Per Barry, he's not a press/man cornerback, but fits well in a Cover 3 or 2-deep (zone) Defense (those are generalizations since outside corners can man-up in these schemes, but I'm guessing Barry is treating off-man as zone).
There is definitely room for this unheralded third-year ex-Cowboy on this roster, especially since he looks like yet another good Special Teamer.
Don't be too surprised if Joe Woods carries 9 or 10 DBs on the final roster (and 5 or fewer Linebackers by the way).
Redundundancy alert all teams run some type of nickel about 2/3rds of the time in today's pass-happy NFL (Who told you Joe Woods was unique!?).
Woods appears determined to retain 4 down linemen, while other ("3-4") guys might go 3-3 or even 2-4 sometimes.
Woods, like Gregg Williams et al, try to find Safetybackers to fill out their nickels and be part of their dimes.
Really, these are mostly just extra-tough Strong Safeties who run-and-hit; they almost always line up in the box...they can't take on and shed blocks, but they're instinctive, and usually attack when not in coverage (long story, and I'm not sure any 2 Defensive Coordinators are talking about the same player).
Anyway that's why Woods will probably carry a 5th Safety (or "DB"); he'll often field 3 (or even 4) "safeties" in nickels and dimes, and yes: Donovan Olumba could be one of these.
As Barry says, he's a sure tackler with a terrific wing-span and ball-skills. He's been on the Cowboys Practice Squad for 2 seasons, and he's been practicing against top-notch receivers and honing his skills.
Coming from the lowest level of competition in college, year 3 could be this guy's "coming out" party, and his real weight is probably 21-212 lbs by now (even though he's "cut").
Joe will also carry at least 4 Cornerbacks, but I suspect 5 of those as well. Look at both Ward and Williams' injuries already, and toss in the lacerated liver and Kevin Johnson holeee...well 5, right?
And Olumba could be one of those, as well.
As Barry says, he's currently filling in for Denzel Ward (and looking pretty good, too).
The 2020 Browns have excellent depth at CB and SS.
I've read some really superficial, shallow anal yses speculating about how much the Browns will have to trade and pay for Grant Delpit's replacement, written by people who think Free and Strong Safety are the same thing.
Karl Joseph is a mediocre Free Safety but an excellent Strong Safety. Redwine can also play both, and could become better at free in year 2, but he's already shown a strong aptitute for Strong Safety (lots of upside for him DO YOU UNDERSTAND?)
Rodney Hasselfield is not only a much better athlete than these two, but also was a linebacker in college, so see "Safetybacker".
Sendejo is the Free Safety for now, and he's above average. But behind him?
Well, Olumba will be tried there (as well as at SS). I'm not predicting any results here, but just saying that he's been in the NFL long enough that experimenting with him won't hinder his development, and he has the physical tools to play every DB position.
Comrade Pete Smith weighs in with what he knows best in projecting the 53-man roster, and (as usual) I learned from him:
Pete sees 5 WRs retained (yep), not including any microbes or Damion Ratley, but he sees other teams (like the Jets) maybe trading for those not retained (no doubt a 5th rounder at best).
4 Tight Ends check, but Pete thinks Steve Carlson stays and Pharaoh Brown goes. (Brown is the best in-line blocker; Carlson is a coverted WR).
He thinks they might sign a veteran in-line "Y" type, but I don't get that. Y would they do that?
Sigh anyway Gustin makes it, while Chad Thomas doesn't (among 4 DEs)...
Pete thinks Eli Ankou will be the 4th DT. I don't know much about the guy, but he's 6'3", 331 lbs, and the rest are all 300 lb penetrators and that makes sense.
My earlier posts aside, it just seems reckless to not have at least one true zero-shade run-stuffer on your roster, even if you're channeling Bud Carson.
Pete thinks "project" OT Alex Taylor will make the final roster as the 4th OT retained. (He sees 3 Centers and 3 Guards too, but of course the Centers can play Guard too, and Pete is doing this for opening day, and JC Tretter probably aint gonna be there).
Pete lists 6 Linebackers, but one is Mack Wilson, who won't be there yet either.
He lists 7 corners, 2 free, and 2 strong safeties.
Olumba is one of the corners and another is a Special Teams ace. He says MJ Steward has the size to play the slot "like a Safety", and they'll want to keep AJ Green (won't survive waivers), but he's got Terrence Mitchell as the odd man out.
He has Redwine as the backup Free Safety, by the way. I trust Pete on that one.
...but Pete says he's great trade-bait for a team looking for a dirt-cheap insta-starter man cornerback, and is expecting DePoBerry to "cash out" on him.
So as usual (when he sticks to Football) I can't catch Comrade Smith screwing up. (Ok well I have, on rare occasions, but most of the time he's infuriatingly correct and brilliant all the time dammit).
