NFL Free Agency: Mitchell Schwartz heading to Kansas City
March 9, 2016LeBron James set to play final game in Sleep Train Arena, where it all began
March 9, 2016The Browns are losing players faster than the cardboard cutout of Rachel Phelps lost dress fragments in Major League.
The latest is that free safety Tashaun Gipson has left the Browns for a franchise better known for its proud football heritage: the Jacksonville Jaguars. (Ouch.) The Jags signed Gipson to a five-year deal worth better than $35 million. Gipson went to the Pro Bowl in 2014 and is a two-time AFC interceptions leader.
In addition to Gipson, wide receiver Travis Benjamin (Chargers), center Alex Mack (Falcons), and right tackle Mitchell Schwartz (Chiefs) all signed elsewhere on free agency’s first day. Johnny Manziel, oddly, remains on the Browns roster.
As to how the Browns might replace Gipson, cleveland.com’s Dan Labbe wrote Monday about that very topic. The first option is looking in-house, which would point toward 2015 draftee Ibraheim Campbell or special teams ace Johnson Bademosi taking over the free safety spot. Both are still young, but making either a starter would be a hell of a promotion. Jordan Poyer is also on the roster, but he looks destined for life as a career backup.
Behind door No. 2 is free agency — you can laugh if you want — but the available safety crop is drying up fast. The Eagles signed 25-year-old Rodney McLeod, last of the Rams, to a five-year, $37 million deal. The Bengals re-signed 25-year-old thumper George Iloka to his own five-year contract for $30 million. Former Bengal Reggie Nelson is still on the market, but he’s 32 years old and fielding interest from Minnesota and Tampa Bay. Other names still out there include Kansas City’s Husain Abdullah, Philly’s Walter Thurmond, and Denver’s David Bruton. (Cornerback Adam Jones re-signed with the Bengals, by the way.)
Lastly, the Browns could try to find a Gipson replacement through the draft. In a related story, we could all get into great shape by exercising and eating right. Thus continues a trying first day of Browns free agency.
39 Comments
“Rough first day” of free agency in the same way that December 7, 1941, was a rough first day of World War 2. I am not optimistic of similar ultimate results. Could use a fireside chat, though.
Maybe this isn’t Black Wednesday. Maybe this is the hidden fulcrum, the turning point, Chapter One in all the coffee table commemorative books that will be written about the Cleveland Browns 2021 Championship Season. The day that the Smartest Men in the Room (version 3.0) made their bones.
Or maybe that tearing and slashing sound is the Andy Reids and other league competents fighting each other to snarf up the few usable pieces on this roster, incredulous that the Browns again let their trike roll backwards down the hill. Maybe it’s Black Wednesday
https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlt1/v/t1.0-9/12803050_950178438370575_6642928611694156894_n.jpg?oh=97fa871b58c45aa2770f02f3e1ea75e1&oe=575CE133
Here’s to hoping this front office will be smart enough to re-sign good players before they hit free agency and have all the leverage.
YOU’RE THE ONE WHO PUT US IN THE SITUATION IN THE FIRSETSIPP AOJJFPOJFOASFJ…………..
Time to find my calm and drink heavily.
It’s apples and oranges, but if we’re going to compare the two…. I would argue December 7th went much better than today.
I mean, at least we shot down 1 Mitsubishi . . .
I’m very pleased that the day went so well. A bunch of guys I liked watching, and seemed pretty good, got paid huge sums of money in an inflated market by teams that ostensibly need them. We swallowed the first pill of many in the calendar, the most difficult if only because of primacy, to begin a regimen of success: Don’t overpay second contracts, cut players over 27, draft better than at least half the other bad teams, coach your talent better than most, find a QB, go the playoffs.
We have never done it this way before. We are at least trying to now. I am very excited.
The last day of WW2 went pretty well…
So you’re saying there’s a strategy. I hope so.
I’d sure like to know the story behind the report of the Browns pulling their offer to Mitchell Schwartz off the table. He was the one Browns FA which would seem to fit the profile of the coaches and the analytics dudes. Young, in his prime with tons of upside, highly rated RT in ’15 (gave up zero sacks across from Von Miller and Raiders’ stud pass rusher (Mack?), had missed exactly zero games in four years, etc. KC gave him five years. Will be interesting to see what the monetary side of his contract with them is. If the Browns don’t start retaining guys like him, it bodes very badly for this newly re-organized FO. Hope the Browns are calling Stefen Wisniewski right now and that they’re evaluating all the tackles in the draft. Not good, methinks. Not good at all.
