Mind Character

ok... gotcha

Come on man... CB and Safety over top of a herniated WR... airmailed by 10 yards... you don't throw that

... it is unwise to speak ill of the Dear Leader of men ... they may be watching...

The shovel pass is queued up next...

^^^ This guy's dialed in...

I believe in the "suck" of the Bengals... It's already commenced... lol

Who's ready for us to pull away in the 2nd by a wide margin followed by the obligatory "say what you want about Freddie but this team is fighting for him to the end" posts...

I agree with giving Dorsey more time. However, I'd like the coaching search to be different than the last time when Dorsey as the primary lead

You have to marvel at how fast the tide turns b/c of losing.. John Dorsey was a worshiped idol post-OBJ trade. People loved his draft. Months later.. people are ready to escort him out of town... ..this game and human beings are fascinating...

Mack WIlson keeps breaking contain and ducking in overlapped... smh.... stay outside young fella

Baker is a flush right QB, and on 3rd down we have no routes right of the formation... good times....

The first real deep ball of the season comes the final game against the worst team in the league. Freddie's Superbowl is going well. If only we weren't playing the worst team in the league, the momentum we need to change coaches would've been assured. The Haslam's are the type of owners where a win in this game would factor into their decision unfortunately.... smh.... All we can hope for now is Ryan Lindley to get the can... and bringing in a new QB room that challenges and pushes Baker.

No L. Just good discussion. You're right that no matter what going forward we have to bring in a more reliable guy at Tight-End. You're also right in that for how cut up and athletic he looks, it would stand to reason that he'd ball-out more. Only time will tell. I hope he gets at least one more year of time as the 3rd year for raw players can make all the difference.

----------- Can you sense it? ........... Can you feel it? Something dark this way comes.... Something we dare not speak... something suppressed... that we buried in a box stored deep in the hidden depths of our memory..... Oh My Goodness NOOOOOOO.... NOT THAT..... Dorsey too????? Nooooooo.... ... The dark reality starts to set in.... .... Media reports are swirling.... we may be making more sweeping changes than we ever thought.. Who's Out & Who's In? ... And what do you think about it? -------------------------------- ... Be at Ease FF-Brethren... there is a sacred place where we can find rest and be free of the Browns insanity .... the greenest pastures where we, Bernie, and Jim Brown run free in joy... where the Browns never left and Bill Belichick and his successor Nick Saban shepherd an eternal dynasty of bliss.... Cle-lysium, the land of dreams.... let go and once again envision our inner Browns spirit (the one that's been imprisoned by perpetual misery, disappointment, false hopes, and insanity) hovering over tranquil and serene waters... able to roam free in the deep horizon of eternal football fan peace and bliss... Cle-lysium .... --------------------- Be at ease FF-brethren... remember the chants of Browns-Misery Transcendance from yesteryear... renewal words from days of yore: "DEEP BREATH IN....(CHANTING; Slowly and Melodic)..."BROWNS FAN SPIRIT BE FREE... SO LONG JOHN DORSEY..... MONEYBALL TIME RETURN TO SAASSHHHHIIIIIIIIIII...." DEEP BREATH OUT...(CHANTING)..."WAS BAKER'S FIRST YEAR A DREAM..... WHY CAN"T WE HAVE NICE THINGS... DON'T MATTER LET GO AND HAVE PEACEEEEEE." BREATH IN...BREATH OUT...(CHANTING)..."DEPODESTA PLEASE HELP.. JIMMY HASLAM CAN STILL GO F*** HIMSELLLFFFFFF" ------------ ... let the deep and ancient peace washes over us...and transcended into the sweet embrace of Browns Zen... even though everything is burning around us...all is right with the Browns and the world....

