@gumby73 said:

sometimes i don't get your replies as your capitalization of words has me wondering wtf you are talking about..

(in a good way)

Heres the link ....

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000496930/article/jim-leonhard-open-to-playing-one-more-nfl-season

@tour2ma said:

^^^^^Fixed^^^^^^

Gotta say...compared to most of the other players, he sure has had a number of glowing reports coming out of ota's....

This is the 3rd article about him on Browns.com in just the last 2 weeks(plus several mentions on the Dawg Pound Report and Browns Huddle)....so, he must be really making waves at camp......which is very good news!.....

I know it's early and no indication that he'll play great....but compared to no words or flying under the radar, this all bodes very well.....

@tour2ma said:

This just in... New gilbert article...

Browns' Justin Gilbert has added muscle, humility for Year 2

ESPN-2 hours ago

BEREA, Ohio -- Justin Gilbert returned to the Cleveland Browns for offseason workouts with 10 added pounds of muscle and a hefty dose of humility.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CD0QqQIoADADahUKEwjixt-f0ojGAhVCNqwKHWR2AHw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fespn.go.com%2Fnfl%2Fstory%2F_%2Fid%2F13059554%2Fjustin-gilbert-cleveland-browns-humbled-rocky-rookie-year&ei=VgV6VeLDMcLssAXk7IHgBw&usg=AFQjCNETCbHUvt9cmQwYMOoKnii9xi0pcQ

Hopefully it translates to on field performance. I'm thinking it will.

Browns' Justin Gilbert has added muscle, humility for Year 2

ESPN-2 hours ago

BEREA, Ohio -- Justin Gilbert returned to the Cleveland Browns for offseason workouts with 10 added pounds of muscle and a hefty dose of humility.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CD0QqQIoADADahUKEwjixt-f0ojGAhVCNqwKHWR2AHw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fespn.go.com%2Fnfl%2Fstory%2F_%2Fid%2F13059554%2Fjustin-gilbert-cleveland-browns-humbled-rocky-rookie-year&ei=VgV6VeLDMcLssAXk7IHgBw&usg=AFQjCNETCbHUvt9cmQwYMOoKnii9xi0pcQ

@calfoxwc said:

Look who's talking. I hit the deck LMAO when you posted that Joey Bottaflacco likes it when male equipment managers rub his balls.

That entertainment factor ranked right up there with watching a new school mindset thinking Zombo is the perfect guy to take on in front of an audience. When Jerry Springer found recruits like that - who topped him in the ratings?

Dammit.

I'd better go buy a backup keyboard....

@mudfly said:

I hear ya but I got an outrageous flashback to Butch Davis bringing in Big Money as he was telling all the veterans and young players they had to earn their jobs here. Meanwhile, Big Money could snooze control an entire practice keeping that jockstrap ballsweat-free in the reality of actions speaking louder than words. That FREE RIDE clogging the arteries of our salary cap was a lot like the nightime glacier the Titanic ran into. Like the gorgeous ship, the inevitable conclusion made us forget Butch took over a 5-27 football team and got it to 7-9 with 2 OT losses in 2001 before going 9-7 in 2002. That was an impressive coaching job before he took on the front office role that buried everything.

The personnel decisions he committed to with his Personnel Exec hat on became a gigantic conflict of interest with his Coaching hat that needed assistant coaches and players to buy into what he was saying. It was almost like Big $ got to practice supine on a chase lounge while teammates had to earn their jobs. That's about as close to Romper Room as it gets only this target population was adults. The only thing we were missing was a Jeff Foxworthy interpretation of it all.

Like you're saying, this is a refreshing leadership today we can trust and get excited about. We're coming off 7-9 where we lost 2 games with knotted scores as time expired as well as losing 2nd half leads to Indy, Balt, Buffalo, Carolina. Understanding how outrageous our 2014 injury volume was coming off 4-12 football, that was way better improvement than the national media's doom and gloom clouds. Today, we're getting very good players back healthy + vet free agents + 12 draftees & rookie FAs. The light at the end of the tunnel is no longer the head lamp of an oncoming train unless someone wants/needs it to be. When I made the mistake of reading Tony Grossi last year - he'd be describing last season like lyrics of the Edmund Fitzgerald minus the voice of Gordon Lightfoot of course. His Gitchy Goomy just showed us the author needed a lot more gitchy gitchy gew when he missed his anger management classes.

not one players ass has been kissed since he stepped in....

http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/media-center/videos/Browns-Huddle-Gilberts-OTA-Performance/02947797-77bc-4a0f-a073-4e8ec62ad156

@mudfly said:

??.....what are you trying to say?.....

Kaopectate?

@gftchris said:

To be honest though, the difference between an elite rush defence and a bottom-feeding rush defence is about 50 ypg. The difference between an elite secondary and a bottom-feeding secondary is nearer 200 ypg. If we're going to be great at one and poor at the other, better it's this way around.

Yeah, but...

The ramifications of being as poor against the run as we were last year (league worst) far exceed the yardages. Time of possession immediately springs to mind. Sustained drives feature successful running leading to fatigued D leading to D injuries leading to even further reduced ability to stop the run.

@tim-couch-pulls-out said:

We raised the ceiling by adding Shelton and Starks, and then raised the floor with Cooper and Slater.

Interesting take. Had not thought of it in those terms.

I wasn't trying to say that's what we were doing, so sorry if that is how it came across

@gftchris said:

That's why they added depth among the front 3 (or 4).

Right now we have 13 players on the roster along the defensive line.

Shelton

Taylor

Starks

D. Bryant

A. Bryant

Winn

Wynn

Slater

Hughes

Cooper

Kitchen

Meder

Tupou

Even with A. Bryant supposedly taking a prominent role at OLB, and four or so players getting released, that's still solid depth with solid talent. Shelton, Taylor, Starks, Winn and maybe Hughes could start for most of the league. D. Bryant would probably be a starter for at least half of the teams. Cooper and Slater are athletic freaks with high upside. Kitchen would probably start as a true NT for around 1/3 of the league.

We raised the ceiling by adding Shelton and Starks, and then raised the floor with Cooper and Slater. Even if we lost our starting three, we'd be in a better position than we were last year.

@the-gipper said:

Relying on injuries to disappear is not a great strategy.

@gftchris said:

The problem was that we had 75% of our defensive line out with injury at any given point in time.

Avoid the injuries, the run defense drastically improves.

#1) until we prove they cant....

and

#2) because passing will not be a good option for them...ever

@d-bone said:

Problem was, at 3rd & 5 teams would still run against us

That should lead to a fair amount of 3rd and 5s this year, and with our lack of QB pressure that I'm again expecting, the DBs are going to need to ball out, and we need all of them to ball out, not just #23.

@mudfly said:

That our DBs weren't the reason we didn't get off on third down last year...