@canton-mike said:

Due to off season acquisitions via free agency, trades, draft, & waivers, we have far greater ability to play players according to THEIR strengths. This year is gonna be fun!!

Mike

And I have high hopes for Wilson @ CB. If he's 100% then lookout!

@flugel said:

When did he play in an NFL secondary? 

Do you really think Gregg Williams repeatedly lining Peppers up in another area code reflected disappointment in Peppers' ability or perhaps more so in the foot speed of Corners Jamar Taylor and Jason McCourty (whom we got after TN replaced him w/1st round speed just 1 year before we did the same thing)??? Didn't we also just trade Taylor for a 6th round pick in 2020?

Aside from drafting a corner that runs in the 4.3s at #4 overall, we've also traded for/signed FA Corners up the wazoo this off season.  Many started or got a lot of reps on NFL teams that actually WON football games last year. One of those corners (Randall) is projected to return to his college comfort zone of FS.

Most of Peppers' experience at Missedagain was up in the box playing like an extra LBer where he performed at an All Conference/All American level.  Returning him to this comfort zone where he plays faster and more instinctual doesn't have to be a negative. I thought he had his best game against Pittsburgh when he was used more like he was used in college from where he lined up to what Gregg Williams asked of him.  It's okay to take a talented college football player and play him at a different NFL position/role where his skill set offers him the best outcomes.  Cleveland did that with Ozzie Newsome when they drafted an All American WR from Alabama and transformed him into an NFL TE with a Hall of Fame career. More recently, we did it with Schobert going from OLB to MLB.  It sounds like our DC will be returning Randall and Peppers back to roles that got them regarded well enough to be drafted in round 1.  In order to do that, Williams has to be far more comfortable with the Corners he's putting on the perimeter.   Let's see what happens...

Due to off season acquisitions via free agency, trades, draft, & waivers, we have far greater ability to play players according to THEIR strengths. This year is gonna be fun!!

Mike

@tacosman said:

1) sure a lot of teams had peppers as a second round pick.....none of those same teams would take himin the second round now after seeing what he looks like in an nfl secondary

When did he play in an NFL secondary? 

Do you really think Gregg Williams repeatedly lining Peppers up in another area code reflected disappointment in Peppers' ability or perhaps more so in the foot speed of Corners Jamar Taylor and Jason McCourty (whom we got after TN replaced him w/1st round speed just 1 year before we did the same thing)??? Didn't we also just trade Taylor for a 6th round pick in 2020?

Aside from drafting a corner that runs in the 4.3s at #4 overall, we've also traded for/signed FA Corners up the wazoo this off season.  Many started or got a lot of reps on NFL teams that actually WON football games last year. One of those corners (Randall) is projected to return to his college comfort zone of FS.

Most of Peppers' experience at Missedagain was up in the box playing like an extra LBer where he performed at an All Conference/All American level.  Returning him to this comfort zone where he plays faster and more instinctual doesn't have to be a negative. I thought he had his best game against Pittsburgh when he was used more like he was used in college from where he lined up to what Gregg Williams asked of him.  It's okay to take a talented college football player and play him at a different NFL position/role where his skill set offers him the best outcomes.  Cleveland did that with Ozzie Newsome when they drafted an All American WR from Alabama and transformed him into an NFL TE with a Hall of Fame career. More recently, we did it with Schobert going from OLB to MLB.  It sounds like our DC will be returning Randall and Peppers back to roles that got them regarded well enough to be drafted in round 1.  In order to do that, Williams has to be far more comfortable with the Corners he's putting on the perimeter.   Let's see what happens...

@tacosman said:

3) peppers being demoted to SS(SS is a far less valuable position in he nfl than FS today....just look at the market) speaks to his lesser coverage skills, but strong safeties in the nfl still are expected to cover people in space.....something peppers cant do on an nfl level.

No one can cover receivers in space from centerfield. Bringing in Randall to his natural position and moving Peppers to his while vastly improving the CBs so we can eliminate playing Randall in centerfield, will make all the difference in the world. Those moves will give our edge guys the time they need to be true QB killers. This team is going to be very different from last year's team. Very different! Speed kills and we have added a ton both sides of the ball.

