to add Kareem Hunt to that list. Why the hell would you take all but 2 of those other skill players off the field for a third Tight End?
And Chad (man you're not raiding my intellectual property here are you Chad? I mean you repeat my stuff so consistently (complete with the snark)--I have trouble believing there could be 2 of us)--is right about David Njoku's tradeability.
Certainly, Davis is going to be a Brown unless somebody pays for him, but (like I keep saying), somebody might cough up an edge-rusher or guard or a 2021 2nd and 4th round pick or something, right?
Luke Stocker is mainly a blocker, but like Chad says, signing him doesn't mean you can't release him, and you could carry 4 Tight Ends (Stefanski will use 2 Tight Ends a lot).
Just a note here: I expect David Njoku to go off in 2020. In reality, Njoku hasn't dropped nearly as many passes as his bashers claim he has, but hands are the weakest part of his game.
Guys like Ertz, Dissley, etc are money in the bank, even when covered, and that's the one thing that separates them from Njoku.
Gil Brandt says "you can coach a guy to catch better. You can't coach him to be taller, or faster".
Prince Amukamara!!! Dayumm good call Chad!
Amukamara is a cornerback, but Chad likes him as a Free Safety (and utility guy) here, and agrees with me that people who think cover corners can't play safety are dumbasses.
Chad does generalize about how well the current safeties tackle, because as I've explained, Delpit tackles just fine when both his legs work. But Chad's right that coverage is more important.
Amukamara is 6', 206 lbs and, at 30, should be inexpensive in the current market. Chad also considers Amukamara good Greedy Williams insurance, but a couple notes here:
Terrence Mitchell is a top-notch outside man cornerback, and I can't fathom why I seem to be the only non-coach who sees that obvious fact.
While Greedy Williams did look pretty crappy as an NFL rookie, it's a virtual certainty that he will enter year 2 much-improved.
In addition to the experience he's had so long to process and internalize, he also needed to get bigger and stronger, and you can count on Hanz and Franz making Greedy the bumper more often than the bumpee, if you know what I mean (or even if you don't).
Cameron Wake! He's 38--but Chad is only interested in him as a dirt-cheap situational passrusher. For the league minimum, Wake might make more sense than the inexplicably-overrated Adrian Clayborn.
Chad even speculated that Olivier Vernon might get moved back to Linebacker, or at least line up there on 3rd and longs (with Wake, if not Griffen or Clowney) in front of him.
That's outside the box thinking, see? While some of you are saying "budd Woodzz said he wood run a 4-3" I'm ignoring the labels and remembering that Vernon rote most of his havoc on Quarterbacks from a standing position (and was adequate in coverage, by the way).
A few notes here:
I'm feeling better about Clowney (and my 2nd choice Griffen) to replace Vernon than Chad is.
The music has stopped, and these guys are left standing without chairs. Griffen's carreer could end right here if he doesn't take a lowball deal, and Jadeveon Clowney---
Well why do you think he "came down" to 17 mil heading into the draft (with no takers)? Now the draft is over, and a bunch of teams have shiny new cheap edge-rushers...
Tick-tock, Jadeveon!
I can almost guarantee you that Andrew Berry has made Clowney an offer. I would sweeten up a Vernon 15.5 mil/year base offer with performance incentives, and front-load a 3-year offer with 18 mil guaranteed in 2020.
Regardless, Berry can replace Vernon with Clowney for zero or almost zero in 2020.
...Dammit I have to say this: The one-year "prove it" deal on Joseph made sense, given his injuries, but the one year deal with Billings bugged me, because he's a durable upper-echelon young starter who was undervalued.
Andrew Berry should be trying to lock Jadeveon Clowney up long-term while he has the space to pay the bulk of it up front!
Clowney is only 27, and building incentives in should be all the motivation he needs not to "take plays off" or "disappear", and his injury history has not been that bad!
Clowney is Olivier Vernon on steroids. On top of quickness, speed, length, range, and coverage ability, Jadeveon is also a lot more DURABLE, so (trust me on this): Paul DePodesta is telling Andrew Berry to replace Vernon with Clowney nownownow.
But I digress. Chad's next free agent is former Steeler LB Anthony Chickillo.
Meh. Chad reaches past Wilson, Takitaki, and Phillips to find guys Chickillo could replace...
