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Is Hillis Going Walk?

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  • I'll be the first to say Peyton Hillis IS the face of Cleveland (Right now) and he could fill that role very nicely, a hard working bruiser RB that at times has put the team on his shoulders. Pat Shurmur i thought learned his lesson in week 1 when we got away from the run game and lost, he comes back week 2 and gives us a nice dose of plays but even in a win and lose week 3/4 the play calling was bad as shit 60 pass plays with peyton hillis ready to go? and most of those passes we didn't even start hitting evan moore?

    if we aren't 7-3 or 6-4 by week 11 and we are worse i don't want him back next year, just because i know we have the players and the schedule to make a decent season.

  • Would you guys run when your down 20+ points half way through the 3rd quarter? I agree that Hillis should have been given more of Hardesty's reps, but why are you bitching about the amount of pass plays when we had to play catch up for half of the game. That is what happens when you are down that far, you pass it.

  • I'll be the first to say Peyton Hillis IS the face of Cleveland (Right now) and he could fill that role very nicely, a hard working bruiser RB that at times has put the team on his shoulders. Pat Shurmur i thought learned his lesson in week 1 when we got away from the run game and lost, he comes back week 2 and gives us a nice dose of plays but even in a win and lose week 3/4 the play calling was bad as shit 60 pass plays with peyton hillis ready to go? and most of those passes we didn't even start hitting evan moore?

    if we aren't 7-3 or 6-4 by week 11 and we are worse i don't want him back next year, just because i know we have the players and the schedule to make a decent season.

    @represent said:

    if we aren't 7-3 or 6-4 by week 11 and we are worse i don't want him back next year, just because i know we have the players and the schedule to make a decent season.

    HAHAHAHA you're not asking for much from a team with inferior talent. Not at all.

  • OF course Hillis will walk, he had strep throat, but now he's fine.

    This is stupid. Will Hillis get kidnapped by little green aliens from Mars?

    I don't know how anybody can completely blow nothing out of proportion.

    baloney.😠

  • What scariest about this whole situation is when Eric Mangini is on NFL Live saying that even last year when we had no chance to make the playoffs and Hillis injurys as well that there was no way to get him to not play..He quote would stand by this statement by all means and that people in Cleveland that are calling him not tough for playing are not understanding the situation.

    This really makes me wonder considering Hillis did show up for that game and was still told to go home,granted he probaly should have.The problem that worrys me is they keep giving Hardestry more bulk loads of the Carries and what im beginning to wonder is if they are trying to see if he can be the feature back here and possibly let Hillis walk...

    If you think about it it makes sense to them not to spend the money if they dont have to and then draft a backup for Hardestry next year or maybe its Jackson?? The situation where they say there not even neogation his contract is concern..

    Pay the Man hes better than Hardestry ecspically in the WCO (Hardersty can not catch the damn ball) Hillis will go to another team and make us look like we were Denver letting him walk for nothing...

  • as much as i don't like holmgren and shurmur we ARE only four games into this thing. we would be stupid not to keep hillis, but even more Retarded if we didn't give hardesty some reps in TWO games to see if he is a viable backup and relief guy/change of speed guy WITH hillis. most teams have more than one running back you know.

  • Like the announcers said during the Indy game, Hillis gets better the more reps he gets.

    That's not going to happen if he and Hard-to-catch-esty are only getting about a dozen reps each.

    He will underperform, Montari-Oh-No-They-Threw-It-To-Me will underperform, and the Browns will continue to play below their abilities.

    On the bright side, with poor production from Hillis, the Browns should be able to use that as leverage against him in contract negotiations.

    And maybe that's what they've been trying to accomplish all along.

  • I'll be the first to say Peyton Hillis IS the face of Cleveland (Right now) and he could fill that role very nicely, a hard working bruiser RB that at times has put the team on his shoulders. Pat Shurmur i thought learned his lesson in week 1 when we got away from the run game and lost, he comes back week 2 and gives us a nice dose of plays but even in a win and lose week 3/4 the play calling was bad as shit 60 pass plays with peyton hillis ready to go? and most of those passes we didn't even start hitting evan moore?

    if we aren't 7-3 or 6-4 by week 11 and we are worse i don't want him back next year, just because i know we have the players and the schedule to make a decent season.

    @represent said:

    I'll be the first to say Peyton Hillis IS the face of Cleveland (Right now) and he could fill that role very nicely, a hard working bruiser RB that at times has put the team on his shoulders. Pat Shurmur i thought learned his lesson in week 1 when we got away from the run game and lost, he comes back week 2 and gives us a nice dose of plays but even in a win and lose week 3/4 the play calling was bad as shit 60 pass plays with peyton hillis ready to go? and most of those passes we didn't even start hitting evan moore?

    if we aren't 7-3 or 6-4 by week 11 and we are worse i don't want him back next year, just because i know we have the players and the schedule to make a decent season.

    lol this was funny......how do we even come close to having good enough players to post this good of a record?????????? theres no chance of this my man

  • I don't see how overpaying an average RB is going to help the team.

