@usfbrown said:

Dropped his pink slip on the way out.

Nice.

I can see Willie Snead making the roster. The kid just seems to make plays.

Exactly Gipper, I'm behind the Browns and Manziel 100%.

If it goes bad with Manziel, then it goes bad, shit happens. But I'm going to choose to be optimistic about the positive abilities that he has, until he clearly shows that he's not capable. IMO, it's ridiculous that "fans" are running around right now talking about how "bad" he is.

Congrats Mike!

I think it's funny that you guys are getting all bent out of shape on a message board about how much WW likes JF. I rarely post on the board, but I stop in and read quite frequently. I literally picture a bunch of grumpy old men sitting in an old tavern, bitching about every single thing they can possibly think of.

I don't care if we took Manziel, Bridgewater, Bortles (actually he's the 1 I didn't want) or any other QB... I am supporting them 100%!

You can choose to live your life with a positive outlook or you can sit around and bitch and complain about the negative things that haven't happened yet. That's your choice. Personally, I'm refreshed by seeing someone like WW that is incredibly optimistic about Manziel's potential. I'm not going to run around an annoint him as the next great QB in the NFL, but I'd much rather read WW's incredible excitement than the negativity that spews from the other so-called fans.

Manziel starts Wk.5. I said this the night he was drafted.

Hoyer kind of gets the short end of the stick with the first 3 games of the season, we have a bye in Wk.4, then we're on the road with a weak opponent in Wk.5. It makes sense.

And just for fun, I skimmed the Preseason Wk.1 box scores... I didn't run total numbers, but I'd venture to say that the average kick return is UP from last year. This includes 103yd return from B. Walters, 84 by D. Karim, 70 by J. Knox and 58 by B. Banks. Numerous returns over 30 yards.

Remember that the 5yd adjustment was also put in place with the restriction on the kicking team not being allowed to start 10-15yds behind the kicker. So the kicking team doesn't start by running at full speed when the ball is kicked.

@1-more-season said:

I think we are looking at this 2 different ways. If your looking for an exact percentage of special teams plays ran per game then your numbers sound right. All I was trying to say was that when speaking of importance each part of a teams play can be broken down into 3 somewhat equal parts with each weighted the same. Games can be won or lost with special teams just as they can be with the offense or defense.

Would you say if out of the 16.5% of plays in the game 1 or 2 were scoring plays returns for TD or muffed catches on a kick off that led to a scoring drive that those 16% of plays carried more weight? Maybe by a factor of 1.75? That would make the value of those plays close to 29% almost 30%.

Cleveland Browns 2010

Offense: 40.2%

Defense: 45.7%

Special Teams: 14.1%

Kickoffs: 5.6%

And concerning weighting, there were 36 TDs off of kickoff/punt returns last season, for the entire NFL season. The scoring impact simply isn't there. Moving kickoffs 5 yards isn't going to have nearly the impact that people are expecting. The only valid argument has to do with the potential average starting position and an offense's overall success rate of moving the ball from said starting position. But until that data comes out, it's pure speculation.

As for being a 'loud mouth noob' or anyone else that wants to toss around post counts, say whatever makes you feel confident about yourself. The ignorance in your comments speaks for itself and at the end of the day, it doesn't change the statistics/facts. I'm not going to call you names / make ignorant suggestions. This is basic research to see what the real impact is. The statement that Special Teams is 1/3 of the game is just a typical football cliche. Anyone can take the time to look at the numbers and see what the truth is. Some people just prefer to throw around 'common logic' instead of taking the time to understand what is really going on.

@1-more-season said:

The league says the change was made for safety reasons. I think it stinks. Special teams as everyone knows is 30% of the game so with kick returns become minimalism there taking away 5% of the game.

I'm not sure what kind of football you watch where a special teams play is conducted every third play, but in the NFL, it's certainly NOT 30% of the game. It's roughly 10-12%. The average kickoff went to the 5 1/2 yd line last year, adjusted for the difference this year and it's going near the goal line. You'll still see roughly 50% of the kicks returned. As one guy put it "9 yards deep and it's coming out, 9 1/2 and I'm thinking about it..." The sky isn't falling.

If we do something that requires coverage, I'm sure we'd get it. Jets have made waves with comments / FA pursuits and the Eagles have had the most active FA period. I'm not saying we get the coverage that those markets do consistently, but if we were doing what the Eagles did, every sports media outlet would be eating it up.

Noticed he hit the 1st 20yd kick with his left foot.

I'm guessing that the FO just looked through the waiver wire, saw his name, threw it into google/youtube and went for it. As much as I like good/quality analysis of players, I think it would be awesome to see the kid succeed this season. I have a hard time thinking it will happen though. Undrafted in '06, short stints with the Eagles/Bears... never kicked in a game. I couldn't find anything about whether he had kicked in semi-pro / arena while he wasn't on a practice squad.