Aloysius said:

Maximizing Matt: Shotgun triggered Cassel's second-half surge

And you SHOULD be skeptical of Cassel - or any QB - if you're going to put him behind an OL that can't protect him.

The author of this story seems to be missing the obvious... that the Patriots OL wasn't playing particularly well and that leaving Cassel behind Center was going to get him killled.

The criticim of Cassel not seeing the field well in his third start since High School is accurate as well. And this is a surprise to people?

And then Greg "Mr. Obvious" Cosell (and yes, he's his nephew) suggests that Cassel isn't as good a QB when his OL doesn't protect him and defenders are swarming around him... and that he has a tendency to run in those situations. Um, yeah - is that a surprise? Are there QBs who are better behind a sucky OL? Probably, but I'm not real keen to have an OL to illustrate that.

So yes - adjustments were made, giving Cassel more time by using the shotgun more. That's what good coaches do - make adjustments to cover up the inadequacies of their team - and it paid off in an 11-5 season. And there's no question that Cassel's ability to see the field and react improved as well, as he gained a bit more post-High School experience.

But to the point - if Cleveland's OL is pretty bad, I think you'd also want your QB to be working out of a shotgun - and if your coach is not prepared to do that and make necessary adjustments, I wouldn't waste money or draft picks on a good QB.

The wiser choice for Cleveland and Mangini probably is not to take any chances and draft a can't miss O Lineman with the top pick anyways. Nothing exciting, but something that will help the team, and not backfire. Mangini and Kokinis will probably do a decent job of picking up those boring players any team needs - it's when they feel themselves on the hot seat that they begin to take risks, like bringin in a Hall of Fame QB well past his prime by promising to name his son after him. The only reason Mangini did that was out of desparation to save his job and the irony was that it got him fired.

So I'd probably recommend passing on any high profile QB for the Browns - Super Bowls can and have been won with mediocre QBs if everything else comes together (though to be a consistent contender, ultimately you do need a franchise QB.)

Aloysius said:

Maximizing Matt: Shotgun triggered Cassel's second-half surge

I have been saying all year that Cassel is DA revisited...just with a better team. He had ALL the weapons of a 16-0 team that TOTALLY DOMINATED ...and managed 11 wins....with only a 3-4 record against teams with an over .500 record. Not sure exactly what that proves. He beat up on scrubs with a championship team. It certainly doesn't scream FRANCHISE QB to me.

Maximizing Matt: Shotgun triggered Cassel's second-half surge

mz. said:

NOT! the Stoolers are also watching how the situation with Baltimore shapes up and if they can resign there LB's if not, they may decide to go after who is left, Suggs or Lewis they dont feel that the Ratbirds will have enough cap to keep both.

@mr.-t said:

You must have heard this incorrectly.

@mr.-t said:

w00t!

Seriously, Byron would be a great guy to bring in for a season or two to back up Quinn.

source; pro football weekly on the NFL Radio interview this week in review.

@damajuki said:

The rationale was simple: unless DA was a top 10 QB (which he wasn't and common sense told those of us with functioning brains that he wouldn't be), the best organizational decision was to take picks for him, if for no other reason than that he was free to the organization and any return you got for him would be a tremendous return on investment.

Too bad Phil was one of those brainless people that saw a top 10 QB in DA.

But you have to have a team willing to have signed DA to get those picks. It never happened. There were no picks to take. The only thing out there was the DAL signing him story, then shipping him to BALT. But that would have never worked because DAL would have saddled with the signing bonus money against their cap that year if they signed then traded DA. Bonus money doesn't move w/ a trade. So their was less than likely any truth to that story.

You can't blame Phil for a move that wasn't actually there.

@heckofajobbrownie said:

Even better, he should have been traded after his big year. Something about buy low, sell high.

Someone suggested that at the time. I can't remember who...

Don't know if you're talking about me, but I posted the buy low, sell high analogy repeatedly at the end of 2007.