It’s curious how verklempt so many fans are getting over losing “foundational pieces” of a 3-13, 7-9, 4-12, 5-11 team.
Me, too.
I picked up a few tidbits here and there. It sounds like the agent for Schwartz immediately took the offer and started using it as leverage to get other teams to outbid. The Browns felt they were negotiating in bad faith and said, good luck. I don’t get the sense they were overly concerned with retaining any of these FAs and the complete purge/reboot is underway.
It’s easy to lose good players. It’s much harder to draft good players and develop them into better players. No one currently working for the Browns has any track record in that regard, Hue Jackson included.
Yep. The reboot has begun. If this regime isn’t still in place four years from now the cycle will continue unabated.
apt.
mr. optimist over here.
One of two choices.
It is highly likely that this is what happened.
I’m honestly surprised the commenters on this site are surprised.
It’s not like our FO slipped these Guy’s agents an envelope with a napkin in it reading “f you,” we offered Mack one hell of a contract. We weren’t willing to pay what others were, and that seems to jive with everything we’ve heard from the owners and FO since they were brought in.
i get your point but the Browns did have some Pro-Bowl talent. Alex Mack, Gipson, and Benjamin were all pro-bowlers during their time in Cleveland. I am not sure what you would call those players, if not “foundational pieces.”
My unofficial estimate puts the Browns with only $2 – $9 million left to spend on other free agents if we re-sign all four of those guys. So yes, letting them walk was probably a good idea.
Browns have 40M in cap space and can create another 20M by cutting Whitner, Bryant, Bowe and Hartline.
IF they cut Whitner, Bryant, Bowe and Hartline. That hasn’t happend yet.
And why would you cut Bowe? That guy is a top tier WR
Oh, I would likely cut Bowe . The problem is I’m not in control of the Browns’ roster.
Dwayne Bowe had over 1,000 yds as recently as 2011. Had 15 TD catches in 2010! He’s a keeper.
If Hue can get 1,000 yds out of Bowe next season, then I may reconsider.
You’re absolutely correct: by any rational definition they were/are foundational pieces.
But I think what this current regime knew coming in is that this entire organization is a nearly unimaginable clusterf*ck of ineptitude built up layer by layer by all those who came before them. The only way to fix it is to raze it to the ground and start over.
Brown & Jackson & DePodesta & Dee laid the groundwork out for Jimbo from the get go before anyone was hired or promoted. They all went in with eyes wide open but they can’t share that with anybody outside of Berea. They know what’s ahead of them and the next couple of years ain’t gonna be pretty for them or us. For all intents and purposes this is an expansion team in year one.
Buckle in or jump ship ’cause it’s going to get bumpy.
If Bowe gets 1000 yards next season i will eat crow
They must have a lot of faith in Erving.
good post 6TH …
“verklempt” … learned another new word … thank you.
good post SAM …
Thanks TB.
Guys, it does look bad. But seriously, Cleveland ranked 25th in rushing offense and gave up the second most sacks in the NFL last year. Outside of Joe Thomas, the offensive line has been hugely overated. Mack is not worth more money than Joe Thomas, PERIOD.
Gipson, yes, lead league in INTs twice. Okay, but he sucked last year, keeping it real. His big INT of the year he fumbled ala Brandon Marshall.
Schwartz to me is the only “real” loss, just because he is young still.
I told us all last year, if the Browns did not improve their 7-9 record, half the “good” players would leave. This has been a long time coming. The Browns were 3-13 and tied for the worst team in the NFL with these guys. I trust the Harvard crew, Browns did NOT overspend.
Who is cheaper, Wentz/Goth or Osweiler? The two rookies will get around $25M guaranteed, that is it. Osweiler just got $72M based on POTENTIAL alone. ASSinine…
I liked the guys that left, but lets be real, the team was at the bottom of ranking in offense and defense. They were ok and I think can be preplaced. These guys were often injured and I wouldn’t have OVERPAID for those performances. Rather go out get mid-level FAs that are hungry and develop them and players through the draft. We have been building on top of crap every year. Lets stop the madness and rip off all the band aids and build the thing right so the its sustainable. We have an anchor on offense in #73 let’s build off that and whatever we can from the guys committed on the D and move the thing forward instead of feeding into the media and money grubbing agents attacks that we wont overpay for under performing players.