@gumby73 said:

Top NFL team talent evaluators would say differently. Even if a second round pick. None of them positioned Peppers as parking lot attendant either. G.Williams admits Peppers was used as a bandaid on a poor coverage,poor tackling secondary. Williams not getting home with blitz, did not help matters..Peppers can cover better than some of his tackling angles.What we can't do is play 10 on 11 personal with a 10 or 11 yard wide open TE/WR/RB standing wide open in middle of field. Williams blamed himself for now on use of Pep.Stay tuned..(or there are 31 other teams looking for your opinion)       

1) sure a lot of teams had peppers as a second round pick.....none of those same teams would take himin the second round now after seeing what he looks like in an nfl secondary

2) peppers is/was *in* that poor tackling secondary, and he was one of the reasons it was so poor

3) peppers being demoted to SS(SS is a far less valuable position in he nfl than FS today....just look at the market) speaks to his lesser coverage skills, but strong safeties in the nfl still are expected to cover people in space.....something peppers cant do on an nfl level.

@tacosman said:

peppers cant be expected to cover anyone period....

Top NFL team talent evaluators would say differently. Even if a second round pick. None of them positioned Peppers as parking lot attendant either. G.Williams admits Peppers was used as a bandaid on a poor coverage,poor tackling secondary. Williams not getting home with blitz, did not help matters..Peppers can cover better than some of his tackling angles.What we can't do is play 10 on 11 personal with a 10 or 11 yard wide open TE/WR/RB standing wide open in middle of field. Williams blamed himself for now on use of Pep.Stay tuned..(or there are 31 other teams looking for your opinion)       

@gumby73 said:

 Solutions?..TE's cannot be left uncovered on Peppers playing centerfield.

peppers cant be expected to cover anyone period....

@tour2ma said:

More known as a Fantasy Analyst who really works the WR and CB positions.

https://twitter.com/MikeClayNFL/status/992496159267721217

The spots where we rated low, we have some up-and-coming young players who I think will improve and make us much better:

QB Mayfield

DT  Brantley, Ogun, Coley

S Randall, Peppers

I think acquiring Randall to play free safety is a very underrated move around the league and amongst Browns fans. He is a first round talent that is meant to be playing the position. Peppers is now at his proper position with a year experience under his belt. Another first round talent. 

Randall is 25, Peppers is 22.

Zombo

@orion said:

It also shows that our EDGE could' used Chubb.  (But then our CB's woulda' probably been low

Been doing a little catch up on this guy. I'm very impressed with his quickness to the QB. I think he's going to add a lot to the LDE spot. Take a look at how fast he gets after it.

It also shows that our EDGE could' used Chubb.  (But then our CB's woulda' probably been low)

@mjp28 said:

So who got the best bang for their buck? Looks like in general the perennial winners are near the top and the perennial  cellar dwellers are.....well not.

Appears the positional grades are on a 0.0 to 4.0 scale in one-tenth increments. Sometimes he awards teams the extremes; sometimes he doesn't. Scanned a few columns and it does not appear that he reuses a value within a given position, so he has 41 grades to assign 32 teams. Likely he's ordering the talent as he sees it and determines whether any team's talent approaches perfection or the utter lack of it.

What's not so clear is how he arrives at his grades for the Off and Def. Not really seeing a sum of the parts thing going on. He does reuse grades although not the ranking. The "total" is the sum of the "O"+"D". But the positional grades seem to be the meat here...

@the-gipper said:

Are these numbers supposed to mean something to us?

I'm thinking it should be self explanatory Gipper. Like a traffic light. RED= stop, below average. GREEN= go, above average. White= average. Browns weak at QB, interior DL, S. Good at WR, OL, CB. If Gordon stays clean, remains to be seen about the corners. 

Ha, if those rankings mean anything 8-8 here we come.   

BROWNS, eh not too bad.