  • Hillis is an Okay back, but I wouldn't break the bank to keep him either. I'm sure he will stay. If not, oh well. This team doesn't revolve around Peyton Hillis, contrary to some the of the Hillis homers in here.

  • well if the browns are going to keep him the FO needs to get ahead of this thing now cuz hillis's agent is now commenting to the press. agents are scumbags.

  • the madden curse takes many forms...........may we be seeing yet another?

  • he will run....

    and he will live...

  • @king-ghoolie-lives said:

    Guys,

    at the risk of shocking some of you, I will make an attepmt at resonable football talk........

    1) If you truly believe that the Browns are on the right track, then you must be realistic about the role of Peyton Hillis. Do you believe he is the caliber of Ramrod that Campbell, Pete Johnson, Czonka or Bettis was?

    I don't think so. If he was, we should be a hell of a lot better at sustaining drives and punching it in the endzone

    2) Is he a guy we want to keep? Good grief, of course he is.

    3) IS he of the caliber that we shouldn't seek an Adrian Petersen type RB? C mon guys, you know better. He just isn't of that caliber.

    If you're being honest, you have to admit that at least part of why we love this guy is because for so long, we haven't had much of anything at RB. It was fun to watch him last year.

    Now, I predicted that because of his inability to sut and shred, defenses would do a better job on him in 2011. Maybe not shutting him down, but I think exposing him as not having quite enough skills to be a mainstay in the backfield.

    4) So herein perhaps is the problem managing him. In his mind, like any young stud with a normal NFL ego, he is proud, confident and wants the limelight. Who wouldn't, especially after the year he had on and off the field (Madden)

    So, imagine for a moment that at least part of my take on Hillis is valid. As manager of the Browns you want to keep the guy, but your long-term vision of Hillis is more of a 2nd back or even a short yardage and specialty, shake-it-up back....

    Well, that's going to be a management headache. YOu certainly don't want him getting away, but at teh same time you aren't going to tie up the BIG MONEY that you are going to need to add a true, star quality RB.

    How do you break that news to Hillis? Perhaps management is being smart by just playing passive-aggressive and letting time work in their favor.

    I will say this, if Holmgren and comapny really are smart football people, they will find a way to keep Hillis and let him also know what his future role will be.

    Surely, if you believe this is a team on the way up, then you have to recognize that Hillis is not the kind of runner you are going to have as a staple of the offense.

    If it comes down to him walking? IN the big picture, I don't see it hurting us. Ramrod RBs don't exactly last long anyway.

    While most of your insight is fairly accurate, I really have to disagree with you on the level of Hillis' talent. He was our featured back last season, and put up some pretty decent numbers, in spite of being injured. In fact, I don't think we've seen his full potential, yet. Hardesty looks promising, but I wouldn't take him over Hillis. He is still young and has several good years ahead of him. There is no guarantee, if we lose him, that we will find another RB close to his talent. You may not have noticed, but talent evaluation isn't exactly our strong point....especially at skilled positions. All this recent hype about Hillis missing the Miami game is crap. I, personally think he was just sick, and couldn't play. The story has become blown out of proportion by the media. The only thing that scares me, is how Shurmer chose his words, to address the media on this subject, recently. He said that Hillis was sick and couldn't play....and that was the end of it. However, he mentioned that Hillis played and contributed in the Titans game, and we lost.....but he didn't play in the Miami game, and we won. I get the feeling he was pointing that out to kind of minimize the importance of having Hillis in the game.

  • @represent said:

    I'll be the first to say Peyton Hillis IS the face of Cleveland (Right now) and he could fill that role very nicely, a hard working bruiser RB that at times has put the team on his shoulders. Pat Shurmur i thought learned his lesson in week 1 when we got away from the run game and lost, he comes back week 2 and gives us a nice dose of plays but even in a win and lose week 3/4 the play calling was bad as shit 60 pass plays with peyton hillis ready to go? and most of those passes we didn't even start hitting evan moore?

    if we aren't 7-3 or 6-4 by week 11 and we are worse i don't want him back next year, just because i know we have the players and the schedule to make a decent season.

    lol this was funny......how do we even come close to having good enough players to post this good of a record?????????? theres no chance of this my man

    @jake24 said:

    lol this was funny......how do we even come close to having good enough players to post this good of a record?????????? theres no chance of this my man

    I have no idea why these people even post this opinion, you have the right so whatever, but i'm not sure how many times i have to post the teams we play against and a majority of them are terrible, we gotta run against.

