Unsympathetic

Indeed, a sportstalker would never invent a quote to fit their predetermined narrative.

Cowher is so close. If he actually thinks there's things that should be done by management which when they're not define an abuse of the power dynamic... There's exactly one solution: Unionize the coaches. And here I thought monopolies were always a good thing because rich people are by definition beneficent!

I'd like to think OSU has thrown the 3rd-in-b10 fewest # of passes this season in a bid to change their tendencies vs UM..

Average wind speed during the OSU-NW game was 30mph across the field. Interesting conclusion from that game is that Stroud can be a runner if needed.. I'm not worried about the score closeness because 8-man boxes won't be smart without similar wind. Not sure I'd want to go with the MINN kid, he's now been injured both of the last 2 years. Don't sleep on Ford, I think he'll be a good-to-great RB2 for Chubb next yr when neither FA RB is resigned.. He's also got less mileage than higher-round RB's because he wasn't used as much in college, had to transfer from Alabama.

Other FA to consider re-signing besides Pocic and Hunt Takitaki -- As last game showed, [much] better than Phillips Anthony Walker -- I'd try to keep both because competent LB has not been common around here. But likely not because he was signed to a one-year deal that for some reason has 4 void years afterwards. Yes you read that right, he's 600k against the cap each of 2023-2026. Looking ahead, be aware of DPJ - 2023 is end of rookie contract - Value will be 10-12 or more.. Isaiah Thomas will be our 3rd man in the edge rusher rotation for the next couple years after Clowney isn't re-signed... Pretty sure the last time you could legitimately have confidence in a Browns backup edge being able to consistently generate pressure was sometime in the 80's.. Gone are the days of talking yourself into Porter Gustin or Nate Orchard..

only OL on the browns in t10 at his position for both RB and PB. All stats are flawed, but some are useful.. Note at the bottom the team win rates. Shows that if our DI wasn't below-replacement-level, we'd actually have a very good defense.

He's paid like a WR1; that was likely a salary dump. Note that every former top player falls off eventually... Tampa guaranteed Devin White's 11M 2023 salary and he's already looking like he's not NFL level any more.

Projected 2023 cap - 225 // 2024 cap - 256 Current Browns 2023 obligations - 251.5 // 2024 obligations - 249. So even after rolling over the 2022 cap of 33.6 to 2023, we get total free space of [225+33.6 - 251.5] = 7.1 to do all rookie signings and FA. Note as well that current 2023 players under contract is only 42. Bring on the UDFA's looking for playing time! Should be OK after 2023 though, cap will rise 20-25/Yr for the next few. 7.5 dead in 2023 is thanks to Austin Hooper.

Awarding of comp picks is also based on the net of FA activity -- who you lose combined with who you add. So if we plan to add more than one DT [and that had gd better be the plan] then comp picks won't really be a thing.

I watched it, i'll continue to watch it when i can. The side discussions with brothers Kelce made it more like a podcast than a game, but still more interesting. They used the telestrator to circle the 1:1 with Cooper before his TD right before the snap, showed some coverage details as well.. more in-depth than what you'll normally see. To me this is similar to what ESPN also does with the CFB national title game -- on ESPN2 for the last few years they've had multiple other college coaches in a room both to discuss and to use the smartTV/telestrator to back/forward, show route concepts and coverages etc.

Preseason, DeShaun looked like he'd been to Jack Frost Donuts too many times.. here's hoping he has been diligent with his fitness.

Isaiah Thomas - Coming from nowhere to be best backup DL on the roster. Alex Wright, not yet

And you can do a lot worse at RB3 than D'Ernest. Hunt was always a luxury - and due to his salary next yr, likely won't net much in a trade. Even so, better something than nothing. Late-round drafting is about taking shots whether we like it or not.. no guarantees there.

You could do a lot worse than WR Fleming in the 7th. Not a starter, but easily an upgrade over Schwartz/Woods

As opposed to normal! I'll see myself out.

Important note on 2023 salary cap: Given the 2023 increases to our top guys we need to be able to roll the current 2022 space onto next year. For more detail read the link. Even after including rolling all the 2022 space [33M] onto 2023, we're still left w only 9M space in 2023 to sign rookies and FA. With no first-round that seems doable, but still rough and doesn't leave much space for someone big like Payne unless he'll take 1M 2023 salary. Current salary committed for 2023: 244M. 2023 cap: 225M.

They are who we thought they were: Draft Profiles: Jacob Phillips // Togiai // Elliot // Delpit. All the negatives with very few of the positives. Fun quote from the Delpit link: "Misses inordinate amount of tackles in a variety of ways". This is fine! One additional failing on this D staff is the lack of improvement except for very few -- JOK, Emerson, Ward have to be considered exceptions.

this isn't fixed with just one guy -- Payne would be amazing of course. But we can't only add payne -- our performance would be better if we had 3 guys beside Winfrey all above 55 rating even if they offered little vs pass other than preventing QB from stepping up. Payne, Winfrey, and 2 rookies rated 36 isn't changing much.... Only thing for next year's cap.. 7.5 of Hooper's dead is sitting there [he was also 3.5 in 2022]. But that's done after 2023. Mayfield's 10.5 dead also is only 2022. IMHO Payne is likely worth the risk, and if WAS would take a 4th plus allowing Browns to negotiate the extension, i'd do that in a heartbeat..

All issues must always be simple to fix and One Magical Person is the cause of - or solution to - everything. Life couldn't be complex - it just couldn't - and if I repeat this often enough, reality will bend to my wishes!

One of Stef's big things has been loyalty. However, his loyalty to Woods now affects perception of him ... because Woods is a smoking crater of incompetence, and if Stef defends him then it's on Stef to not see that the trigger needs to be pulled. It's certainly not "only" FO -- because in no way does FO ever make decisions in a vacuum -- but anyone in leadership who doesn't see that their lack of talent&$$ into DI affects the entirety of the D much more than they had originally planned does need to go. Alex Wright // Travis Jones Some positivity in the post: Martin Emerson - it's higher than you thought it would be

Good Lord Ethan Pocic Of Course Bitonio Are You Kidding Me Froholdt - Only 61 snaps.. but still Conklin Teller Hudson - 163 snaps is a pretty good sample size. The kids are going to be OK. OBR Important Read: Building An Above-Avg IDL -- a study of the top 16 teams' 2023 salary spent, draft capital invested, and resulting PFF this year for each rostered IDL. Can debate relative merit of rating method, but it's the same method applied to all teams so any error is consistent.

Why Stefanski Merits Patience

Something positive this way comes -- OT Jedrick is the NFL's top OT in passpro this season. Conklin at 8th seems not shabby after a year of rehab.

Quarterbacks win games. Run fits win rings. DL definitions, alignments, and techniques

There is no "tying hands" with analytics. This strawman of "analytics makes calls" --- has never been the situation outside of the strawman created for the purpose of taking a position "against" that same strawman. Exactly nothing has changed from before the word analytics was used. Analytics is a new word for information -- that's it. The same people make the decisions.. because the same people have responsibility for the decisions. Berry deals for players only after agreements with Woods and Stef.. and those decisions on defense especially have been terrible in multiple recent years. Look, even if the coaches actually don't agree on a player... that happened on teams [and in companies] long before anyone bothered with data and everything was purely feelings, so once again, nothing changed with data. Second, although it's an important corollary, haven't seen any D players really develop under Woods or assistants. So they make bad game-day calls and make up for it by not being able to improve player skills to deal with those bad calls. [For one shining example: Look at the progress of our wonderful rookie Alex Wright and his adventures in bull-rushing. Or don't, it will cause you to start day-drinking.] Great stuff!