Stallworth will be back in 2009

That's pennies saved against the cap if we cut him...can't see why, under these circumstances, we wouldn't bring him back.

Sez.EJ

@sez.ej said:
Stallworth would be the best free agent on the market if released right now.. We need him back..this year was a fluke.. yeah he misses a game or two here and there..but nothing like this year... he and braylon will make a formidable team next year. You can cry about this year..but fact is..the guy is pretty darned good when he is involved in the offense.

Not better than Houshmandzadeh, but Stallworth would be one of the better second-tier guys available.

I think your post gets to the fundamental question the Browns have to answer: is this year just a fluke, or is Stallworth just another fragile, inconsistent receiver?

Even if the cap difference between keeping him around in '09 and cutting him isn't very significant, the money paid out is ($5M). And if we pay him that money & he limps through the '09 season, we'll face a cap charge of about $3.2M in 2010 if we decide to cut him then.

Obviously, that decision will have to be made by our next coach and/or GM. If we go with Pioli & McDaniels, expect Stallworth to be cut. McDaniels had Stallworth behind Jabar Gaffney on the depth chart for much of the '07 season, and the Pats promptly cut him after the season. My guess is that the Pats duo would cut Stallworth again, bringing in a cheap FA like Gaffney to fill his spot.

PlaygroundLegend

I'd Agree but I think Pool has to go, I love B-mac Wright and Jones but we need someone other than Pool. He dosent know how to tackle, hes solid in coverage but he either needs to go to a tackling clinic or he needs to be cut because Im sure we can find better, Sorenson has played pretty well, I thnk we ishould maybe give him a shot or pick up/draft someone

Lumbergh

Aloysius said:
According to the OBR, Stallworth's contract includes the following:
[*] a $4.5M signing bonus, already paid & prorated over the years of his contract

[*] a $4.875M non-guaranteed roster bonus in '09

[*] $500K of his base salaries in '08 and '09 are guaranteed

10 mil is guaranteed per rotoworld and multiple newspaper reports. The OBR-reported guaranteed amounts only add up to 5.5 mil.

So who do you believe, rotoworld and the newspapers, or some bloggers on the internet?

10 mil is guaranteed.

Initial reports were that it was a 5 year, $35M deal, then PFT starting saying that the numbers were exaggerated, then we started hearing that it was a glorified 1 year deal.

Suffice it to say that there's some unclarity re: the terms of Stallworth's contract. However, that Medina Whatever article is the first one I've seen say that the roster bonus is guaranteed.

And I wouldn't use the rotoworld numbers as evidence. Unlike their contract details for Corey Williams & DA, they don't have any info about Stallworth's signing bonus. I think that too reflects the lack of info about Stalloworth's deal.

I'm inclined to believe the OBR's account for two reasons:

They claimed to have access to the actual documents. Their numbers were far more specific than anything else I've seen. And if they made those up, it'd be a pretty big embarrassment.
If Phil had given Stallworth $10M guaranteed, that'd be cause for Al Lerner to fire him and/or commit him to a mental institution. After all the trouble with Bentley & Baxter, giving that much cash to a fragile receiver would be insane. If both of his quadriceps had exploded & we cut him, the cap charge would have been about $9.4M.

Not necessarily proof, but reason enough to suspect that the OBR's account is the accurate one.

Lumbergh

Stallworth signs with Browns

Mar 1, 2008

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AFP) — The Cleveland Browns reloaded their offense on Saturday by signing receiver Donte Stallworth to a three-year contract.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but ESPN.com reported it is a seven-year deal worth 35 million dollars and includes 10 million dollar in guaranteed salary.

so now what? you gonna believe the jackasses at the OBR over ESPWhatever too?

How about the Akron Beacon Whatever?

How about the Cleveland Plain Whatever?

Ha. I meant to remove the Whatever cheap shot. My bad.

But if you read anything other than that part of my post, you'll notice that I talked about how the initial reports were questioned later on. IIRC, the OBR article came out on March 21st, after all the rush-to-report insanity had died down.

So there's no "gotcha" about finding an early ESPN report with those numbers. Who do you think was feeding the media those numbers? My guess is that Stallworth's agent was doing a bang-up job hyping the amazing deal he got for his client. In fact, the same contract-overhyping happened when Stallworth signed with the Pats a year earlier.

