Well that didnβt go well, Browns lose to Buccaneers 30-13
August 26, 2016Iman Shumpert had a better weekend than you: While We’re Waiting
August 29, 2016When you sign a free agent to a contract the way the Cleveland Browns did Paul Kruger, you know it could end like this, but you don’t really bother imagining it. Technically, I guess I can say that I spent some time imagining it as I wrote in December of 2015 that Kruger’s contract made him a cut candidate after 2015 just in terms of the structure. Even I hadn’t imagined it would be something as little as this from the press release.
BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns have made the following roster moves:
Terminated the contracts of:
QB Austin Davis
DL Nick Hayden
LB Paul KrugerWaived:
DB Sean Baker
TE E.J. Bibbs
WR Josh Boyce
K Travis Coons
WR Ed Eagan
FB Robert Hughes
TE David Reeves
OL Cory TuckerPlaced on injured reserve:
DL Nike Lawrence-Stample (shoulder)
RB Glenn Winston (shoulder)The Browns roster is currently at 76 players. All NFL teams must have a maximum of 75 players by Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.
Paul Kruger was third in a list by virtue of alphabetical order. The 5-year $40 million man with $13 million guaranteed – the highlight of free agency for the Browns one season – was listed after Austin Davis and Nick Hayden. Such is the cruel life in the NFL, except I don’t know that it will be that cruel to Kruger. If my math is correct, Paul Kruger earned somewhere just north of $20 million for his contributions to the Browns over three seasons. With seven years experience and at the age of 30, I’m presuming he’ll get another contract or two in the NFL, probably for a team with a much further advanced “rebuild” than whatever the Browns are doing in 2016. It kind of had to end this way, however.
The Cleveland Browns have been drafting potential replacements for Paul Kruger consistently. In 2016 they drafted Emmanuel Ogba, Carl Nassib, and Joe Schobert. In 2015 they drafted Nate Orchard, and Xavier Cooper. Some of those players don’t necessarily match up with what Paul Kruger was supposed to bring to the Browns’ defense, but Kruger hasn’t brought a whole lot in more than a season, so what’s the difference? The Cleveland Browns might want to just see Carl Nassib play a lot more on his 4-year $3.6 million contract with less than $1 million guaranteed.
#Browns rookie Emmanuel Ogbah said he'll go back to OLB after spending time at DE.
— Scott Petrak ct (@ScottPetrak) August 29, 2016
For the Browns, it’s a huge cash savings as well. There’s obviously a difference between cap and cash, but these things are complex sometimes. By cutting Paul Kruger the Cleveland Browns cut the $7.7 million in cap hit they would have incurred to keep him. They accelerate the rest of his signing bonus $1.2 million per year for the next two years into a $2.4 million dead cap hit in 2016, but that doesn’t cost them any cash. The Cleveland Browns would have had to cut actual payroll checks to Paul Kruger for $6.5 million in 2016. Now, they don’t have to pay a dime in new money even as they take a $2.4 million cap hit. That cap hit represents a signing bonus that went out when Kruger was signed for the 2013 season. Make no mistake. This is a huge cash savings for the Cleveland Browns. That cash savings will pay for all the team’s other pass rushers combined, basically.
There’s nothing else to say about where this leaves the Browns for 2016. Every single candidate on the defensive front is a “We’ll see!” kind of guy. I like the prospects of some of the guys, but they’re a long way from being considered reliable NFL starters. Then again, Paul Kruger was feeling farther and farther away from being considered a reliable NFL starter. That’s probably the main thrust for his release today, not to mention the trade of Barkevious Mingo before him. The Browns are trying to rebuild, folks. It might get better, but it seems like it might get even worse first.
Paul Kruger thanked the Haslams and the fans on Twitter, but referred to it as a mistake and said the Browns mishandled his release.
50 Comments
I assume his contract made his trade value virtually zilch
I was surprised when I heard the news this morning, but I really shouldn’t have been. You’ve got a new coaching staff and a new front office, and here’s Paul Kruger just breezing through training camp and the preseason as if his roster spot is assured. Kruger’s shown absolutely nothing and has honestly looked like the worst outside linebacker on the roster up to this point. I’m sure he made it extremely tough for Ray Horton to vouch for his play from 3 years ago.
They tried a few “exotic” things to get Kruger to the QB on Friday and he couldnt get it done. Seems Kruger is bitter of the timing of his release, but my guess is the Browns were hopeful he’d show something on the field, and when it became apparent that he couldnt get to the QB, even with the benefit of stunts and zone blitzes, then the writing was on the wall
I wonder how defensive JoE Banner is going to be on Twitter today? Should be interesting
YEP! He’s a hot commodity now that someone can throw a mil or two at him and add him to a good team. Either that or Rex Ryan will trip over his feet in Buffalo trying to get him there.
He might crash that tandem bicycle
https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/rr4.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200
Sashi is proving to be a cold-blooded dude. There is no room for the modern niceties of the the cutting process in Sashiball. Take your millions and get out. Next.
halle-freakin-lujah!
not soon enough. I don’t think he was indifferent, just that he benefited greatly from his scheme and teammates in Rat Town.
He’ll catch on somewhere and be productive in a limited role.
http://img.pandawhale.com/74343-Tombstone-well-bye-gif-hji0.gif
just never gets old.
I am sure that reputation won’t come back to haunt us ever! Hah-hah, right guys?
