2023 Off-Season Free Agent moves/signings

Axe

@tiamat63 said:

Baker to Tampa. Good for him, should be a pretty alright situation.

Crap!! We go from Brady to Baker ?

Canton Dawg

Mayfield and Brissett got signed, best of luck to both of them.

Just not against the Browns.

tiamat63

Orlando Brown to Cincy. Huge pick up for them.

SdBacker80

@dutch-oven said:

It will be interesting to see what the Browns do at backup QB.

Any decent vet QBs out there?

I liked what I saw with Cooper Rush during Dak’s absence. He’s available.

Wild Man is too Gardner Minschew

htownbrown

"Welcome to the Cleveland Clinic Mr. Hurst."

Vambo

Browns Release DE Jadeveon Clowney

https://www.si.com/nfl/2023/03/15/browns-release-defensive-end-jadeveon-clowney

The Browns released veteran defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, the NFL announced on Wednesday.

The move wasn’t a total surprise, as Clowney has reiterated over the past few months that he expected to be enter free agency. The three-time Pro Bowler played the last two seasons in Cleveland.

Clowney was the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NFL draft by the Texans. He played there until 2019, earning Pro Bowl honors three times while in Houston.

After playing one season with the Seahawks and one with the Titans, Clowney arrived in Cleveland in 2021. But the 2022 season ended on a sour note, as the team sat him out of the season finale against the Steelers after he made comments to media about his usage. The Browns missed the playoffs for the second straight year after finishing at the bottom of the AFC North at 7–10.

During his two seasons in Cleveland, the defensive end produced 65 tackles, 11 sacks, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

Clowney was reportedly released with a post-June 1 designation, meaning the move will save the Browns $1.6 million in cap space. On top of releasing Clowney, the Browns also released safety John Johnson.

Vambo

Browns agree with DT Maurice Hurst on a 1-year deal

Published: Mar. 15, 2023, 11:38 p.m

https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2023/03/browns-agree-with-dt-maurice-hurst-on-a-1-year-deal.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Browns are giving former Michigan defensive tackle Maurice Hurst a chance to resurrect his career.

They’re signing the 2018 fifth-round pick of the Raiders to a one-year contract for defensive line depth, a league source told cleveland.com. Brad Stainbrook reported it first.

Hurst, 27, signed with the 49ers in 2021 after three underwhelming seasons with the Raiders, and had each of the last two seasons derailed by injuries.

tiamat63

@mld-woody well, there's your 3 tech depth.

Korsou Dawg

@gumby73 said:

Two-time Super Bowl winner Juan Thornhill agreed to terms with the #Browns on a three-year, $21 million contract with $14 million fully guaranteed at signing over the first two years, per sources. Thornhill started 52 games for the #Chiefs. A big addition for Cleveland.

https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2023/03/browns-agree-with-fa-safety-juan-thornhill-on-a-3-year-deal-worth-21-million-released-john-johnson-iii.html

Scratch Safety of the needs list. Seems like we are really gearing up for BPA and long term with the draft.

As for Juan, his numbers have gone up with his snap count the past years. Seems like a solid, if somewhat unspectacular addition. Front office looking for 'value for money' gets a thumbs up from me.

Korsou Dawg

Apparently, the Browns are high on forced incompletions. Well good, cause so am I!

Jack Duffin@JackDuffin

PFF Forced Incompletion Stat (50% min)

Juan Thornhill - 20% (3rd for S)
Martin Emerson - 20% (6th for CB)
Denzel Ward - 19% (7th for CB)
Grant Delpit - 14% (12th for S)
Greg Newsome - 11% (39th for CB)

For Reference
John Johnson - 8% (47th for S)

Tom Pelissero@TomPelisseroTwo-time Super Bowl winner Juan Thornhill agreed to terms with the #Browns on a three-year, $21 million contract with $14 million fully guaranteed at signing over the first two years, per sources. Thornhill started 52 games for the #Chiefs. A big addition for Cleveland.

Mar 15, 2023 627 21View on X

Flugel

@sdbacker80 said:

that seems bigger than the usual or the trend is lighter than that lately.

Jones is listed at couple slices of pizza over 220.

Campbell is 250.

Walker like you said did a decent job but can he be available

Yeah, 250 lbs is fine if the guy shows on film he's productive at that weight like I'm guessing Campbell does. Keep in mind, an NFL strength and conditioning program can easily get Campbell to play at any advisable/recommended weight his coach/coordinator would like him to play at. So can a contract for that matter. NFL Strength and Conditioning programs like to analyze body compositions to track to how their program impacts the percentages of lean tissue and body fat. More specifically, it gives them a better idea of the quality of body weight a player is carrying. In saying that, there's always exceptions to the rule where a big bellied guy moves around way faster than the book cover advertises.

Flugel

@orion said:

At his introductory presser Schwartz said he doesn't want LB'ers much over 250 lbs.

Given his experience coaching, that probably a very good guideline to go by. He was at the beginning of his NFL career in Cleveland when we had Pepper Johnson and Carl Banks playing some very good LBer.

Flugel

@gumby73 said:

Dig IT !

