Dawging the Browns

Stallworth gets a month for killing a guy

By Sean McClelland | Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 04:11 PM

The guy he killed was jaywalking, so this apparently had something to do with receiver Donte Stallworth receiving a mere 30-day jail sentence today in his DUI-manslaughter case.

Donte Stallworth in court

Oh well. Maybe it’s good news for the Browns. Maybe they can still squeeze some production out of this guy. Certainly he gave them little last season, starting in training camp when he spiked a shoeless Braylon Edwards as they pranced around after practice.

Chances are NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will have something to say about this. Expect him to come down on Stallworth with a healthy disciplinary action of at least a few games. I mean, a DUI with nobody dying likely would result in some league penalty, no?

Meanwhile, the Browns have been stocking up on mediocre veterans and promising rookies just in case Stallworth’s NFL career is over and/or the urge to trade Braylon Edwards (maybe to the Jets if they don’t get Plaxico Burress?) strikes the fancy of head coach Eric Mangini.

And make no mistake, Mangini is running the show with the Browns. The whole show. The general manager, George Kokinis, is merely the instrument through which Mangini communicates with the rest of the league on matters of trades and such. How this is different from the failed Butch Davis/Pete Garcia pairing is not readily apparent, but this is the direction owner Randy Lerner (who couldn’t even be bothered to take questions when Mangini was hired) has chosen to take.

IN THE COMMENTS SECTION, somebody made reference to the Browns’ Web site and how it’s filled with the real truth about the team, especially how the whole Mangini busing-the-rookies to Connecticut fiasco was supposedly blown way out of proportion. That site, just so we’re clear, is a house organ dedicated to writing whatever Mangini (or whomever) wants it to write. Somebody told me Butch used to assign stories to the writers on the site, and I don’t think the person who told me that was joking.

And that’s fine, but I miss the musings of Steve King, the veteran journalist who was terminated when Lerner decided to save a few nickels and fire a bunch of people. If you’re a Browns fan, you like hearing about the team’s history because, well, it’s usually so much better than the present. King was always there with a story about some player from the past, Milt Morin maybe, who you hadn’t thought about in a while.

King gave the site some credibility, if nothing else.

SO JIM BROWN thinks the Browns are headed in the right direction. Love listening to Jim, but this is getting old. He says the same thing every year.

A TRADITION DIED in May when the Browns Backers of Greater Dayton could not put on their annual banquet (traditionally emceed by Doug Dieken) due to shortage of funds.

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Dumb move by Mangenius

By Sean McClelland | Saturday, May 30, 2009, 12:25 PM

By essentially forcing the rookies to take a 10-hour bus trip to work a camp at his old high school in Connecticut this weekend, head coach Eric Mangini only succeeded in adding to the Browns’ reputation as an NFL laughingstock.

The team is being ridiculed nationally, even more than usual. An entire segment was devoted to the bus trip on one of those ESPN shows Friday night, with former players weighing in on the stupidity of it all. (Granted, these shows need to fill air time and anything goes, but why supply them with the ammunition on a silver platter?)

It’s nice to help kids, but 20 hours round trip on a bus in one weekend? It’s the dumbest thing a Browns coach/executive has done since Bill Belichick cut Bernie Kosar in the middle of the 1993 season.

That means it’s dumber than passing up LaDainian Tomlinson and Ben Roethlisberger in the draft.

Dumber than when Romeo Crennel flipped a coin to determine his starting quarterback in an exhibition game.

Dumber than Carmen Policy saying “those plastic bottles don’t pack much of a wallop” after fans threw them on the field to protest a bad call against Jacksonville a few years back.

All the talking-head, ex-NFL guys on ESPN agreed that if Mangini had to take the rookies to his old high school for a camp, they should have been able to fly.

Where’s billionaire owner Randy Lerner with the private jet if this is so important? Answer: An absentee owner, Lerner probably isn’t anywhere near Cleveland this weekend (did Aston Villa have a game?), but couldn’t such a flight have been arranged with a few phone calls? Or was the jet in for repairs?

Mangini insists the bus trip was “voluntary,” but we all know what that means. When you’re a rookie fighting to make the team, it’s more like forced labor. You only hope nobody falls asleep in a meeting on Monday when they’re back at work.