...well yeah, that makes sense--especially if Mike Preiffer wants him for Special Teams!
I keep trying to catch Chad being a dumbass, but just can't so far. Let's see who his next free agent:
BINGO! WR Chris Hogan!
Chris is 33 and a Wide Receiver. Like everybody else except me, Chad has written Damion Ratley off, and Chad is tossing Rashard Higgins in there too.
Wow...more slot receiver stuff too!
No, Chad: When you bring in a geezer (regardless of salary) you have to kick some other player to the curb.
2: Donovan Peoples-Jones is an outstanding returner, Natson is here as a returner, and Thomas, Johnson, and Taylor are returners as well.
3: SLOT!?! REALLY?!? Instead of HUNT? HOOPER? And (here we go again:) Higgins or Ratley or Landry?
Chad was right about that 3-TE hyperbole, but the 2-TE offense will be run at least 40% of the time, and Kareem Hunt will be on the field at least 75% of the time.
I imagine that Ratley is the Chad's curb-bouncer who makes room for Gramps Hogan!
"Yeah you can take that 6'2" and that 4.38 40 and that 3-cone and that youth and hit the road! We got a old guy who was above average a few years ago and only costs a little more than you so---"
HUGE whiff by Chad Porto here!
Much like David Njoku, Chad has great potential, but one minor flaw.
Chad's flaw is that he whips out his shovel and starts burying people before they're dead (and often when they're very much alive).
Redwine, Hassel, Ratley, Higgins, Mitchell, Takitaki, Wilson etc:
I would never call Chad Porto a moron, but unfortunately, Chad is the poster-boy "Memorex Moron" (or "MM"):
MM's ignore progress, inexperience, upside, scheme, injuries, politics, and inevitable growth, and have a tendancy to kick everybody to the curb who has not yet proven themselves as blue chip players.
Up til his rediculous Gramps Hogan signing, Chad Porto was doing great, but we saw his doubts about David Njoku, the linebackers in general, Greedy Williams, and (already) Delpit (as a tackler).
Well, it's working out fine! There can be only one, and that's still ME!
Ellis L Williams did a film study on Donovan Peoples-Jones. I was going to mention the irrational hype surrounding this player, but in the first paragraph of this article, Ellis quotes Irvin Meyer as saying that Peoples-Jones should have been a top ten overall pick.
Ellis describes a guy who beats press coverage (gets off the line quickly) every time, and is almost always open immediately.
If he gets a step, he doesn't get caught from behind. He's lethal outside and deep, but he has issues running more complex routes inside.
Ellis frankly went over my head a little on this, but I think he was talking about trickery and deceit:
You can mechanically execute a route straight off the blackboard, and still fail. You need to convince the guy trying to cover you that you are going to zig instead of zag.
If I just slanted inside, and the corner is circling behind me to close in, he's going to nail me or break it up.
If I had looked upfield and simulated one upfield cut, I likely would have induced that cornerback to veer away from me a little, and bought myself a lot more space, see?
Per Ellis, Peoples-Jones needs work on these nuances.
Donovan is lethal with the ball in his hands, with great instincts and agility; he is already the favorite to return punts for the Browns, and will also compete to be the kick-returner and the "gunner" in coverage (Priefer can't stop smiling).
Chad Porto et al should consider this: In the rare case when there are actually three officially-labelled Wide Recievers on the field, Jarvis Landry or even OBJ will be in the slot.
Ratley, Higgins, or Peoples-Jones will be outside.
Chris Hogan? Seriously?
Anyway the Peoples-Jones hype is still irrational, but he does look like a great value in the 6th round, and like he could be an instant deep threat (as well as special teams ace) in 2020.
Randy Gurzi says we shouldn't forget about Larry Ogunjobi, who had 5.5 sacks in 2019.
Good point! Larry O isn't a nose tackle, ok? But he's been forced to play the zero-shade and get double-teamed so far.
Billings is here to do mostly that.
Gurzi gets into the advanced training Larry is into (the man is dedicated, right?).
Larry is very much like Sheldon Richardson and Jordan Elliott. They can all play DE too; they're all passrushers and legit athletes, and all ideally suited to match up with wide zone blocking schemes, like the one the Ravens run...
...stay tuned...
Okbye
No comments:
Post a Comment