With 2 weeks to go until the opener vs the Ravens, the new unit really needs to get it together.
As I've posted, the biggest surprise here is rookie TE Harrison Bryant, who has been playing like a veteran.
On the OLine, two rookies are practicing with the first unit, as well, and that hasn't been nearly as seamless (if you're counting, that's three rookies with the ones).
The Browns hope to have JC Tretter back at center by that first game, but most real experts aren't optimistic about that, given the average recovery time for miniscus surgery (and they should not let him rush it).
Sheldon Richardson, Myles Garrett, et al are "schooling" Jedrick Wills, but that includes helping to coach him ("Here's what you did wrong. This is what I saw. You tend to etc.")
Not all players will take the time to do this with the kid they practice against, and it will help Wills a lot.
Comrade Stefanski is adament that Wills is the starting Left Tackle period, and that's smart. He needs every rep he can get, as he switches sides and tries to learn to bat left-handed.
Boxing is a better analogy. Try reversing your stance. You can still jab, but that's all. You're all uncoordinated with your recessive hand, and---well if you have any imagination at all, you get this.
That other guy is coming at you hard, and you're signalling punches and missing and can't keep your feet under you or your hands up, see?
The only answer is repetition. Wills has a couple weeks to get up for the Ravens.
Fortunately, they don't have a Myles Garrett, and Wills has plenty of time to study who he will face.
Also fortunately, he won't be in as many true pass-sets as he has been in camp.
Zone blocking actually doesn't take much practice, and I'm pretty sure that the Offense has been working more on the more conventional passing game (you can't go all
Play-action, and 3rd and longs are going to happen).
Bill Callahan seems very high on Nick Harris, who replaced Tretter at Center and never let go.
I was surprised by that myself, as I expected the 5th round pick not to be ready for primetime yet, and get replaced by one of two other veterans.
I should have seen this coming: Nick Harris fell to the 5th round only because he's only 6'1", and projects mainly as a zone-blocker.
He was very experienced, is a superior athlete, and is super-smart. Nick can't get any taller, but was otherwise ready to start in the NFL (good JOB, Andrew Berry!!!)
It's quite possible that Harris will be starting and making the line-calls vs the Ravens.
It's scary, since the Ravens still to this day run their unique hybrid front 7 defense...
Look at their defensive Depth Chart. What tf is that?
I won't dig into that right now, but they've got a "joker" and a real Nose Tackle who will try to pick Harris up and throw him at Mayfield (or just turn him into a speed bump).
...I can't wait. I want to see the lowly young Browns vs maybe the best veteran team in the NFL. (Go ahead and list the teams you think are better.............?)
I can't find the Cory Kinnon article defending David Njoku, but it was awesome. I'm embarrassed by this article, since I was jumping overboard off the USS Njoku myself until I read it.
Happily, I already told you guys that Njoku's drops have been massively overinflated, but I didn't know that he's statistically comparable to the best Tight Ends in the NFL in that PFF category.
Forget I said they "might have to accept" a 3rd-rounder at best for David Njoku...
But that's another problem: Harrison Bryant is kicking ass, and (in reality) you don't use 3 Tight Ends very often with Kareem Hunt on your roster.
When in doubt, change the subject:
Matthew McFatridge lists 3 players that he thinks could be traded before week 1.
David Njoku naturally tops his list.
Well, this Malik Hooker for Njoku idea is interesting. That could be even up, since Hooker didn't get his 5th year option, while Njoku did (the Browns would need to pay the man in 2021, while the Colts would have Njoku locked down cheap.)
The Colts have cap issues, so the leverage favors the Browns here. Malik Hooker would look mighty fine in center field in 2020, and imagine Hooker/Delpit in 2021!
Anyway Matt then echoed a bunch of idiots by listing CB Rodney Mitchellfield as his next trade prospect. Idocracy again:
Mitchell is the nominal starter in Greedy Williams' place, and who knows when Williams or Kevin Johnson will return?
Mitchell is CHEAP, because he could start for most of the teams in the NFL! He shuts down WRs and gets turnovers why are you trying to get rid of oohhmmmm....ohhhmmm...
Then Matt lists Rashard Higgins. Good come-back! That one makes sense, as you can see in my last post (the Browns will have to cut some good WRs, and all THREE of Higgins' main competitors are key Special Teamers).
They probably couldn't get a lot for Rashard. The NFL is eyeball-deep in Wide Receivers right now, and Higgins (thanks to
That's so
How about Kareem Hunt, Matt?
Redundancy Alert: I'm fuzzy on deadlines etc., but as far as I know, any NFL team can make Hunt an offer, and if the Browns don't match it, that team has to cough up it's 2nd round pick.
If it's not legally too late for such an offer, lots of teams will check Hunt out.
Of course, Hunt will want top RB money, and at this point, his off the field stuff undermines that. He probably plans to play out 2020 with Comrades Stefanski and Mayfield and pile up like 60 catches and 1300 all-purpose yards and average 5 YPC and rent an extra-big Brinks truck in 2021.
If I was a GM for some other team, I'd be talking to Hunt's agent right now. What if he gets hurt? I'm offering top 5 money, plus performance incentives, with up-front guarantees.
I want him now.
I must be missing something here. An expired deadline or something.
Speak of the devil: David Njoku came back strong at the first practice at First Energy Stadium (including a 66-yard catch-and-run from Keenum).
I don't think Harrison Bryant (or Austin Hooper) can make big plays like that.
This Porter Gustin guy got 2 "sacks" from "the left side" in Myles Garrett's absence. I deduce that this reporter was saying that the Left Tackle was who got burned.
Honestly, some of these clowns call Myles Garrett a "left" Defensive End because he opposes the Left Tackle jeez...
Sounds like Wills is still getting punked, which is bad. But Gustin is punking him, which is great.
I'm so glad that Andrew Berry (and Paul DePodesta) don't care which players came from where, as Gustin was a Dorsey signing.
Remember when John Dorsey first came to Cleveland, and said that most of the players he had inheritted weren't "real football players"?
He immediately flushed Ogbah and Nassib down the terlet, then traded Zeitler and Peppers in a literal purge of everybody he hadn't acquired.
Njoku and Higgins in the "Dog House" came next...I'm not sure I've ever seen an ego like that in the NFL...
Anyway Berry and DePodesta ignore who gets the "credit" for acquiring players, and don't purge guys.
Porter Gustin is still here because he is earning it. Period. It doesn't bother DePoBerry that John Dorsey will "get credit" for him.
Anyway I'm pretty excited about this Gustin guy as (at least) a rotational passrusher. It's quite possible that there's a quality EDGE depth behind Garrett/Vernon/Clayborn (and, actually, Sheldon Richardson too!)
Chad Porto says the Browns "blew" a trade for Ngakoue.
Chad's very smart, but finds mathematics irritating, so he ignores it.
Ngakoue would have cost only merely a second round pick and 20 mil-plus a year or so.
No, Chad, the Browns can't conjure up money to retain their top players. If you have 50 mil and spend 20 mil of it, you have 30 mil left, ok?
And you don't ride contracts into their final seasons---jeez don't get me started...
Chad only uses half his brain so far, so his potential is astronomical, but...
...and everybody except Garrett is a bumb?
Nevermind: When exactly did all you spoiled brats decide to ah nevermind okbye
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