If exposing the rookies to the benefits of charity work is the goal, there are plenty of good causes closer to home to keep them busy.

Funny how you don’t hear about the Steelers or the Patriots (cheating scandal aside) making such gross miscalculations and exposing themselves to endless national ridicule. Why is that, I wonder. Maybe it’s because those organizations know what they’re doing.

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A little secondary help

By Sean McClelland | Tuesday, May 26, 2009, 04:01 PM

Not the most exciting signing, but cornerback Rod Hood is a six-year veteran who played the past two seasons for the Arizona Cardinals. Given the Browns’ thinness in the secondary, his signing today as a free agent can’t hurt.

Some facts about Hood:

Started 14 games last season for the NFC champion Cardinals with 40 tackles, 14 passes defensed and one interception. Returned a blocked field goal attempt 68 yards for a touchdown.

In 2007, his best season, he had five interceptions and took two back for touchdowns. His 196 interception return yards were the second-most in the NFL that year.

Spent his first four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and was rumored to be signing with the Browns before signing with Arizona the first time he became a free agent.

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Cribbs making holdout noises

By Sean McClelland | Monday, May 18, 2009, 11:40 PM

Receiver/special teams ace/strong safety Josh Cribbs plans to boycott the voluntary minicamp this week unless there is progress on talks for a new contract by the start of camp today, his agent J.R. Rickert told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer on Monday.

For about a year now, Cribbs has been looking to renegotiate the six-year, $6 million contract extension he signed before the 2007 season, after which he made the Pro Bowl.

He reportedly wants a deal similar to Bears returner/receiver Devin Hester, who last year received $40 million over four years with $15 million guaranteed.

“Josh is starting to get a sense there’s no appreciation for him,” Rickert told The Plain Dealer. “He feels a little personally hurt by it because he puts his heart and soul into this team.”

There’s a report floating around that owner Randy Lerner called Cribbs and said the new contract would get done, as promised by fired GM Phil Savage. The Browns were quick to deny this Monday with this statement: “Contrary to published reports this morning, no one from the current Browns organization, including owner Randy Lerner, has ever made any promises to Josh Cribbs with regard to his contract status.”

Here’s the reality of the situation: Sure, Cribbs has outperformed his contract. Sure, he probably deserves to have the old one ripped up, even with four more years remaining on it. No, he’d better not be holding his breath.

Cribbs has been participating in the team’s off-season program, but will skip all team functions until substantial talks take place, The Plain Dealer reported. The Browns have voluntary camps this week and next week, organized team activities the first week of June and a mandatory minicamp June 11-13.

On a happier note, the PD reported that formerly disgruntled Shaun Rogers has resolved his differences with head coach Eric Mangini.

Rogers had asked the Browns to release him and not pay his $6 million option bonus in March after Mangini, who has about as much public relations savvy as Bill Belichick apparently, snubbed him at a banquet.

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Encouraging day for the orange helmets

By Sean McClelland | Saturday, April 25, 2009, 11:24 PM

Somewhere in the blizzard of draft dispatches Saturday, I read something about fans not being all that excited about the Browns’ first-round pick, California center Alex Mack.

I actually thought it was fairly shrewd, even Belichick-esque, so to speak. As was the trade down from No. 5, especially when linebacker Aaron Curry was snatched away one pick earlier by Seattle.

Nothing sexy about the Mack pick, but it’s a building block. And evidence that new head coach Eric Mangini knows the importance of the offensive line and how everything else on offense depends on having one that doesn’t get pushed around.

The tepid reaction is understandable in terms of name recognition. Let’s face it. You have to be some kind of draft fanatic — or some weird Pac-10 fan — even to have heard the name Alex Mack before Saturday.

But you won’t read a bad word about the guy in any of the draft guides. He was clearly the top player at his position.

Now, was he the best pick at No. 21 overall? That’s what can be debated. But who else would you have taken? Ohio State running back Beanie Wells might have made sense. He went 10 picks later to Arizona. Otherwise, nobody’s jumping out at me.