Tom Pelissero

@TomPelissero

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Two-time Super Bowl winner Juan Thornhill agreed to terms with the #Browns on a three-year, $21 million contract with $14 million fully guaranteed at signing over the first two years, per sources. Thornhill started 52 games for the #Chiefs. A big addition for Cleveland.

https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2023/03/browns-agree-with-fa-safety-juan-thornhill-on-a-3-year-deal-worth-21-million-released-john-johnson-iii.html

Let me preface what I'm about to share is only from the lens of a sportswriter used by Lindy's Pro Football Preview in 2021 and 2022; and it's not anything bad IMO.

Anyway, here's what it had to say about this former 2nd round draft pick of the KC Chiefs in 2019. Prior to 2021, it said "Fully recovered from ACL Injury, Thornhill hopes to bounce back to rookie-year form." Prior to 2022, it said "Still looking to return to form before ACL injury ended rookie season 2 years ago."

You can probably look up PFF ratings/scores and see what our Defensive Back expert @tiamat63 sees on film for better details about how Juan Thornhill has done most recently.

nickers

@flugel said:

Let me preface what I'm about to share is only from the lens of a sportswriter used by Lindy's Pro Football Preview in 2021 and 2022; and it's not anything bad IMO.

Anyway, here's what it had to say about this former 2nd round draft pick of the KC Chiefs in 2019. Prior to 2021, it said "Fully recovered from ACL Injury, Thornhill hopes to bounce back to rookie-year form." Prior to 2022, it said "Still looking to return to form before ACL injury ended rookie season 2 years ago."

You can probably look up PFF ratings/scores and see what our Defensive Back expert @tiamat63 sees on film for better details about how Juan Thornhill has done most recently.

Here we are again signing guys with bad wheels... This approach has rarely if at all worked for the Browns... They never learn!

tiamat63

@flugel said:

Let me preface what I'm about to share is only from the lens of a sportswriter used by Lindy's Pro Football Preview in 2021 and 2022; and it's not anything bad IMO.

Anyway, here's what it had to say about this former 2nd round draft pick of the KC Chiefs in 2019. Prior to 2021, it said "Fully recovered from ACL Injury, Thornhill hopes to bounce back to rookie-year form." Prior to 2022, it said "Still looking to return to form before ACL injury ended rookie season 2 years ago."

You can probably look up PFF ratings/scores and see what our Defensive Back expert @tiamat63 sees on film for better details about how Juan Thornhill has done most recently.

Still working on Obby at what he brings to the edge rush. Despite being on vacation, I haven't quite gotten everything I would have hoped to have been done. So I'll get back to you on how Juan's season went via; film look. However...

I did like him enough to take him as the Browns 2nd round pick in our 2019 Mock draft.

/topic/52832

His ACL injury was the 2019 season, I believe in the playoffs which would have been January 2020. Juan came back and played in 16 games in 2020, starting 8 of them. Then played a full regular season 2021 and 2022.

So he's had nearly 3 full seasons of health under his belt, 2 & 1/2 of those as a starter. I'd say that's a pretty good record of stability after a knee injury.

syd

@nickers said:

Here we are again signing guys with bad wheels... This approach has rarely if at all worked for the Browns... They never learn!

ya cause nick chubb sure has sucked

nickers

@syd said:

ya cause nick chubb sure has sucked

?

Flugel

@korsou-dawg said:

Scratch Safety of the needs list. Seems like we are really gearing up for BPA and long term with the draft.

As for Juan, his numbers have gone up with his snap count the past years. Seems like a solid, if somewhat unspectacular addition. Front office looking for 'value for money' gets a thumbs up from me.

Man, if I would have known it was gonna be this easy to resolve old mistakes - I could have spared my dome a lot of grey hair. - NostraDumbass (The author formerly known as Flugel)

It'll be nice to go with a lot of BPA as long as it's not in an area we're already strong and deep at. For example, one of our previous conversations about the RB position we both agreed we don't need a RB anywhere north of undrafted free agency. Having said that, a position like Cornerback often requires 3 of them on the field - some of our corners have missed starts to injuries in the last 2 years. I'll be okay with BPA there.

Even though, we've given a very big commitment to David Njoku recently - I think we may have some VERY good TEs on our doorstep in this draft for a TE2. TE was supposed to be a strength in Stefanski's offense; and yet Harrison Bryant never really developed like we hoped while Austin Hooper wasn't anything special at all. Our current Left Tackle situation is going to demand some good help from the TE position at times. I could go for a throwback type that blocks and gets open like a Steve Heiden (who was a big help despite KWII's productivity as the 1st TE). He's now the TE Coach for the Detroit Lions.

We can go BPA which should also fill needs at some of the following positions: WR, Offensive Tackle, LB, TE2, CB, or Safety...

Flugel

@nickers said:

Here we are again signing guys with bad wheels... This approach has rarely if at all worked for the Browns... They never learn!

It looks like Thornhill had his best season in 2022 though with a career-best 71 tackles (43 solo), 3 interceptions and 1 sack in the 16 games he played in.

nickers

@flugel said:

It looks like Thornhill had his best season in 2022 though with a career-best 71 tackles (43 solo), 3 interceptions and 1 sack in the 16 games he played in.

We'll see...