Guest

Aloysius said:
So there's no "gotcha" about finding an early ESPN report with those numbers.

No? Well here's one.

Sez.EJ

Aloysius said:
Not better than Houshmandzadeh, but Stallworth would be one of the better second-tier guys available.
I think your post gets to the fundamental question the Browns have to answer: is this year just a fluke, or is Stallworth just another fragile, inconsistent receiver?

Aloysius: Your right about housh.. his problem is more age ..not production when he is looked at by GM's this spring (IF he hits the market) .. I guess i didn't really consider him a free agent for the Browns... cuz I do not see the bungles letting him go. but he would be the #1 guy... I was thinking more in line with guys who would be playing the 2 spot opposite of braylon.. he will likely be looking for #1 money and has played well enough for someone to give it up to him. I still say he stays put in cinci.

You are right on the money about the fundamental question of health (stallworth).. and the Browns are in the best position to know that as they see him every day... I still say it is better to keep him than to try to replace him.

Riffer X

@shepwrite said:
Lum, you're just wrong. The roster bonuses in Phil's contracts with Anderson, Williams, and Stallworth are NOT guaranteed. That was the whole point of writing them in -- if we don't pay, the guy goes free.
One of the writers -- seems like Pluto -- wrote an article on this kind of contract.

Again -- Anderson, Stallworth, Davis, Cousins, and Peek are all former Browns.

On another point, I think McDonald and Wright will start at the corners. We spent too much time developing them and the played too well to be tossed out at this point. I feel the same about the whole defensive backfield.

Shep, did I just see you misspell someone's name?

Easy on the egg nog big guy, next thing you'll be talking about some Brodney Poole dude.

ITHIKA

mz. said:
Hit it on the head, fooleze.
The guy was a very serviceable second banana in NE, and there was a reason most of us were pretty stoked to have signed him last offseason. Say what you will, folks, but an Edwards/Stallworth/Winslow receiving corps can be special. If everyone (those 3, QB, coaching staff) gets their shit together, it will be.

Actually Stallworthless was thrown to rarely in New England to. Think about this, that offense broke just about every offensive category imaginable and he was Brady's 5th option after Moss, Welker, Watson and "Reche Caldwell" a guy that isnt very good! Shoot even Jabar Gafney had almost as many yards as Stallworth. All of those guys had more yards than Stallworth. This should have been a red flag to Phil. New England could of kept him and didnt because they know he sucks! All along I wanted Bernard Berrian a guy that is the same type of player as Donte but younger and much better. Phil really messed up on this one.

Phil's has never been good at evaluating WR's! Donte sucks this year and will always suck. But like its been said we owe him and aren't going to eat that money. We must sign another viable target for Brady in the offseason!

Sez.EJ

I say stallworth WILL be the #2 guy on the roster next year.. my concern is who will be the 3,4,5 spots... our recieving corps is pathetic.

Sturim

I don't get why people want him back...he's been with 4 different teams in 4 seasons. If he's such a hot item, why isn't he sticking anywhere? I have no desire to have him back next season, nor do I think he's worth the money. Let him go and find a reliable healthy wr to replace him. For what he did this season, there's gotta be 20+ other receivers in the league that were better and cheaper.

Gips

Under a new regime im sure DS will do nicely on the bench as a 3rd slot backup if randy has to keep him as he really lacks the speed and the hands to be more..hopefully lerner will give the new regime the ability to rid the team of such wasted roster spots without a long drawn out process if he cant cut it even if randy has to eat a bunch of bucks it still would set a solid foundation that says to others if you are going to stay in cleveland and get pay you have to play hard and contribute..

DS was another savage screw up that cost lerner an arm and a leg for way less capability then sanders has if he was actually mentored this kid is fast but needs to catch the ball more reliably of course on that thought all of our recievers need to quit being twats and catch the ball more reliably but you have to have real coaching first and a realistic system for dealing with crybabies and mental breakdowns huh?

And braylon"butterfingers"edwards basicly cost DA his job as starter and the browns their season mostly due to a shallow predictable playbook and an unfounded stupidity by chud and or DA that if he threw it to butterfingers in double and triple coverage he would somehow come down with it while an uncovered steptoe was streaking the other sideline or middle...

Braylon often looked like he wasnt even trying and or was trying to shelter himself from a hit instead of concentrating on bringing the ball in he needs to be reassessed by the new regime as well..