Terrence Mitchell is only 28 and dirt cheap, and could be worth a 3rd round pick for any contending team in need of an elite (yes I said elite; axe PFF) plug-and-play man corner.)
Ok but if he's not traded, Pete, he's here, and one of your guys isn't, see?
Best I could do...dammit.
I can always count on the comments pages and Permabashers to find idiots:
If you have a brain, you might have thought that Sam Darnold or possibly even Josh Allen was a better pro prospect than Baker Mayfield coming out of college, and I respect that.
But if you stuck with that after his record-breaking 14-game rookie season, you are an idiot.
If you think he sucked in 2019 "because the defenses figured him out", or because he was making commercials, you are...is there something lower than...ah brain-dead
Redundancy alert in the
Instead of spreading the ball around like he had all his life, now he was forcing it to a 5'11" impaired OBJ deep, and was deprived of Higgins and Njoku.
Instead of running, play-action, and rolling, he was in the pocket all the time, in a predictable, pass-oriented offense.
(I still say Kitchens was screwed; Dorsey was telling him what to do. I don't know if Freddie could have been a good Head Coach, but I know for sure that John Dorsey wasn't one.)
Baker Mayfield through 2018 was possibly THE most accurate (non-dink-passing) Quarterback alive (always among the top guys in Yards-per-attempt). Lots of TDs. Few INTs. And a terrific scrambler, and salvager of broken plays
Through 2018, no defense could "figure him out" because he had no "go-to" guy they could take away, he could hit every part of the field from the pocket or on the run, and he literally had no exploitable weaknesses or tendancies (except being an asshole but that doesn't count here).
In 2019,
ALL correct-handed Quarterbacks tend to scramble to their right! You're calling THAT an exploitable weakness ohhmmm....ohhmmmmm....
And that goes for Jim Donovan too by the way. Jim, I love you man, but you need a tune-up ok? I mean, even if he wasn't right-handed, look at where the pressure came from---defenses figured GREG ROBINSON out ok!?! but I digress:
I remember Chris Palmer and Tim Couch.
The former helped destroy the latter. Tim Couch was an athletic ball-distributor, and Head Coach Chris Palmer, in the first year of an expansion team with all new players, made Tim Couch mostly an under-center, drop-back, pocket-passer.
I was an idiot back then, and thought Palmer was just "training" Couch for the NFL.
NO. Tim Couch had a pre-existing condition in his throwing elbow ("tennis elbow") which ultimately ended his carreer, but Chris Palmer hastened Tim's demise by not letting him take advantage of his athleticism, or the shotgun, or do anything that he'd done in college.
Well, Comrade Stefanski's offense actually resembles the offense Mayfield ran at Oklahoma.
The new regime consists of a GM and Chief Strategy Officer who stay in their lanes, and a Head Coach who selected his DC and assistants.
I've gone on and on about the zone-blocking scheme, RPOs, rollouts, etc., but for Baker Mayfield, here's the deal:
It's back yard football. He gets to look deep first every time, and hit whoever is open after that.
I'm overstating this, of course: He still has his precribed "reads", but...
Do you guys get that a QB coming out of the huddle, and watching how the defensive guys line up vs his guys sees more than what's on the chalk board?
Per Bernie ("I knew where the ball was going before the snap") Kosar, Baker Mayfield does that too.
...but what does he know, right?
It's ok, though. I remember some of the stuff I said in my younger years with profound shame. I was once almost half as ignorant and stupid as these Mayfield-bashers (except those who call him an asshole. THAT's irrefutable!)
LeBron James is a soulless asshole too, but also a great athlete. We need to be objective here:
The POW-lease in the US are mass-murdering black people but Red China is cool. The US sucks but none of you wants to leave.
Black Lives Matter is a great motto, but all your donations to it go to the DNC, and NONE to blighted neighborhoods or victims or ohmmmmmm...
BLM and Antifa are determined to destroy capitalism and are heavily funded by George Soros, who is Satan incarnate.
These athletes are "useful idiots".
Don't be a drone, pod person, or tool. If they steal this election from Trump, we're Venezuela...obviously.
All this over 19 incidents; riots over cops trying to revive a suicide, while cops are being murdered (no news on that, right? Lots more than the (more often than not justified) "unarmed" shootings of blacks you morons.)
Institutional racism is bullshit. Your whole "social justice" movement is bullshit.
The riots and looting are engineered and financed by BLM, Antifa, and Soros, all in Democrat cities and states, and you blame TRUMP?
Do what Comrade Stefanski pretended to do, and check out the "right wing extremist" sites (ie look outside your echo-chamber and think for yourself you fkng DRONE) but I digress:
Baker Mayfield will obviously kick ass in 2020 okbye
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