Recipe for success this offseason:

[Sez.EJ]

Originally Posted by Solon16

Sez,
For the Browns @ #4./...if we don't go QB...?...Isn't it glaring that we must take the Best offensive skill position? To me, Blackmon WONT be there....so to me.....that leaves ONLY Trent Richardson! TO ME ...the top four Offensive skill positions in the draft are @1 luck, # 2 Blackmon #3, RG3#4 Trent! THAT is the reason I have mentioned TR as an option @#4!
I can't see a glaring DE calling out to be picked at #4 over a skill position on O! We can"t score...without O in today's game, with the rule changes in place...we will NEVER compete! The OLD adage defense wins championships doesn't understand that Offense wins ratings!

Solon.. I love Richardson.. But I still think we re-sign Hills. If Blackmon is gone and Hillis is not re-signed.. Richardson is a not brainer.. guy's a stud. Not my perfect draft scenario..but you can't argue that. There will be a good WR at the bottom of round 1 anyway.

[golfer704u]

Originally Posted by Solon16

Here it is Gabe...Stl and minny don't hold squat over us imo...They just drafted there franchise Qb's... RG3 is ours if we want him....I want Luck and from what I heard today...the Polians were going to take Luck with #1 but Irsay wants to keep manning.... on the downlow!

I know this is being discussed in many different threads with opinions on both sides of who wanted Luck, Irsay or the Polians. But this is the scenario I believe more in personally and let me explain why.

As an Owner, Irsay is his own boss, no one is going to fire him and he's not continually trying to build a resume. So loyalty for him can be a luxury. And it's natural for owners to start to truly care for the players who have led thier franchises for years. So I can definitely understand Irsay wanting to give Manning what he wants.

Where as with the Polians. They are GMs. they are EMPLOYEES. As was shown, at anytime they can be shown the door and then are looking for work again. So they are constantly thinking about thier body of work and thier resumes. They are continually trying to show people that they can evaluate talent and bring it in. It makes more sense to me that they would be interested in finding the "next Manning", so that they can say they were the one to find them. It makes even mroe sense to me when you consider it's father and son doing this. The father has his legacy, he is hoping to help his son build his.

[Enigmatic Evil]

Sez I'm just gonna quote ya here and add my thoughts in italics

Originally Posted by Sez.EJ

SEZ. EJ'S 2012 SPECIAL RECIPE:

My thoughts in what direction we should go in the draft and free agency to get this team become a dominant contender in our division as soon as possible.

OFFENSIVE PRIORITIES

1. Sign Matt Flynn to compete with McCoy.. Show Wallace to the door.. If not Flynn, bring in another young veteran to compete or a better experience backup. Go one more year and then decide to fish or cut bait and dip into the draft for a QB. I say Don't draft a QB this year.. no qb will ever succeed until we get a team around them. That's where my focus is this offseason.

I agree with showing Wallace the door but I don't know if throwing money at Matt Flynn is the answer, unless, UNLIKE Wallace, we establish expectations at the start that Flynn was brought in to push McCoy and compete for a starting job. No guarantees, but you're right a QB is ONLY as good as his supporting cast and our supporting cast is from the show Yes, Dear...


2. WR(s) #1 issue with this offense. Little is going to be a great #2 when he learns the system. Momass was to break out this year after practicing with Larry Legend. He's a #4 or 5 as he has not ball skills, is injury and dropsy prone.. May be time to say goodbye. Cribbs has easily moved past him with a strong second half of the season. TE spots are fine for now.

Sez, we disagreed a lot this season but I agree 100% that our WR corps is the BANE of our offense. Little still has potential to even be a #1, IMO, he just needs to be TAUGHT the essential fundamentals that I think he has missed out on due to A) transitioning from HB to WR in college and B) Missing a year of college for being dumb. He's not a lost cause, he showed his promise this year. We should have cut MoMass when we cut Robo IMO. Little and Cribbs are our only decent WR's and after that it's crickets honestly. TE: I see this as a need, though not as drastic as WR. Draft someone or bring in a FA to replace Watson or Moore... I don't see both of them on our roster again next year.

3. RT Draft a starter in round 2-3 It's a deep draft in tackles this year.

Nothing to note here. We need a starting RT and have for like the last 5 years.


