Folks, we have a plan

LogicIsForSquares

@westside-steve said:

Yesterday I would have called bullshit if somebody tweeted that we were going to dump 4 good to excellent starters....

WSS

They did a bang up job. Maybe with another player of their caliber the Browns could have pushed it to 4 wins.

LogicIsForSquares

As far as I am aware, they negotiated with all four of them. Two walked for less money. Not much the front office can do at that point.

Mudfly

I think "dump" is an unfair term.....feels more like those players dumped us....

Mike H

@logicisforsquares said:
As far as I am aware, they negotiated with all four of them. Two walked for less money. Not much the front office can do at that point.

One, Mack, left for 250k less money. Let's try to stick to the facts we have available

LogicIsForSquares

@mike-h said:
One, Mack, left for 250k less money. Let's try to stick to the facts we have available

So Mack left for less money then or are we debating what "less" means?

flyingfooldoug

Looking like the new FO is flexing their muscles and showing the anal side of things to come

Mike H

@logicisforsquares said:
So Mack left for less money then or are we debating what "less" means?

You said two...

LogicIsForSquares

@mike-h said:
You said two...

I was led to believe Schwartz did as well. If I am off, I apologize.

Mudfly

@logicisforsquares said:
I was led to believe Schwartz did as well. If I am off, I apologize.

I was led to believe the same....and thats what local reporters have been reporting all day.....could be speculation, but that was the reason given for pulling his offr/////because we offered the highest price, then he "supposedly" wanted to go back and negotiate more with anoher team.....and that prompted the Browns to pull the offer so they wouldnt be "used" for his negotiations elsewhere....

heresay, I know.....bt I believe it was a quality leak to local reporters.....

wargograw

If we are planning on a couple of bad seasons and really starting from scratch then I actually would endorse the Ghoolie plan re: Joe Thomas. Please don't stone me.

LogicIsForSquares

@wargograw said:
If we are planning on a couple of bad seasons and really starting from scratch then I actually would endorse the Ghoolie plan re: Joe Thomas. Please don't stone me.

Honestly, it wouldn't be bad if that is their intended goal. I wouldn't be shocked to see it on draft day. Farmer tried it before the deadline with the Broncos.

hoorta

@wargograw said:
If we are planning on a couple of bad seasons and really starting from scratch then I actually would endorse the Ghoolie plan re: Joe Thomas. Please don't stone me.

The Ghoolie theory "offensive line are dime a dozen" is apparently going to be put to the test.....

Mike H

@mudfly said:

I was led to believe the same....and thats what local reporters have been reporting all day.....could be speculation, but that was the reason given for pulling his offr/////because we offered the highest price, then he "supposedly" wanted to go back and negotiate more with anoher team.....and that prompted the Browns to pull the offer so they wouldnt be "used" for his negotiations elsewhere....

heresay, I know.....bt I believe it was a quality leak to local reporters.....

The Browns offering 7.5$ million and pulling the offer does not equate to Schwartz signing for less by getting $6 million. He wasn't choosing between 7.5 and 6

hoorta

@mike-h said:
The Browns offering 7.5$ million and pulling the offer does not equate to Schwartz signing for less by getting $6 million. He wasn't choosing between 7.5 and 6

OK, his agent was. If it was all about $$$ Schwartz should fire his agent for poor negotiating.....

Mike H

@hoorta said:

OK, his agent was. If it was all about $$$ Schwartz should fire his agent for poor negotiating.....

agree there. But we don't know how much guaranteed and how much total Browns offered

wargograw

@hoorta said:

The Ghoolie theory "offensive line are dime a dozen" is apparently going to be put to the test.....

Yeah, the supply is not quite that high, but I think OL replaceability is higher than people think.

lodilobo

The analytical approach in progress. WTF makes Haslam think this will keep the fans interested? I know we're stupid and just a large group of losers, blindly following our team with some stupid loyalty that was forged 50 years ago, but come on....what is the plan here....really? It's looking more like the plan is to cut costs to the penny, and make as much as possible off the fans as long as possible, then dump what's left of this so called NFL franchise. I really don't care about losing the players we lost, if we were active in free agency. I haven't seen anything to give us any kind of hope that there is a plan to build anything here....other than a new mansion for Haslam. Screw this guy! All he has done is succeeded in making a pathetic franchise worse than we could have imagined.

Osiris

Okay some random thoughts after day 1. My biggest disappointment isn't in who they didn't keep, it's in who they did keep, but I'll get to that later. What the 'plan' might be:

1) The Browns offensive line is being retooled for a more power run game. Perhaps that's why they tendered Pazstor and are letting Mack and Schwartz go. In order to improve the run game, we're going to sacrifice pass blocking but that doesn't matter so much because...

2) ...we're going to draft Jared Goff. Goff demonstrated poise and toughness behind a crappy offensive line. He's going to release the ball quickly, in just over two seconds, because that's what Hue Jackson is going to coach him to do. Andy Dalton improved his time-to-pass under Jackson from ~2.6 to ~2.2 seconds. When a QB releases that quickly, there is a lot less pressure on the offensive line to pass block.

So for now, I'm going to hold back on knee-jerk reactions that the sky is falling in Berea. We'll see if my guess as to the 'plan' based on what the Browns do between now and the draft. As for the biggest dissappointment:

1) Why the hell didn't they cut Manziel at 4pm on Wednesday after saying that his 'roster status would be made clear' on March 9th? The rumor is they hope to get some conditional late round pick. What that tells me is that they value a seventh round pick they MIGHT get over their integrity. I've said all along this team's biggest problem is in the culture, and not cutting Manziel makes me thing they still don't get that.

2) And why is Dwayne Bowe still on the roster? Do they think they're going to be able resurrect his career? C'mon.

Westside Steve

There is absolutely no profit to be made by cutting Johnny immediately. We aren't punishing him because he doesn't care. We have to pay him anyway so what's the difference? Nope probably no chance of even a seventh conditional but what's the difference?

It's actually more punishment to let him sit and wait while other teams take care of their quarterback needs and make him even less valuable to them.

Pretty much the same with Dwayne Bowe. We aren't going to have to worry about the roster spot for a while.

WSS

Osiris

@westside-steve said:

There is absolutely no profit to be made by cutting Johnny immediately. We aren't punishing him because he doesn't care. We have to pay him anyway so what's the difference? Nope probably no chance of even a seventh conditional but what's the difference?

It's actually more punishment to let him sit and wait while other teams take care of their quarterback needs and make him even less valuable to them.

Pretty much the same with Dwayne Bowe. We aren't going to have to worry about the roster spot for a while.

WSS

I disagree, their is profit to be made, but the currency isn't money. I believe it's important to send the message that nothing is more important than improving the team's culture and standing behind the no-nonsense we-won't-tolerate-crap stance they espoused in press releases and in media interviews. Bowe I can understand keeping for now, but Manziel, no way.