although he is more than capable of playing against the run, with his injury history considered--free safety would enable him to maximize his attributes and minimize his potential liabilities.

with his solid last-line-of-defense tackling, his adequate cover skills and experience as a CB, his tenacity and murderous hits, along with his athleticism and ball-hawking ability...damn.

from what we can tell about a Mangini/Ryan backfield on paper this guy looks the part--mirroring the strong safety but well rounded enough to play FS.

let Elam/Adams/Asante crowd the box and let Ward run around like a madman cuttin heads. move over Poly and Reed, there's a new young Sheriff in the AFCN.

Haden and Asante will have a much harder time supplanting savvy vets like Wright & Brown, Elam & Adams. fortunately for us they're not terrible and we can let the rookies grow into it a little.

i was pretty hard on Elam until recently when i compared his stats to Sean Jones' side by side, year by year and saw that their averages and stats were eerily similar, except Elam's a year younger than Jones was and Jones sat out a year too, so that's almost like two years younger. he has consistently improved every year...but you can't get quicker or faster no matter what you do so he's at his physical ceiling imo.

and it's not like we're the defending super bowl champs or anything either. but if those guys take the greenhorns under their wing and with them as our roster depth, we could go very deep into the playoffs on a regular basis.

this "building for the future" model gives me much less anxiety than it's antithesis, the Savage "RIGHT NOW" philosophy of yester-year.

We'll see what happens on the field, but we sure do have a lot more viable "pieces & parts".

Mike

@next2nothing said:

While I like the positive thinking, I wouldn't call a secondary that is contemplating starting 3 rookies deep! Yes, those rookies may be good, but they also may struggle mightily. I'm not trying to be a wet blanket, but we are going to have to wait a few games at least, before we proclaim our defense as the next steel curtain.

@calfoxwc said:

Would Eric Wright or Sheldon Brown be the guy to sit if Haden starts?

Nice problem to have, for a freakin change...

*****************************************

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Bills-...tml

Aaron Wilson

The Cleveland Browns are contemplating the merits of instituting a youth movement in the secondary.

Browns coach Eric Mangini is considering starting rookie cornerback Joe Haden.

He's also not opposed to starting two rookie safeties: T.J. Ward and Larry Asante.

"I'm definitely open to that," Mangini said in remarks distributed by the team. "Eugene Wilson and Asante Samuel played a lot their rookie season in New England. It just depends on where they are and there are a lot of veteran guys that are going to work to not let that happen and that's what you'd expect.

"But if they're the best guys, you may take some lumps early because they are rookies, but typically those guys continue to move up and excel as they play and gain experience."

The Browns didn't bring in Sheldon Brown to sit or play safety,they didn't draft a CB and 2 safeties to watch from the sidelines.What it says is they want their DB's to cover,hit,and tackle,unlike last year.As they cleared out the QB problems,the same is being done here.

***********

Well, THAT is interesting.

Asante could still see playing time and develop...

How many teams could have a secondary depth that they could have a secondary -rotation- to

keep their dbacks fresh vs a team that is trying to pass on them like crazy when they can't run the ball for anything?

(like the stinkin squeelers)

@calfoxwc said:

Would Eric Wright or Sheldon Brown be the guy to sit if Haden starts?

Nice problem to have, for a freakin change...

*****************************************

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Bills-...tml

Aaron Wilson

The Cleveland Browns are contemplating the merits of instituting a youth movement in the secondary.

Browns coach Eric Mangini is considering starting rookie cornerback Joe Haden.

He's also not opposed to starting two rookie safeties: T.J. Ward and Larry Asante.

"I'm definitely open to that," Mangini said in remarks distributed by the team. "Eugene Wilson and Asante Samuel played a lot their rookie season in New England. It just depends on where they are and there are a lot of veteran guys that are going to work to not let that happen and that's what you'd expect.

"But if they're the best guys, you may take some lumps early because they are rookies, but typically those guys continue to move up and excel as they play and gain experience."

That's a refreshing change from Krispy Kreme- put the best players you have out there.

We knew Hayden was going to start from day one- wonder if they would consider Sheldon Brown at one of the safety spots- he's not much smaller than Ward.