    Oakland-Toss up let's say loss for the fans who think we are that bad, 2-3

    49'ers Win 3-3

    Seahawks Win 4-3

    Texans-Loss 4-4

    Rams-Win 5-4

    Jaguars-win 6-4

    Bengals-Win 7-4

    Ravens-Loss 7-5

    Steelers-Win 8-5

    Cardinals-Toss up 9-5 Gave us the win

    Ravens-Loss 9-6

    Steelers-Win 10-6 Wildcard

    I had an 11-5 season, but this is how i see the rest of the season panning out, but hell 2 losses seasons over tank it amiright... stupid as shit sometimes.

  • Would you guys run when your down 20+ points half way through the 3rd quarter? I agree that Hillis should have been given more of Hardesty's reps, but why are you bitching about the amount of pass plays when we had to play catch up for half of the game. That is what happens when you are down that far, you pass it.

    Hillis-iz-Boss said:

    Would you guys run when your down 20+ points half way through the 3rd quarter? I agree that Hillis should have been given more of Hardesty's reps, but why are you bitching about the amount of pass plays when we had to play catch up for half of the game. That is what happens when you are down that far, you pass it.

    They were down 15 at the half. Indy, the year they won the Super Bowl and beat New England to go to the Super Bowl they were down 35-3 at the half. They came out ran the ball and Peyton Manning did his thing too. One of the keys to winning that game was Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai. So when you're down double digits it is wise to stick to the run. You'd be amazed what results you get.

  • It is possible that Payton Hillis is the Michael Jordan of Football. Remember what they said about Jordan? That the one guy that could keep Jordan from scoring 20 points in any given game was Dean Smith.

    Well, the one guy that seems to be able to keep Hillis from what it is that Hillis does is Pat Shurmur.

  • Let's not lie. We, most if us anyway, would love to see a white running back succeed. You know what's good? Laying racial stereotypes to rest.

  • Well, not to be disrespectful, but I think your evaluation of Hillis' talent is like I pointed out in my post, based somewhat on emotion. He's just not that good of a back.

    And, of course, Ghoolie, we know that none of your opinions are ever based on any sort of emotions, right?

  • @king-ghoolie-lives said:

    Well, not to be disrespectful, but I think your evaluation of Hillis' talent is like I pointed out in my post, based somewhat on emotion. He's just not that good of a back.

    His decent year ( not stellar, but decent) was based on opposing defenses getting caught by surprise. In 2009 the Browns had no running game. So, in 2010 Hillis got to run through a lot of holes that he just isn't finding in 2011 now that teams know they have to account for him.

    Jog your memory for a minute and think back to Reuben Droughns. Rich and I got blasted for suggesting that he would be a one-hit-wonder and after one year, defenses would account for him. Well, sure enough, as good as he was in year one, the next year he got stuffed. Posters blamed the OL and play calling but it was none of that. A straight ahead runner is easy to stop if that is all the offense has, and this is the case with the Browns.

    I didn't bring Hardesty into this conversation and will only comment that if I was in charge, Hardesty would get most of the carries and Hillis would be used sparingly in short yardage, redzone and other specialty applications.

    Hardesty's talent involves cutting back, finding his own holes and having some real speed. These skills are not offered by Hillis, AND are desperately needed to add some confulsion to opposing defenses. Hardesty can get up filed and he can cut back to daylight. Hillis will always be found close to the middle of the field. He makes us too predictable and it seems management gets it.

    Regarding his playing injured last year. WHo in the NFL doesn't play injured?

    This belief that once he gets healthy all of a sudden he will be even more effective is not based in reality. Regarding injuries, he is just as likely to get injured again as he is to get healthy.

    And THIS too must be considered. Ram rads don't last that long in the NFL, 5 maybe 6 years.

    On many levles Hillis throws up red flags for our future. If he can accept a lesser, supporting, specialty role? Then we should keep him. On the other hand if he wants AP type money, then we need to seek a trade or simply let him go. His talent level just isn't that hard to find in the NFL.

    We have to stop being emotional about this guy.

    Emotional attachment is one thing, but fear of the unknown is more accurate...at least in my case. If you take Hillis out of the equation, I see an unproven back, with a history of injuries, who may have all the talent in the world, but is still a question mark. Beyond that, who do we have that can step in and be as productive as Hillis? Who can we pick up in free agency? I would bet there would be a line of teams forming to grab Hillis if we let him go. When you mention straight ahead runners, how about Jim Brown, Kevin Mack, Larry Csonka, Earl Campbell, etc.? It wouldn't be the worst idea to feature 2 running backs with different styles. It's been done with much success before....Kevin Mack / Ernest Byner....Mercury Morris / Larry Csonka and countless others. While I wouldn't pay him Adrian Peterson money, I think he deserves Cedric Benson money.