I’ll update…
carl nassib has been our most productive draft pick thus far … moneyball dictates that kruger is now expendable. this was the right move.
i wonder who’s next ? : gilbert ? t.williams ? t.gabriel ? … and i know ILB d.davis will probably make the team since he was brought in as a free-agent & is one of the few veterans left on this squad , but for my money , you will get more from schobert & scooby wright.
How is Gilbert still even there?
hi RGB … but not Sashi’s fault … he didn’t draft or sign most of these questionable players. so , these appear to be easy decisions for him… it will be more interesting when he has to address the ones he DID draft / sign.
Not sure if it was a “Moneyball” move so much as a “Making the team better” move. The Browns were likely to only keep 4 OLBs on the roster, and Kruger has been outplayed by Orchard, Ogbah, Schobert, and Cam Johnson up to this point.
Interesting…
I don’t think that ever will be a problem for him. He is loyal to charts, and graphs, and value matrices.
There is no way Gabriel is making this roster as he was fringe before the team devoted their entire offseason towards improving themselves at WR.
Return skills?
Fine. Dude gave periodic effort only when publicly shamed, and otherwise showed all the symptoms of a guy happy to have been overpaid. First blamed his ineffectiveness on his decision to lose weight, then blamed the scheme, now some lady named “Miss Handled.” Meanwhile, left out in space with a man to beat, he generally stayed put and preferred not to set the edge.
This guy has some talent, and great hair. But he’s been a quiet poster boy for Berea’s culture problems: cashing paychecks, blaming others. Browns are better off by putting some rookie scorpions in a bottle and seeing who’s actually interested.
more like Return-to-Sender skills.
as a cornerback, I wish he returned more passes to sender.
hi MG … of the 14 draft picks we had , only 3 of them (r.louis , devalve & kessler) left us scratching our heads … i’ve only seen louis return a kick-off & haven’t seen him make any catches … i haven’t even seen devalve on the field.
“Kruger’s shown absolutely nothing…”
I mean, staggeringly nothing.
This exactly.
I wish I could get him to cut me.
Kessler was known to be a slow-burn. It is going to take some time with him but he’s got some nice upside if the Browns are patient with him.
Plenty of questions on the draft picks. Can Coleman push for RT? Will Ogbah be capable of starting? Is Coleman’s early injury a bad indicator?
Real early and the team is obviously dedicated with getting young. We’ll see.
The next draft will be important. So far, it looks to be pretty deep, and we already have 13 picks, AND we haven’t even traded JT, yet.
Joe Thomas is ours and will be ours until he retires no matter how dumb some consider it to be to hold onto him in his twilight years.
Either he is here when we finally turn the corner and become a consistent playoff team or he is the only first-ballot HOFer who never even played in the playoffs (maybe first ever to never play a playoff game regardless of entry? — not sure about some of those old-timers when there was only the champ game for playoffs)
.. if Friday was any indicator , it looks like Pasztor may be the starting RT. sure , he had a couple of horrible penalties in the first half & i believe they were pass plays … but he looks really good in the run game & i think that comes first with Hue.
If you’re a second-round pick and you can’t start on a 3-13 team, something’s wrong.
π
https://media.giphy.com/media/S5r7EL2Sb5QuA/giphy.gif
He couldn’t even cover Johnny Manziel. Tsk. tsk.
Because he’s related to Dan Gilbert?
no way? Hmm. Won’t be shocked if he’s cut but Gabriel might have a better shot than Hawkins. With the long look they gave him Friday and his decent showing I’m thinking maybe he’s their last receiver and they’ll try to sign some of the mid-round draftees to the practice squad.
That is my opinion, but, yes, it is what I think π
Not the first, Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers both never made the playoffs.
I wouldn’t sleep on Drango at RT either. He’s played some snaps there as well as LT, and has actually looked really solid. I’m not sure what would happen when the lights go on, but he’s at least an option we should be talking about.
Thank you. Now remember that about Sayers (though short career would make interesting conversations). Never realized that about Butkus.
I think you stumbled onto something. Man with fantastic, flowing hair is cut by this regime. I see what’s going on.
Bingo. As a man of principle, there were two things Kruger would not do: 1) Set the edge; 2) Appear on a NFL field without tresses flowing magnificently as he engaged at the snap. Hue could abide #1, but #2? That was personal.
Well, the Sashimetric Computalator just traded the best punter in the NFL for . . . not the best punter in the NFL. Because he refused to make a tackle Friday night? #TeamConspiracy
http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/news/article-5/Browns-trade-P-Andy-Lee-to-Carolina/861d730a-fa75-4487-848a-96880a9a54e2
And … Sashi trades punter Andy Lee for a 4th rounder. Some may see a straight money dump pattern. But maybe this is a lack-of-hustle Friday pattern. Role model quit, you don’t fit
I always remember it because Doug Buffone (who played with Butkus and Sayers) use to always bring it up on sports-talk radio in Chicago. It was a very useful fact when the old timers would call in daydreaming about how good the “good ol’ days” of Bears football was.
I would assume it’s because a team was foolish enough to give up a 4th round pick for a punter.
Punters are to the HBT like WRs were to Farmer.
#TeamSnark
So is saving cash part of a strategy that will help the Browns competitively or does it just give Jimmy more money?
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Because we didn’t draft a bunch of cornerbacks this spring and have very limited depth at the position. He’s on thin ice, but I expect he makes it onto the 53-man roster this year. If the K’Waun Williams fiasco hadn’t happened and Tramon Williams wasn’t such a disappointment, he’d be gone.