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October 2, 2009Jim Brown: Michael Crabtree’s Holdout is “Totally Ridiculous”
October 2, 2009
While the big change that will continue to get national coverage is that of Derek Anderson replacing Brady Quinn, we get word from The OBR that there are also changes on the defensive side of the ball. The biggest of which is that Brandon McDonald has lost his starting spot to Mike Adams.
Despite plotting revenge against the Denver Broncos two weeks ago, McDonald was a part of a defense that gave up entirely too many second-half yards to long runs as well as yards after receptions. The icing on the cake may just have been the 72-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Mason of the Baltimore Ravens last week.
We will still see plenty of McDonald, and the team may just be sending him a sign that his starting spot is not as written in stone as he may have once thought. Mike Adams isn’t exactly Nnamidi Asomugha, and in the event that the Browns are on the defensive side of a third-and-long, McDonald should get a crack at defending the slot.
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(Thomas Ondrey/The Plain Dealer)
18 Comments
Hah-Lay-Lou-Ya!
Next to offensive line, WR, linebacker, and quarterback, defensive back is the Browns’ biggest area of need.
Guess who is starting this week against us? ….. Maualuga has been a sparkplug on defense and is making a smooth transition into the pros. He is tied with veteran linebacker Dhani Jones for third on the team in tackles with 17. The rookie has also accounted for one sack and two forced fumbles….. It was a no-brain pick that only the Browns could screw up. Not that I will be watching the game anyway…
AI
Rod Hood is apparently available again (cut by the Bears). However, he ran his mouth about the Browns after we cut him so maybe his availability is irrelevant.
I really hope that I can NOT watch the game but I fear, like an addict, I will not be able to NOT watch.
No, TDML, no: there isn’t possibly no way that nothing you can’t not watch won’t be non-visible to you and not watchable, no way.
I hate Mike Adams
Not to be a total Pollyanna, but maybe we’ll get a better performance out of McDonald and Cribbs by limiting their roles to what they’re good at: nickelback and special-teams stud.
McDonald was a pleasant surprise over-achieving during his rookie year as the nickelback. Josh Cribbs isn’t cutting it as a No. 2 or No. 3 receiver. Maybe if Adams can hold the line and we see something out of Robiskie, Furrey or Massaquoi, that’ll allow McDonald and Cribbs to over-achieve at their roles and finally make something happen this season (not counting Cribbs’ TD against Minnesota, of course).
Hey anon imus, you made some good observations and by no means am I satisfied with our 2nd round picks, but keep in mind we were one of 31 teams that decided to pass on ray ray!
Championship.
The look at Maualuga is positive right now, no doubt. I would also say that stats don’t tell the full story just yet. He is struggling in coverage so far. He will pick it up over time, but a few big plays have occurred on his watch including (I believe) the 27 yard scoring pass that Willie Parker caught in the game against the Steelers that put them up 10-0.
Still, Maualuga has made some big plays forcing fumbles and generally causing chaos. Of course the real risk of drafting Maualuga was his perceived off-field problems with alcohol. I hope (as I would for any player) that they do not come up again, but to pretend that these weren’t on the table as real absolute risks at draft time is revisionist history.
Craig-there you go again. Just how many times has Robo suited up? It’s not revisionist history for those who stepped up and would have chosen Rey M. on draft day-those lines were only used as excuses for those searching for reasons to rationalize. It didn’t wash then and won’t wash now. Perchance, how many Browns players mya have “off-field problems with alcohol”?
Robo was picked, Rey wasn’t-the scorecard will be rendered on that pick as well as the entire Mangini draft eventually.
There I go again says the man who repeats himself 27 times per day.
Rationalize what? The dramatic drop of a risky player? So Randy Moss worked out. So Rey Maualuga might work out. How about Lawrence Phillips? How did that one work out?
Reality check time, Isis. None of us “step up” on draft day because we are all fans who have almost ZERO access to meaningful data on potential draft picks. You could read everything from Scouts, Rivals, Mel Kiper, Adam Schefter and any other publication and still be 90% in the dark. We all realize this, and somehow you do not Isis. You can’t just imagine your way into knowledge. Even if you guess right on draft day, you are a guesser plain and simple like the rest of us.
Rey Rey had a bad rep based on bad stuff he did. Can you deny that? Everyone in the draft passed on this dude. Does that tell you anything or are you smarter than everyone including Bill Belichick and the the Colts front office?
You did not conduct any pre-draft interviews did you, Isis? Did you attend any of the pre-draft meetings or visits that teams had with Maualuga? Did you go to dinner with Pete Carroll and discuss the USC roster while on vacation in California?