4. G(s).. Pray for Steiny's back to heal (that's iffy) We must bring in a top free agent to start.. Let Pinkston and Lauvoa battle for the other spot as neither is good enough.. or these two can be solid backups depending on Steiny returning. The OL will be the strength of the offense if this happens and our QB, may even have a chance.

I'm not sold Steiny's playing another game for us IMO. A Top FA? I dont know but ANYONE who can sure up ONE of the guards with a little bit of tenacity on the run blocking would be NICE. Lauvao and Pinkston both seemed average at best at run blocking... after this season I think either would be a great backup but I dont know. Pinkston has more starting potental than Lauvao but that's not worth banking on (unless Pinkston shows solid progression in his second season.) Our O-Line needs to improve for our offense to have any kind of improvement next year.

5. RB resign all three of our RB's.. Hillis can flat out play. I don't believe he's a one year wonder. Hardesty's knee should be much improved in year 2.Ogbannaya showed enough to be re-signed... Marecic gets another shot, but we bring in a couple strong UDFA's to learn the system this offseason if he struggles again. I am hoping he makes a big jump in year 2. He's a football player.. college showed us that.

Hillis is the BEST option we've got. I think we would be mad to let him test FA, give him an INSCENTIVE LADEN CONTRACT which would hopefully motivate Hillis to RUN for the money rather than clinging to his 2010 season for validation. Jackson/Hardesty/Obi could battle it out for the other spots in camp but I would like to bring in someone to push Hardesty and Obi, I'm not sold Hardesty is anything more than a #2 guy at best and his health is clearly an issue since he's only played like half a season for us over the past 2 years. We need to bring in a FB. I don't care if Marecic needs to learn or not, we need a FB who at least can DO the job WELL while Marecic gets acclimatized to the NFL game... he had some HUGE rookie gaffes this year but was still overshadowed by the mediocrity of the rest of the team.

*OFFENSIVE DRAFT: Get Blackmon with our first pick or a WR with our 2nd first rounder (if we don't get Backmon) . RT in round 2 or 3, draft another WR with one of mid round/late picks..

Yeah I would LOVE Blackmon but I don't know if he slides down to us in the top 5. Personally my priority of offense is WR (x2) > RT > TE > G now obviously we're not going to draft all that but we're in a similar ballpark for needs.

* OFFENSIVE FREE AGENCY: WR, or even two would be preferable, and G of starting quality. (I addressed the qb above already)


A WR FA would be paramount as I am sure ANYONE could best MoMass in camp. A starting G would be hard to find in FA, typically there isn't a plethora of FA talent that isn't either old or injury prone (like Pachos) so I don't know who's avaliable or what... I think we should try to sign a Guard so we don't have the Lauvao/Pinkston show again... one of the two is fine but not both.


DEFENSIVE PRIORITIES

1. DE to play opposite Sheard.. Sheard is going to be a stud.

Exactly, exactly, exactly! I hate tooting my own horn (no I dont) but I've been saying this since mid-season! We need a DE to play opposite Sheard and then our D-Line would be as close to LEGIT as it's been in a LONG time. Sheard had 8.5 sacks, who lead the team in sacks last year? Marcus Bernard?


2. LB(s) We are very slow at LB and lack playmakers and guys who can cover and blitz effectively.. DQJ is safe for now, even though he's average.. we can't upgrade everything in an offseason.. but this position needs an overhaul.

In another thread, someone was hyping a MLB prospect, I dont know if it suits his skillset but having Gocong/DQJ on the outside with a rookie MLB would be nice, I don't want another season of Gocong/DQJ/Fujita, we need to be serious for once about improving our medocre-at-its-absolute-best Run D. That starts w/ the LB position IMO. Another quality DE on the other side would probably help that as well.

3. Secondary.. Bring in one free agent somewhere to start.. either S or DB and draft for depth.. I think we have some good young players who are making strides.

Yeah I agree here. We've got Haden/Ward/Patterson(I'm not sold 100% but I know some of you guys like him) Skrine as well as some safety prospect like Hagg (dunno what he brings to the table though) Sheldon Brown... I don't want to see him starting at CB again next season. At times, it was worse than watching Eric Wright last season... hindsight tells me I wish we would have tried to keep him around and I bet secondary would be way less of a concern.

