Month: February 2024

The Illegal Tampering portion of the NFL season is here. On February 27 the 2024 NFL Combine begins. Young draftable men will be running around in their shorts and t-shirts attempting to impress NFL front offices to draft them as high as possible. Draft experts will try and convince you as NFL fans, that this guy is the best value for your team. Browns twitter will pick their favorites and tell you they’re better at drafting players than Browns GM Andrew Berry. Ha. Yeah right, selecting for your fantasy draft is the same as a billion-dollar industry. Let’s recap where the Browns stand as of now.

With the news by Tom Pelissero, http://@TomPelissero that the NFL salary cap will be $255.4 million, you would think all Browns fans would be rejoicing. Andrew Berry has an extra $16 million to spend. The Browns are only $7.7 million over the cap according to https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space. But no, the Browns fan base who hated the Deshaun Watson trade are mad. Their “the Browns are going to be in salary cap hell because of the trade” argument went poof. I’m sorry people it’s basic economics, you have to spend money to make money and the NFL LOVES to make money. Bless their hearts. If you live in the south, you know what that means.

Let’s take a deeper dive into this new salary cap number. For those who have read my blogs in the past, you had to know I’m about to nerd out on the new salary cap news. I. Can’t. Help. Myself. If you watch my podcasts, my eyes are blinking to send help. The Browns incorporate a part of the NFL salary cap better than any other team known as cash spent. Its upfront cash given to players that does not, repeat, does not count against the salary cap. The Browns on average spend $50 million more in cash spent than any other NFL team. So because of the increase of $16 million, the Browns cash spent on payroll will go from about $292 million to about $308 million. Thank God Jimmy and Dee have that Warren Buffett money. This cash spent money allows the Browns to put up front cash directly into the players pockets when they sign. But wait, why doesn’t every team do this? Because not every team has filthy rich owners, a very creative team front office and an aggressive GM who can find talent. The next question you ask is when the NFL owners will put a stop this nonsense and salary cap wizardry. If they try, the players union will stop them at every turn. More money for the players is non-negotiable.

As Browns fans we are about to enter the part of the season that creates the most clickbait known to man, or woman. Remember, pick your source carefully. Chose a local Cleveland media member you can trust. Ignore the clickbait from the useless national media. Did you really think the Brown were going to cut Nick Chubb? Really? No freaking way and Mary Kay Cabot backed that up. By the way, have you noticed Mary Kay has been talking about WR Gabe Davis a lot? Just remember she talked about WR Elijah Moore last year. Food for thought. Finally, teams can now designate Franchise and Transitional players. To no one’s surprise, the Bengals Franchise tagged WR Tee Higgins. The tag number is estimated to be $21 million, which would be about 42% of Cincinnati’s salary cap savings. I can’t see them paying that much for the season, so they’ll ether have to negotiate a multi-year deal or trade him and no they won’t be trading him to the Browns. Stay safe and Go Browns.

As those who been reading my blog since 2019 know, I love the NFL draft. Always have, always will. However, once Andrew Berry became the GM of the Browns, I’ve altered my view of the draft. Berry uses free agency to stock key positions and drafts for depth. A key guardrail for the Browns is “never pay for depth.” Rookie contracts are the cheapest contracts. Because of injuries in 2023, Cleveland was forced to play rookies, and some did quite well. Right tackle Dawand Jones, quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and safety Ronnie Hickman come to mind. While I’m doing deep dives into free agents, and you can find my thoughts by watching and listening to my podcast, The Cleveland Browns Dawgpound South Podcast which is part of Fanatical Elfz Network, I thought I would play around with a draft simulator. Here goes.

Pick 54. Ja’Lynn Polk, WR Washington.

Pick 85. Ruke Orhorhoro, DT, Clemson.

Pick 135. Tommy Eichenberg, LB, Ohio State.

Pick 155. Ray Davis RB, Kentucky.

Pick 205. Dallin Holker, TE, Colorado State.

Pick 208. Julian Pearl, OT, Illinois.

Pick 228. Jaylx Hunt, ED, Houston Baptist.

I used the Draft Simulator provided by https://www.nflmockdraftdatabase.com/. I tried to pick players the Browns could use at the positions of need. They need to add a wide receiver, running back, linebacker and defensive linemen. I also thought a number three tight end would be easy to find on day three of the draft. This is a deep offensive tackle draft, so they could pick one anywhere from round four to round seven. Let me know what you think. Stay safe and Go Browns.

Now that the final NFL game has been played, it’s time for the new season to begin. As for the Super Bowl, a couple of thoughts. Patrick Mahomes is the next Tom Brady and Otto Graham. A team can’t give him extra chances to win a game. A franchise quarterback gets you to the final game and wins that game. He’s been a starter for six years and taken the Chiefs to the Super Bowl five times winning four. Every AFC team has to go through Mahomes to win the big game. Going into the game, I thought the national media were ignoring how good the Kansas City defense really was. A great secondary can shut down any team. In overtime on third and goal, how do you not block the best defensive lineman on the field. Speaking of Chris Jones, two tackles, eight pressures and two QB hits. No sacks. What? I thought you measured the greatness of a defensive lineman by how many sacks he has. My other take away, special teams. seven field goals between the two teams. Two special teams’ blunders cost the 49ers, a fumbled punt and a missed extra point. Wait, the San Fransico kicker missed a kick? Who would’ve thought.