Thrilled with receivers Brian Robiskie and Mohamed Massaquoi in the second round. Robiskie is a known commodity, having played at Ohio State, and I’ve seen Massaquoi (Georgia) on TV enough to think his size and toughness should outweigh any concerns about his speed.

I can’t see Robiskie failing. At worst, he’s Kevin Johnson. Great hands, smart, crafty. He’s the kind of player the Indianapolis Colts usually draft.

Also in the second round, the Browns were able to land Hawaii defensive end David Veikune, and if you’ve seen this guy play, you like him. Simple as that.

Some guys, you see them in some random game or a bowl game and they’re in on every play. Veikune was that guy whenever I saw Hawaii, which ended up being fairly often given my recurring bouts with insomnia.

Would have preferred a defensive player early, but failing that, I thought the Browns did well getting Veikune, even though he makes Mack look like a household name.

All in all, an encouraging day for the orange helmets, I would say. Anxious to see what Sunday brings.

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They need defense, not Crabtree

By Sean McClelland | Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 04:38 PM

Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree now is said to be off the Browns’ radar at No. 5 because he supposedly acted like a diva on his recent visit to team headquarters.

Curious, but if he acted that way, maybe it wasn’t an accident. Kid’s from Texas. What a culture shock Cleveland would be, to say nothing of going to a team with no recent history of success, another new coach, another new general manager and an absentee owner.

There are better situations for him, I think we would all agree. So maybe coming off this way was a calculated move to play somewhere warmer or more exotic.

Of course, on ESPN Radio this afternoon, Crabtree denied acting like a jerk in the building and claimed no knowledge of how that information came to find its way to a blog post authored by Tony Grossi, longtime Browns beat reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The greater need is on defense, anyway, so that’s the direction I expect the Browns to head Saturday, with Boston College defensive tackle B.J. Raji a likely choice, especially now that he apparently did not fail a drug test.

If Raji has the kind of immediate impact Haloti Ngata had with the Baltimore Ravens, the Browns will be well on their way to solving the run-defense riddle that has plagued them since their expansion inception in 1999. Bolstering the defense has got to be their No. 1 priority.

Let’s see … what else?

Oh, the Browns announced today they intend to feed the media at this year’s draft. Food service over the years has gone from steak (1999) to pretty much nothing (2008) at these things. Maybe this is head coach Eric Mangini’s doing. In his previous Browns life, as a ballboy and public relations intern, he was in charge of bringing food to the media, remember.

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Draft cue: What would the Bills do?

By Sean McClelland | Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 03:46 PM

Saw where Peter King of SI.com is projecting the Browns to take Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry with the No. 5 overall pick Saturday.

That would probably be a fairly safe way to go if Curry is still on the board. Goodness knows, they need linebackers who can influence games.

But they also need more nastiness up front, so I would be leaning toward Boston College defensive tackle B.J. Raji. Last time they passed over a top lineman for a linebacker, they took Kamerion Wimbley over Haloti Ngata and look how that turned out. (Of course, the last time they took a defensive lineman in the top five, it was Gerard “Big Money” Warren, who’s still in the league, by the way, with the Raiders).

That said, the Browns probably can’t go wrong. At least you would hope not, picking this high. (Can’t believe I just wrote that as the names of bust after bust keeping popping into my head, but you know what I mean.)

King’s reasoning: “DT B.J. Raji would allow Cleveland to move Shaun Rogers to DE full time. But Curry, who can play inside or outside LB, is a better sideline-to-sideline fit for Eric Mangini’s 3-4.”

Mangini doesn’t exactly have the magic touch with linebackers, though. See: Vernon Gholston, last year’s first-round bust (so far) with the Jets.

Trades could factor into the equation, of course, but even if Braylon Edwards is sent away, I can’t see grabbing a receiver that high. Too risky.

Michael Crabtree may, in fact, be the next Larry Fitzgerald, but I don’t think Bill Belichick or Bill Parcells generally would draft a receiver with a top-five pick, so that should be the guide. Just ask yourself, what would the Bills do? And I don’t mean Buffalo.

You can piece together a receiving corps more easily than a defense.

Defense wins. Defense is what they need. And defense it should be.

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