I think I would feel better about a Wright/Haden secondary... Losing Wright is kind of like how I feel about losing Kamerion. I was meh but retrospect shows what we had. Though Wright didn't thrive with the change of scenery quite like Wimbley...

A FA, or a Draft pick, we move Sheldon Brown to safety, start Brown/Ward. Pick up a CB for depth there and we're okay. We keep Sheldon Brown at CB, I think you need to think about this replacement and draft a CB anyway. I thought Mike Adams (who might be one of the longest tenured Browns at this point, turning 31 in March) had a decent season and he lead the team in Interceptions. Usama Young... I am not sure if he brings what we need to the table or if we need to look at someone else to play with Ward at Safety...

Draft picks for D: .. DE with one of our 1st round picks..whichever one we are not taking a WR with.. Round 2 LB to start, round 4 two LB's to compete and provide depth, round 5,6,7 two secondary players to compete and provide depth

Preferably, DE/LB and maybe a late round flier on a player in the secondary. WE need to focus more on the offense in the draft though it seems like Heckert may have his eyes on some FA's already (like his boy DeSean? I don't know about that, anyway) that would free up draft picks for defensive players. DE and LB are the REAL priorities for the draft IMO. In that order.


DEFENSIVE FREE AGENCY: Lb to be a starter, and a couple guys for depth anywhere. Possibly a secondary player to compete for a starting spot.

This.

COACHES


Jauron.. A+ job getting a talent poor defense into the top 10 even though we can't stop the run.. Nice job. I don't change anything about our D coaches..

I agree with your grade Sez. He turned this defense around, we may not have been as aggressive as the Rob Ryan D last year but IMO we were more responsible and accountable, and a better defense as a whole. 32 Sacks to 29 Last year isn't that big of a change really but 15 Forced Fumbles this season to 9 last year. Surprisingly enough, despite the praise for our secondary we only had 9 INT's this year compared to 19 last year... Our mediocre rush D even allowed a full yard less per carry than Ryan's D but we allowed almost 300 total rushing yards MORE than we did last season. Those numbers against the run dont really add up but overall I think Jauron was the one good personnel decision we made last year.

Mistakes were fewer and fundamentally this team played sound defense that kept us close in a lot of games that could have been VERY ugly. (Think to how many "UGLY" games we had this season vs last because of Ryan's aggressive defensive playcalling... similar situation in Dallas this year wasn't it?)

Shurmer.. Incomplete grade for now: He got the players to play hard all year that's always good when you only win 4.. The incomplete is because he was handcuffed due to Zero playmakers outside on offense, and no offseason program to speak of.. Hiring a good OC is a must for him and the offense to improve.. and Shurmer needs big improvements on his game management next year.

Shurmur... What can I say that we already havent? Let's look at more numbers thanks to his playcalling. Total Firstd owns, we had a total of 13 more than last year (278 to 265), that's not even an average of one extra first down a game... However, considerable improvement / decline of First downs achieved by pass (+19 from last year) to FD via the Run (-10 from last year). Our 3rd down prowess was virtually the same as last year, a measly 1% better under Shurms' squirmy play calling. The only other area there was considerable difference from last year was touchdowns. We had eight LESS than last year. Shurmur gets a C - M-I-N-E-S (anyone who gets that joke will get a million billion rep from me )

CONCLUSION:

If we do the above: We will get playmakers at WR, fix the OL. Get a playmaking DE across from Sheard, Get at least 2 new starting LB's with more speed and add depth. Beef up the secondary and the D overall. This team will be competing for the division if we can hit on the draft picks and get free agents that are actually worthy of being brought in.


That's my plan. I think it's reasonable too.. only 3-4 free agents as starters and we need to hit on the top 3 rounds that get on the field right away.

Thoughts and criticizms???

My own personal conclusion: I think you're right on line with a lot of us Sez and a lot of your points are valid IMO. We need to hit on multiple starters in the draft, QUALITY starters not just rookies we're giving playing time because we devoted this year to a youth movement.

