Mike

I've been thinking that he lost a lot of coin falling to UDFA, but given that he can get a renegotiated deal after his 2nd year rather than 5-years (4 plus option) as first rounders do, that might not be the case.

As a mid-first he'd have made around $9mm with another $5-6mm or in his option year.

As a UDFA he'll make about $1.1mm his first two years and any renegotiation would be subject to the "proven performance escalator (PPE)"...

Yup... he ain't catching up.

XxDaBuckeyexX said:

Im quite surprised he wasnt offered second round money. I thought it would turn into an all-out bidding war.

There's a limit to how much an UDFA can make.

@tour2ma said:

Once cleared? Why not?

I never saw what others have in Collins, but for the price of a UDFA, how can you go wrong?

@miktoxic said:

Not that you need any help here Mik; but does anyone remember how the NY Giants beat the Buffalo Bills in the Superbowl?

They put together 2 record length scoring drives (one that exceeded 11 minutes and another that exceeded 13 minutes). Their plan was to go right at Bruce Smith's elite 1 gap skillset behind their version of John Deere Tractor better known as Jumbo Elliott.

How many TDs could Buffalo score while NY possessed the football over 11 minutes and over 13 minutes? Even worse, what if both those drives were punctuated with TDs?

Lost in translation was the reality that Jeff Hostetler was able to win the same Superbowl that Jim Kelly could not.

@nickers said:

i seem to recall plenty of games decided by field goals. just saying.

as many have said before, the WR is the shiny hood ornament placed on a finished product. just ask watkins, beckham jr., evans, megatron, johnson etc. etc. etc. how good it felt playing in the super bowl last year.

@westside-steve said:

Total bonus, above rookie minimum, is about $86k, across *all* UDFA, per team.

@miktoxic said:

Without TD's.. you win nothing...Now mash that into yo brain!

WSS

I never saw what others have in Collins, but for the price of a UDFA, how can you go wrong?

@tour2ma said:

I say that we offer La'el Collins the max contract we can offer him, then have him, Greco, Schwartz and Erving duke it out for the two available spots along the right side.

I think Collins could be a very capable ZBS guard, while I think Erving would be the most passable RT we have - partly because I still hate Schwartz. I like Erving in space more than Collins and I like Collins' mentality more on the interior than I do Erving.

If JT and Mack both get hurt/leave, we can move Bito to LT, Erving to C, Collins to LG, and Schwartz and Greco can reclaim their spots along the right.

@hoorta said:

Exactly what I'm saying Tour. If they want to say Erving is a very expensive insurance policy, and we paid too much for it- well so be it. Mack can opt out after this year- and even if he doesn't he's going to want a ton of money.

Should Joe Thomas ever get hurt- his replacement before Irving would probably be Bitonio- then who plays LG? MHO is it doesn't hurt to be 6 deep on the o-line.

Exactly...

It's not that I do not think Cam is not a high potential, interior line prospect... he is. It's whether there were other options available to be that 6th man later in the draft... there were.

Then it's whether or not in a year's time an alternative choice would be as ready to replace Mack as Cam would be. Harder to project that.

But to really make a comparison you have to consider what else could have been done with the #19 used to take Cam. I suspect trading down to take him a few slots later was not an option due to a lack of quality offers. So who else was a candidate at 19?

The way the draft fell here is the obvious comparison that has to be made:

Erving & Orchard vs. Dupree/Ray & Marpet

Interesting call to make. Personally I like Marpet... and lean towards Orchard. So I could have made a sizeable trade down... or two.

We shall see...

@miktoxic said:

The Super Bowl has been decided by three points or fewer five times in the past 15 seasons.

Four points or fewer, I believe, 8 times.

@tour2ma said:

Exactly what I'm saying Tour. If they want to say Erving is a very expensive insurance policy, and we paid too much for it- well so be it. Mack can opt out after this year- and even if he doesn't he's going to want a ton of money.

Should Joe Thomas ever get hurt- his replacement before Irving would probably be Bitonio- then who plays LG? MHO is it doesn't hurt to be 6 deep on the o-line.

@nickers said:

and stopping other teams from doing so mashes that point.

a FG hit or missed won how many SBs?

@tim-couch-pulls-out said:

The Cowboys line is considered one of the best in the league. And it looks like the Browns O Line may be built close to exactly the same way: 1st round LT, C, RB (assuming Erving plays there). And two second rounders....Bitonio/The Schwartz.

So the talent is seemingly there. The cohesion must follow. And I believe last year they had good cohesion....until the Mack injury. Injuries more than anything can kill cohesion. It happened to us both on the OL and DL.

Because per Wikipedia:

"In high school, he excelled in football, basketball, baseball, and track, earning first team recognition his senior year on Pennsylvania's all-state football and basketball teams. He was later honored along with other high school football greats Tony Dorsett, Joe Montana, and Mike Ditka to Pennsylvania's all-time first team."

@calfoxwc said:

Biletnikoff was a slow white boy but he ran precise routes, got open, and caught everything (with a generous helping of stickum)

thrown his way.

@hoorta said:

Well even supposedly smart football fans don't get it. Walter Football panned the Browns Erving pick- "don't they know they have Alex Mack? Walter- don't you know our run game went to hell when Mack got hurt?

Fine except sites like Walter's are not questioning our adding line depth, it's spending a first rounder to do it and/or spending #19 on Erving, who many thought was a late first pick at best.

@wargograw said:

"BTW, your o-line is only as strong as it's weakest link."

This is surprisingly true. Even though I realize the center is the signal caller and the "glue," I was shocked at the drop off when Mack went down. I mean, you're talking about an absolutely elite pass pro OL and top 10ish run blocking, that just couldn't do anything once it lost its center.

Especially in the ZBS... and especially in the middle of the line.

The ZBS choreography displayed by our intact starting O-line was gorgeous. Only Greco came anywhere near the combination of speed and strength to the position after Mack went down. Problem was we had no one to back fill John's RG spot.

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

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

Exactly - and the other point is, having wr's who could get open quickly. Brian Brennan, Webster Slaughter, Biletnikcoff sp?, Hindend Ward, could get open like crazy and catch the ball. Brennan was a 4th round pick. Webster was a 2nd round pick.

Know what Biletnicoff and Hindend had in common? They were both round 3 picks. Brennan was 5'9"+, Ward was

"only" 6', Slaughter was 6'1", and Biletnicoff was 6'1". They were guys who understood how to get open quickly - they

weren't "long striders" and had an outstanding work ethic - they loved the game....

They weren't tall, they weren't #1 draft picks, Biletnicoff was a star athlete in different sports. Brennan was a smaller

kid who "can catch a bb in the dark" per Sam Rutigliano.

http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/2012/12/brians-song/

@texasag1969 said:

Touchdowns win football games

This is surprisingly true. Even though I realize the center is the signal caller and the "glue," I was shocked at the drop off when Mack went down. I mean, you're talking about an absolutely elite pass pro OL and top 10ish run blocking, that just couldn't do anything once it lost its center.