Howie Roseman acquires players a year before they are needed especially when key components of their current roster are Free Agents. Vinny Curry is a free agent this off-season; and Derek Barnett is heading into his final contract year. The Eagles already had 4 really good pass rushers or one's they've invested a lot in (Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, Vinny Curry, Josh Sweat) and 1 developmental college production guy (Daeshon Hall). Avery arrived in week 9 of the season. He wasn't ever going to on a lot of snaps this season especially when Jim Schwartz is an old-school, loyalist to the players that put in the blood sweat and tears in the off-season and during the early season learning his scheme.

The fact that Avery didn't play for the Eagles after arriving there in week 9 doesn't matter at all. He could've played for us and made a high quality impact. Jim Schwartz isn't the type of DC to give tons of snaps to a guy that hasn't been around to learn things over players that have put in the work and acquired knowledge of the defense all season at position group where he feels like he already has his guys. The Eagles give all their snaps to: 1.) a Big $ Free Agent signing in Brandon Graham, 2.) a top 15 draft pick in Derek Barnett, 3.) Vinny Curry, 4.) Their own 4th round draft pick Josh Sweat, and 5.) Their long-term project wide-9 talent Daeshon Hall. If Avery arrived in the off-season or early season, he would've had a shot. By week 9, he wasn't up to speed with the defense until week 12/

Calling Njoku Mentally weak because he hasn't developed into a high-level star in his first 2 years is a bit of stretch bruh. It does make sense though to criticize the substance of his impact or his play weaknesses. Saying that he hasn't produced simply isn't true at all though. In his 2nd season, at 22 years old he trailed only 1.) George Kittle, 2.) Travis Kelce, 3.) Zach Ertz, 4.) Jared Cook, 5.) Eric Ebron, 6.) Rob Gronkowski, 7.) Austin Hooper in Yards produced by a Tight Ends and was 5th in Catch% 1-percentage point or less off of George Kittle and Rob Gronkowski's mark that year. He's amongst a grouping of players we all think of as big-time Tight Ends (Ebron fell off this year; Hooper is getting paid as a top 3 Tight-end). He was the rawest Tight End coming into the draft in which scouts predicted that he was so raw that it likely would all come together for him until year 4 with the logic being that Tight End is the hardest developmental position in terms of success rate based on all analytical models and traditional football scouting analysis. Njoku had issues last year blocking. He also had drops but comparing the drops to the other Tight-ends he's right where most of the tight ends we think are the best are. Tight ends in general have less reliable hands than receivers. We drafted Njoku at the bottom of the 1st round. He came in raw and one of the youngest Tight Ends to ever enter the league at 21 years old. He's far from a great player but giving up on him before we've ever seen his 3rd year of growth is wild man. Saying that we should give up on Dorsey b/c Dorsey is giving up on Njoku is wild too lol. He's shown enough production to warrant that we don't just move-on from him at this point in his career.

This is the highest level of the game. There's levels to this Sh*t. We're talking about human beings that get paid Millions upon Millions of dollars to maximize their athletic potential and performance full-time and coaches that get paid bags of Millions to never see their children grow up while leading a football team. Everyone was the best football player on their high school team; every other person was an all-american in college or accomplished player. It's no longer about solid work ethic anymore when it's you versus 31 other human beings on the planet at your position in a race up the mountain to greatness. Solid college work ethic isn't going to cut it at this level. Baker arrived and didn't have a morning routine arriving to the facility about 30 mins before the team's first agenda short meeting commenced. Tyrod Taylor at was there 3 and sometimes 4 hours before that. Does that mean Baker doesn't work hard at all? No, not necessarily. There's a dimension to work ethic that has to do with growing/elevating work habits, critical thinking, planning, and the ability to work smart. There's a difference between working hard and working hard and smart. Those that have played sports know best that there are tons of people that are busy bodies in the gym or on the field but waste their time spinning their wheels not improving. Scouts knew coming out that Baker wasn't an elite worker despite the narratives that fans were fed and readily accepted about the "Leader of Men Walk-On" prospect. The truth that the scouting community knew was that he was an ultra-competitor, fantastic arm-talent with accuracy, had great escapability and could extend the play, had a bad tendency to flush right even when not necessary, had emotional discipline issues, had high emotional intelligence, loved celebrity, engaged in media distractions always trying to control narratives about him, and had good but not elite work ethic and commitment to perfecting his craft. Baker is not an elite hard worker. At least not yet. Baker is not an elite smart worker. At least not yet. Nothing is certain at this point regarding what Baker will or won't be. What he did in college as well as his college work habits don't carry over to now.