In a dream world we land the following to actually try to make a turn around next season:
- Resign Hillis to an incentive laden contract, make him RUN for the money with knowing he will get it if he performs, not dicking him around, turning him into a locker room liability with contract talk mind games (came from both sides IMO, dont care what you say, the guy makes our offense 100% better just by standing behind the QB)
- Stud WR 1st Round
- Draft a QB to push Colt, equal value or better, don't bother drafting a QB if you're not going to aim higher than Colt. If not, then go for Flynn.
- DE to play w/ Sheard, equal or lesser value would even be an improvement from Jayme Mitchell
- a legit RT not a "project" or "hopeful" kind of pick (ala Pinkston/Lauvao the year before)
- Decent WR in FA (to fight with MoMass/Cribbs/Little for the #2 spot. REALLY shake things up.
- A LB (who can stop the run!) and a CB/S to shore up the D and give us important depth. If we can replace Fujita, okay, if not... well hopefully we draft a LB who we can look at as someone who can legitimately replace Fujita, not a scrap pick from the Miami Dolphins practice squad. (Though Kaluka Maiava is a good LB for depth and special teams, he's not a guy you want starting for 16 games. A start here or there, I like him but I don't think he plays at THAT level consistently.)

That is a laundry list that would make Heckert a virtual god if he could pull it off.

[Legendary]

I wonder what the odd of
Indy takng RGIII,
Rams to take Justin Blackmon
Vikings taking the offensive linesman or Richardson
Then Browns got the Luck

[next2nothing]

Originally Posted by Legendary

I wonder what the odd of
Indy takng RGIII,
Rams to take Justin Blackmon
Vikings taking the offensive linesman or Richardson
Then Browns got the Luck

The same odds I have to win the Publisher's Clearing House $5,000 a week for life prize.

100,000,000 to 1.

To get any chance of Luck or even Blackmon we're gonna have to trade up with Indy or St. Louis.

[Sez.EJ]

EE there are definately free agent guards out there that could shore up our G spot.. Then let Pinkston and Lauvoa battle for the other.. then we have a decent backup who's still learning and has some experience.. I found this list of Guards.
Guards:
Chad Rinehart – BUF
Kraig Urbik – BUF (R)
Mackenzy Bernadeau – CAR
Roberto Garza – CHI
Bobbie Williams - CIN
Jason Shirley – CIN (R)
Steve Vallos – CLE
Montrae Holland – DAL
Russ Hochstein – DEN
Donald Thomas – DET
Chris Myers – HOU
Jamey Richard – IND
Vincent Manuwai – JAC
Daniel Connolly – NE
Stephen Neal – NE
Mike McGlynn – PHI
Paul Fanaika – SEA
Mike Gibson – SEA (R)
Chilo Rachal – SF
John Malecki – TB
Jeremy Zuttah – TB
Jake Scott – TEN
Will Montgomery – WAS

Not many guards are household names but surely with a list like that there have to be at least 4-5 guys that could help us.

[Sez.EJ]

I saw somewhere someone say we should re-sign Hillis then move him back to FB.. and draft the amazing RB Richardson with our first pick. .. Wow!!!! What a tandem that would make..no one in the NFL could boast something like that.. We would still have our 2nd #1 to get a wr.. DE in 2, T in 3, LB x2 in round 4.. and fill in the rest.. bring in a free agent G, LB, DB, and WR.. and we are rolling.

[Solon16]

Originally Posted by golfer704u

I know this is being discussed in many different threads with opinions on both sides of who wanted Luck, Irsay or the Polians. But this is the scenario I believe more in personally and let me explain why.

As an Owner, Irsay is his own boss, no one is going to fire him and he's not continually trying to build a resume. So loyalty for him can be a luxury. And it's natural for owners to start to truly care for the players who have led thier franchises for years. So I can definitely understand Irsay wanting to give Manning what he wants.

Where as with the Polians. They are GMs. they are EMPLOYEES. As was shown, at anytime they can be shown the door and then are looking for work again. So they are constantly thinking about thier body of work and thier resumes. They are continually trying to show people that they can evaluate talent and bring it in. It makes more sense to me that they would be interested in finding the "next Manning", so that they can say they were the one to find them. It makes even mroe sense to me when you consider it's father and son doing this. The father has his legacy, he is hoping to help his son build his.

I agree with you for agreeing with me But setting his son up for a decade is exactly what Bill Wanted to do! the Colts will get rich and they should...They will move the pick and the Browns will get it! WORD!

[Enigmatic Evil]

Thought Vallos was our backup center, or was that someone else? Didn't see much of him so we may even keep him around who knows. Nobody on that list stands out outside of old veterans and names I've seen on Madden.