The rationale was simple: unless DA was a top 10 QB (which he wasn't and common sense told those of us with functioning brains that he wouldn't be), the best organizational decision was to take picks for him, if for no other reason than that he was free to the organization and any return you got for him would be a tremendous return on investment.

Too bad Phil was one of those brainless people that saw a top 10 QB in DA.

Let's assume that the Dallas scenario wasn't bs - we would have acquired the 22nd and 92nd picks in the draft.

Dallas drafted Felix Jones with the 1st pick - a guy who ran for 69 yards & a TD against us Week One, and who averaged 8.9 yards per carry before getting hurt in Week Six.

The 92nd pick ended up getting shipped to Detroit, who selected Cliff Avril, a DE-OLB who notched 4 sacks in the final six games of the season and is a guy Jim Schwartz is planning to build his defense around.

Imagine if OLB and RB weren't considered huge needs going into this year's draft. Even with our small cache of draft picks, we'd be ideally situated to fill our holes at ILB, C, SS, and TE/WR.

Damn, that would've been sweet.

@heckofajobbrownie said:

Even better, he should have been traded after his big year. Something about buy low, sell high.

Someone suggested that at the time. I can't remember who...

Lumberg?

@riffer-x said:

I would have taken a first straight up and I know a ton of guys here would have at the time. The reputed offers were linked through Dallas and Bmore, which gave Phillip his excuse to hang onto DA. I maintain Savage was always madly in love with him and never had any intention of him being anything but the starting QB in 2008.

His biggest thing was having two starting caliber guys so the season wouldn't be sabotaged by injury to one of them.

I see where you are coming from. But I just don't buy that though DAL to Balt story, and didn't really buy it at the time. That would have been a cap issue for DAL in the end (signing bonus money and its cap hit doesn't move with a trade, so DAL would have been screwed big on that financially by signing DA).

I do think Phil got a little to excited about DA after the 2007 season. But he had DA on the roster when he traded up to pick Quinn. So how much excitement could the FO have really had for DA before that.

I 100% agree that the deciding factor in keeping/resigning DA was the concept of needing two good QBs on the roster in today's NFL.

Masters said:

I totally disagree.

I would have taken a first straight up and I know a ton of guys here would have at the time. The reputed offers were linked through Dallas and Bmore, which gave Phillip his excuse to hang onto DA. I maintain Savage was always madly in love with him and never had any intention of him being anything but the starting QB in 2008.

His biggest thing was having two starting caliber guys so the season wouldn't be sabotaged by injury to one of them.

@riffer-x said:

The bottom line is, certainly they could have gotten much better compensation pick wise then they will now, plus Queen would have a year under his belt.

Do you really think Phil, who drafted Queen, wouldn't have gladly taken the 1st and the 3rd round pick he would have gotten back if anyone else signed DA? That is why I say it. Phil threw, what in reality was a bit of a low ball offer (as far as for what a young up and coming starting QB gets offered, by league standards) and DA jumped on it.

Masters said:

On Cassel, no one really knows how Brady will be next year. QBs recovering from the injury he had do not have a good track record of succuss upon the 1st year back (see Palmer and Culpepper for recent examples). NE is not going to move Cassel and have no insurance policy for Brady.

Mik, you keep saying Phillip never had any offers for DA. My question is, why did he offer him what he did if there weren't offers on the table?

The bottom line is, certainly they could have gotten much better compensation pick wise then they will now, plus Queen would have a year under his belt.

On Cassel, no one really knows how Brady will be next year. QBs recovering from the injury he had do not have a good track record of succuss upon the 1st year back (see Palmer and Culpepper for recent examples). NE is not going to move Cassel and have no insurance policy for Brady.

Even better, he should have been traded after his big year. Something about buy low, sell high.

Someone suggested that at the time. I can't remember who...

@heckofajobbrownie said:

Ahh, to have a real front office...