If you decided to tie-down a christmas tree in your truck to make sure its secured on the highway drive home only to see it fly out of the truck bed because the rope-harness you used to secure the tree was faulty due to manufacturer defect, it wouldn't mean that your decision to attempt to tie-down the tree to secure it was wrong. Outcomes mean a lot for the quality of decisions, but often the quality of logic behind the decision at the time you made it is what matters most. When evaluating GMs or personnel execs, the rationale and logic behind decisions should be evaluated to see if it was sound, as well as the outcome. The draft record is the draft record. By the time you get to pick 32 in the 1st round, the hit-rate/success rate is less than 47% for GMs in the league. After that, it keeps declining incrementally before experiencing a hard fall-off after mid-round 2. It's absolutely true that during the same time other GMs have performed better than Dorsey in comparative hit-rates and many have them have done so without the draft capital Dorsey had to work with. Here's a wide variety of significant things/decisions (good or bad) Dorsey has made since being hired: Cut Kenny Britt Traded DL Danny Shelton and 2018 5th-round pick to New England in exchange for 2019 3rd-round pick Traded QB DeShone Kizer and swapped to lower 4th and 5th round picks to Green Bay in exchange for DB Damarious Randall. Traded 2018 3rd-round pick to Buffalo in exchange for QB Tyrod Taylor Traded 2018 4th-round pick and 2019 7th-round pick to Miami in exchange for WR Jarvis Landry Traded QB Kevin Hogan and 2018 6th-round pick (No. 205) to Washington in exchange for 2018 6th-round pick (No. 188) Signed unrestricted free agent DB T.J. Carrie Signed unrestricted free agent RB Carlos Hyde; Later Trades Carlos Hyde to Jacksonville Jaguars in exchange for a 2019 5th-round pick. Signed unrestricted free agent DB Terrance Mitchell Signed unrestricted free agent OL Chris Hubbard Hired Todd Haley; Todd Haley Hires Freddie Kitchens; Freddie Kitchens Hires Ryan Lindley as RB coach Allowed Freddie to make Ryan Lindley QB Coach later. Cut Carl Nassib Cut LB Jamie Collins Sr. Signed OL Greg Robinson to be starting LT. Acquired WR Odell Beckham Jr. and DL Olivier Vernon from the New York Giants in exchange for OL Kevin Zeitler, DB Jabrill Peppers, 2019 1st-round pick (Dexter Lawrence) and a 3rd-round pick (Oshane Ximines) Traded Emmanuel Ogbah for Eric Murray. Signed DL Sheldon Richardson Signed OG Eric Kush to start at RG if Corbett couldnt cut it after Zeitler was traded away. Signed DB Juston Burris off New York Jets' practice squad Came out in the Media and said "Duke's not expendable yet." Despite fans acting like Duke wanted out before, Duke corrects the record and accurately states that he didn't request a trade or wasn't discontented until after Dorsey spoke his true feelings. Traded RB Duke Johnson Jr. to Houston Texans for 2020 3rd round draft pick Acquired G Wyatt Teller and a 2021 7th-round pick from Buffalo Bills in exchange for a 2020 5th-round pick and a 2020 6th-round pickA Traded C Austin Corbett to Los Angeles Rams in exchange for a bag of doritoes Traded DE Genard Avery to Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for an undisclosed bag of funions.