How close are the Browns to making the Super Bowl? Pretty damn close. All the coaching changes tell me the Browns are going to do everything in their power to make sure QB Deshaun Watson is successful. On offense, the Super Bowl proved one thing, the right play calling contributes to your quarterback’s success. I don’t care who is calling the plays with the Browns, just help Watson to be successful on the field. I wish the Cleveland media would get off this story line. By the way, I thought head coach Kevin Stefanski did a great job calling plays this past year. I’ve seen a few early power rankings for the 2024 season. In one the Browns were ranked eleventh and the other they were ranked ninth. In both cases they make the playoffs. My new obnoxious off-season rant is going to be, “They must win the division.” They have to. I know a lot of fans have pointed to the Browns having the hardest schedule next year, let’s wait till the schedule is released and training camp to revisit that topic. A lot can happen between now and then.

Moving forward, the Browns have some house cleaning to do concerning the salary cap. Currently, they are about $19 million over, but with a few restructures, extensions and trades, which I know they will accomplish, they could end up with about $40 million to $50 million of cap space. I have full faith in this front office. I also have faith that both Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Berry will get contract extensions. Stay tuned. I’m also convinced the Browns will open the season playing the Eagles in Brazil. After all the post season award wins, I’m getting that vibe.

Up next, free agency and the draft. The Browns have a few of their own free agents they’ll need to resign. The NFL Combine starts February 27, which is the illegal tampering period, and the legal tampering period starts March 11. The league year starts March 13. I’ve already started breaking down free agency on my podcast, The Cleveland Browns Dawgpound South Podcast. It’s part of the “Fanatical Elfz Network.” You can follow on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. The Browns have some key decisions to make. What to do with WR Amari Cooper and RB Nick Chubb. How to make the defense better. Who to resign and what trades to make to gain salary cap room and to take the offense to next level. They are close. But like I said, they have to win the AFC North and have playoff games at home. Stay safe and Go Browns.

To the surprise of many a Browns fan, there’s been quite a bit of movement in the coaching staff so far this off-season. After the defense fell apart in the wildcard game, I didn’t expect almost wholesale changes on the offensive staff. Afterall, the Browns managed to win eleven games starting four quarterbacks, starting their fourth and fifth tackles and missing the best running back in the league. In the normal business world, raises and promotions would be in order. But this year, the Browns are expected to improve in 2024, possibly win the division and make a much deeper run in the post season. For those who haven’t kept track, here’s the scorecard.

Gone: OC Alex Van Pelt, RB coach Stump Mitchell, TE coach T.C. McCartney and OL coach Bill Callahan.

The surprise in this group is Mitchell. Everybody loved his beard, as did I, but the running game did falter after Chubb got hurt. While everyone knows head coach Kevin Stefanski calls the plays, Van Pelt did the game planning for the week and was a valuable resource on the sidelines during games. He did attempt to leave once (OC for University of Pittsburg). As for McCartney, after Njoku, did the other two tight ends really thrill anyone? The one that really hurts is Callahan. I can’t blame him for wanting to coach with his son. I worked with both my parents and at times it was trying, but most of the time it was rewarding. It will be interesting to see what title the Titans give Callahan. If it’s a lateral move, they may owe the Browns a late round draft pick. I bet they add assistant head coach to his official title.

In (so far): OC Ken Dorsey, RB coach Duce Staley, TE coach Jimmy Rees. DL coach Jacques Cesaire.

I love the Staley hire. I bet he was brought in to light a fire under Jerome Ford. He’ll teach him to be more aggressive and to stop dancing around behind the line of scrimmage. Rees comes from the college ranks, Notre Dame and Alabama. The last time I looked both schools have produced very good tight ends the last couple of years. Cesaire is a brilliant hire and if you don’t believe me watch the wildcard game again. He turned an unknown DE, Jonathan Greenard into a pro bowl player. By the way, Greenard is only 26 years old and a free agent. Food for thought. The big concern amongst Browns fans is Ken Dorsey. I’m going to give the Browns a little leeway on this one. The Bills were 5-5 when he was fired, but they were number two in total offense at the same time. Maybe if their quarterback quit throwing interceptions Dorsey would still be there. Will he call plays? If the Browns hire a QB coach, then he will. He did turn Cam Newton into an MVP quarterback. Let’s hope he can do the same with Watson.

As for a potential replacement for Callahan, the most logical choice is current assistant OL coach Scott Peters. He learned from Callahan and the players already respect him. Bobby Johnson has already worked with Dorsey in Buffalo, so there’s a link. The team did interview Andy Dickerson for OC. He was the running game coordinator/ OL coach for the Seahawks. Finally, some in the local media are suggesting Mike Munchak, but his name has yet to come up within the Browns organization.

The Browns will introduce Ken Dorsey on Monday morning at 11:00am EST. Tune in. Stay safe and Go Browns.