The slide in the draft was real because a lot of teams (not just the Browns) had experiences with the guy. You constantly pose as if you know something and you don’t. You guess just like the rest of us and then claim some kind of intellectual superiority because your guesses are occasionally right.
I have noticed that you conveniently stopped bringing up Beanie Wells every five seconds. What? Doesn’t he help you prove your points any more?
But you won’t address this. You will continue to copy and paste your opinions before telling us all to “book it.”
None of us wanted Robiskie. That was proven to you earlier in the day. At the same time, the rest of us don’t treat that pick as a singular 50/50 proposition where it was Maualuga or Robiskie. It is comprehensible to me that Maualuga was a risky player on draft day. Why is it so far-fetched for you to believe that after seeing all those teams pass on him including the Pats who took Patrick Chung right before the Browns took Robiskie? That’s right. The team that had an aging Tedi Bruschi getting ready to retire passed on Rey Maualuga in favor of Patrick Chung who has 0 tackles in three games for the Pats so far this year.
You have three games of data (none of which you probably watched) on Maualuga and you are going to come on here and lecture everybody as if you are Ozzie Newsome’s secret scouting source?
Scoreboard would be king if this was a game either of us was playing. We are just outside observers. I realize that, but apparently you do not.
Well…all those teams that passed up on Rey (that needed a LB) will be choking on that decision for a long long time, lol. There was another Trojan great, like Rey, who the critics also said played undisciplined football – Junior Seau, ever heard of him? Sure, Rey had his problems, but thankfully the coaches knew there were several things going on in Rey’s life out of his control, such as a beloved father dying of brain cancer. With support and counseling, Rey has turned out to be a very fine young man. If you would like to meet Rey himself, all you have to do is look for him at every charity event benefiting the community, he will be there. Fight On Rey-Rey!
I just want Bowens to give Alex Hall his number and his job back… We can’t pressure the opposing QB’s.. so lets unleash Hall on them. Play him on the line occasionally by going with a four man front. Drop him into coverage on delayed blitzes…
Not to worry, Maiava went to USC, so we do have one perfect LB on the roster.
I wanted the Browns to pick Rey at the time too. And I also wanted Sanchez at 5 instead of trading back a hundred times and getting a lot of junk for it. But I don’t make an ass out of myself anytime a Browns article is posted on here. That is the difference between Isis and I apparently.
The Browns are a disaster and so obviously there will be a lot of second guessing. Rey did have some issues and that is why he fell. Truth be told, I thought we should have taken Crabtree at the time at 5. He also had issues with some teams, and that is why he fell in the draft. And guess what Isis? He is still holding out for some bizarre reason. So it is good we didn’t take that guy with his issues.
Craig was right that none of us sat in on any interviews or saw anything about who he was rolling with, his arrest record, anything like that. So all we can use in our analysis are the stats on the field. And so yes right now, Robo over Rey looks like another awful Browns pick. But maybe that doesn’t stay this way forever. So before we book it as being a horrible pick, give it some time. Lets look back in three years and see where both guys are in, then you can ram down all of our throats. Even if none of us wanted Robo picked there anyway.
I’m not an NFL scout, GM, or personnel director, so I always try to give those guys the benefit of the doubt. Who knows whether Robo will be better than Beanie, or Rey Rey better than Robo, or whatever–it’s too early to tell, and at this moment, I don’t even care.
No, my problem with the pick(s) is that a second round NFL draft pick should be expected to contribute. First day picks are expected to suit up and win starting jobs. Rey’s abilities may be questionable, but the fact that he is starting and having an impact is not. Beanie may not getting many touches yet, but he is playing, and indications out of AZ are that he will be the feature back sometime this year. He’s got his issues (fumbles), but has also been good for some 4.5ypc. A good recent example is LeSean McCoy in PHI–did yeoman’s work filling in for Westbrook last week, after contributing the first couple weeks. I’m not trying to compare players–but it is infuriating that other teams draft players on day one that suit up and have an impact as rookies (check the figures on how many rookies contribute on recent playoff and superbowl teams, you may be surprised) while the Browns have such difficulty finding a guy who can wear the laundry and not be deactivated on Sundays.
I don’t need to interview anybody or have inside information to see how illogical the following is: deactivate a 2nd round pick in order to dress a special teams player because tackling is so deficient, a problem caused by trying to shoehorn their best gunner into the WR2 spot that they burned a 2nd round pick to fill. I’ve watched the games, and I don’t see a capable NFL WR in Cribbs. They effectively weakened two positions with their experimenting. The results on the field speak for themselves–let the players do what they’re best at.
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