The "Smartest" people is a loaded phrase. To me, the most expert person should make the decisions based around consensus building. DePodesta is likely the smartest person in the organization, but that doesn't mean that he has the expertise to identify which players should be valued over others. In the Sashi Brown world, that meant that consensus was built between Coaches, Scouts, and Analytics and a subsequent decision was made if it aligned with the teams overall goal of tanking to win later. At some point though, if the consensus builder does not have expertise of vision, evaluation, and decision-making relative to football and scouting of football players the wrong final decisions are made. You, Tayne, and me are the principle execs. You believe Deshaun Watson or Patrick Mahomes is clearly the guy. You know it like you know the Sun will rise. Tayne thinks it's Trubisky, I believe in Trubisky by a slight edge, the scouts are split, and analytics points to Trubisky. Consensus isn't certain but it points to Trubisky. To me, that would be an example of consensus building, but it disregards whether or not consensus was being built from people on equal footing in expertise in QB evaluation. The point is that "Consensus" isn't always what successfully wins the day in real, on the ground GM decision-making. What's true is that no matter what, wrong decisions will be made. That's part of human organizational decision-making. However, if the consensus builder doesn't have the right expertise, imo it will lead to more wrong decisions being decided on than not, especially when decisions are made about closely comparable things.

Draft Strategy 2020: It's 1 of 7** Players --OR-- We Have to Trade Down (OR Trade Up): Our Optimal Draft Strategy this Year is starting to become crystal clear imo. Outside of few TE, I've watched numerous prospects' games at our positions of need (i.e., RT, RG, LT, WR, SS-Hybrid, DE, FS, DT ) to the point where I have a global sense of the draft talent pool, as well as what our draft strategy should be rounds 1-4 given our needs and the best players available within each position group. I've started to vertical stack my board elevating quality players at one position group over a lesser quality player at a different position group. I've concluded that there are 5-7** players worthy of our potential top-15 selection. Outside of those 5-7**, the only logical move will be to trade down. acquire additional draft capital, and then select a player out of the next tier of talent. The 5-7**: 1.) Jedrick Wills Jr., OT Alabama 2.) Andrew Thomas, LT Georgia 3.) Tristan Wirfs, OG-Phenom/RT iowa 4.) Netane Muti, OG/LT Fresno St. 5.) AJ Epenesa, DE Iowa 6.) Kristian Fulton, CB LSU (Not a Position of Need But May be Too Good to Pass On) 7.) *** There Will be WRs available worthy of the selection; however, as this is the deepest WR class in history [[ i.e., 10 Pro-Bowl Upside, High Quality Impact Immediate Starters: 1.) CeeDee Lamb, WR Oklahoma, 2.) Jerry Jeudy, WR Alabama, 3.) Michael Pittman, WR USC, 4.) DeVonta Smith, WR Alabama, 5.) Henry Ruggs, WR Alabama, 6.) Jaelen Raegor, WR TCU , 7.) Justin Jefferson, WR LSU , 8.) Bryan Edwards, WR South Carolina , 9.) Tee Higgins, WR Clemson, 10.) Denzel Mims, WR Baylor ]] it wouldn't make that much sense for us to spend a top-15 pick on one. 8.) Trade-Down After that, the next highest graded players at positions of need are all later 1st round to mid-2nd round (top 50) prospects.They are the players that we should target after 1 or 2 significant trade downs with some players being more worthy of the selection post-trade down than others. The post-trade down later 1st to mid-2nd round prospects (Top-50) are the following: Offensive Tackle: Isaiah Wilson, RT Georgia; Prince Tega Wanogho, LT Auburn; Austin Jackson, LT USC; Alex Leatherwood, LT Alabama; Josh Jones, RT Houston; Terrance Steele, RT Texas Tech; Yasir Durant, LT/OC Missouri; Mekhi Becton, OT Louisville; Offensive Guard: Shane Lemieux, OG Oregon; Defensive End: Julian Okwara, DE-Convert Notre Dame; Yetur Gross-Matos, DE Penn State; Nose Tackle: Derrick Brown, NT; 3-Tech: Javon Kinlaw, DT South Carolina Linebacker: Isaiah Simmons, LB-Hybrid Clemson Strong Safety: Grant Delpit, SS LSU Of that group, I believe Simmons and Delpit are Fools gold leading to minimal impact at the next level (especially Delpit who I see as a late 2nd/early 3rd round prospect). Others I have a wide variety of concerns about how their deficiencies and strengths will translate/develop once in the pros. If we trade down, the guys I'd like the most based on my belief in their next level impact currently would be: 1.) Prince Tega Wanogho, LT Auburn, 2.) Any of the 10 Immediate Quality Starter WRs that are still available, 3.) Shane Lemieux, OG Oregon, 4.) Julian Okwara, DE-Convert Notre Dame, 5.) Isaiah Wilson, RT Georgia.

