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..

mz. said:

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!

@shepwrite said:

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.

Aloysius said:

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.

Aloysius said:

No? Well here's one.

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.

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?

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Aloysius said:

[*] 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.

@sez.ej 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?

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.

• 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

If we cut him, Stallworth doesn't receive that $5M, but the rest of his prorated signing bonus would count against our '09 cap. Not only would we be paying the $643K yearly charge; we'd have a cap charge of an additional $3.2M.

If I did the math right, we'd only save about $1.8M in cap space if we cut Stallworth before his roster bonus is due. However, the drop in actual money paid out would be over $5M.

@lumbergh said:

Read this again. Read it real slow this time.

"the nearly $5 million bonus he’s due in the offseason is part of the $10 million he was guaranteed, so he’ll be back next year."

The next person who tries to say that a guaranteed contract is not guaranteed deserves a barbell to the face.

I'm pretty sure if it is a "guaranteed roster bonus" as opposed to a "roster bonus", the total amount can be pro-rated over the remaining years of the contract. So it would be 4.75/6 years left = 792k + 2009 salary against the cap.

@sez.ej said:

That's a good point, not to mention letting him go means it's one more hole to fill.

@ytownbrownsbacker said:

It seems that the 10 mil in guaranteed money included a signing bonus, this year's salary, a roster bonus next year, and next year's salary.

Since he was injured this year Chud sort of removed him from the game plan (theres an article in the PD that actually admits this). Plus, who do we have besides Stallworth that could be a good No. 2?

Hubbard could, possibily 2 years from now (I watched the vids from him in college and he was good, but needs to catch the ball with his hands) once he learns the position a little better, but Stallworth is by far the best option and better than he played this year

@wpb-dawg-fan said:

Looks like the Retard bus is veering off the tracks again thanks to WBP.

Read this again. Read it real slow this time.

"the nearly $5 million bonus he’s due in the offseason is part of the $10 million he was guaranteed, so he’ll be back next year."

The next person who tries to say that a guaranteed contract is not guaranteed deserves a barbell to the face.

Aloysius said:

Yes a typical roster bonus is not guaranteed.

On the other hand a "guaranteed roster bonus" is.....guaranteed.

This is not a difficult concept.

I don't want to see him back, ANY player that sits out while NOT injured is suffering from a vaginal strain and needs to go, bonus or no bonus.