Good vs Good allows for separation of talent. Epenesa is a top 12 talent; Austin Jackson is not and is more so a top 40 talent with top 20 raw ability. The issues in the Iowa VS USC game were pin-point exactly the issues that I spoke about over a month ago and worry me about Jackson in the pros, as well as why I've put him in the Quality Starter Upside, Serious Deficiencies category. ^^^ What I said over a month ago was exactly (see below) Hopefully, the Iowa game pushes Jackson down further in the 2nd where he should've gone in the first place. He's all upside (his upside is multi-pro bowler) but more worries in the short term. If he loves the game and is willing to put in the work, these are the types of players you love to swing on in the middle of the or late 2nd round. Unfortunately, Epenesa is going to go top 10 where he belongs after people doubted him this season. He was able to get the edge with hand technique and edge burst even against a fluid moving highly athletic Tackle that's going OT go top 50 in the draft. He's out of our range... unless... the red rifle and Bengals help us out.

Giving Paul DePodesta more power sounds nice in theory but likely doesn't make much sense in practice so long as "more power" means final say over key personnel decisions. I do often think about what Paul DePodest and/or Sashi Brown could've accomplished if their goal was to win now. I doubt that John Dorsey would stick around if an analytics, money-ball "baseball" guy like DePo gets final say. Here's a scenario: 1.) Analytics department and DePo think Mitch Trubisky is the best QB and we should trade up for him. 2.) John Dorsey/Traditional Scouting Department think Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes should be the pick at 12 or we should trade up for them. 3.) The Head Coach likes Trubisky and Watson. Who should have final say? Here's another: 1.) Analytics department and DePo think Courtland Sutton should be the pick in the 2nd round.. 2.) John Dorsey/Traditional Scouting Department think it should be Austin Corbett. 3.) The Head Coach likes both. Who should have final say? The point is over many hundreds of football decisions, who deserve to have the final power for judgment.... --------- No matter what, I just don't think it makes much sense to give DePo final say over roster/personnel. Now, maybe he has final say over coaching searches, assistant coaches, and/or organizational hires. Maybe he also is given a bigger voice when it comes to draft time and free agency. We saw what it was like to have a President of Football Operations - Sashi Brown; a GM without final say - Andrew Berry; an Strategic Executive -- Paul DePodesta and a "football guy" HC - Hue Jackson. The real remaining question is what would've been different if the key decision-makers were in the win now mode instead of the tear down, rebuild mode? We'll never know. One things for sure: in order to have DePo have final say, Dorsey would be let go and the new GM would have to be okay giving authority to what a lot of people perceive to be a "non-football" guy. I do laugh at the image/idea of Paul DePodesta and Robot Eliot Wolf on the phone trying to recruit free agents and talk to agents.

Who's ready to go up against Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson 2 times a year for the foreseeable future?? Burrow is every bit of the leader of men Baker was thought to be, more of an athlete, more of a "competitive maniac" worker on his craft (as Urban Meyer calls it), far less of an arm talent, much more emotionally mature/disciplined, and light years less in love with twitter watching and responding. If somehow the Steelers end up with Tua, Baker may have a fight on his hands for the 3rd or 4th best QB in the division if he doesn't improve over the off-season and mature.