Category Archives: the team today

SACKITUDE

Ever had food poisoning? Each wave of nausea is painfully distasteful, yet it somehow brings you closer to having purged yourself of the worst that ails you. Well, that’s why I’m bringing you a series of tables, the Browns’ combined statistical leaders in various categories since their rebirth in 1999. I haven’t seen them compiled […]

PRIMED FOR PROGRESS

Just five times in Browns history has the team’s record improved by at least four games from one season to the next. (I wrote about this in the December ’05 issue of Bernie’s Insiders Magazine.) There are very few commonalities among those various ascendant seasons. The main one is this: 1957 — Primary quarterback: Tommy […]

ROOKIE HAZING BY ANAGRAM

The drafting of rookie RB Jerome Harrison in the fifth round by Phil Savage is further evidence of the saner hirer mojo now at work in Cleveland. Of course, it’s too early to say that bringing “The Ghost” lakeside represents a major hero risen. After all, a back his size hardly rehonors Jim era Browns […]

QUICK QB QUIPS

I’ll have more of substance to say about the quarterback situation, but for now, here are a few figures. 1. Young Ken Dorsey: 11 career games, four lost fumbles. Veteran “caretaker” Trent Dilfer: 11 games in ’05, seven lost fumbles. 2. With the roster at its peak load, there are few options for Dorsey’s jersey […]

END OF THE LINE

Believe me, I’m as big a Phil Savage fan as anyone, and I’m not a seat-of-the-pants contrarian. But the lack of attention to the defensive ends has me concerned and a little mystified. It’s well known that among the Browns’ chief objectives this off-season are to improve the woeful run defense and pass rush situations. […]

THE GRADES ARE IN

Rick GosselinDallas Morning News“A+The Browns found quality in every round. They took Pac-10 rushing champion Harrison in the fifth and the draft’s best fullback in the sixth. Wimbley and Jackson give Romeo Crennel starting linebackers in his 3-4 defense.” Charles RobinsonYahoo! Sports“High marks – From a bulk standpoint, the Browns added a lot of depth, […]

EIGHT STRAIGHT

This is the eighth straight year that a Browns draft selection was the first player taken at his position. It’s the first of those times, though, that that player was taken in the second round. Maybe that will break the jinx, because Ryan Pontbriand obviously couldn’t do it alone. D’Qwell Jackson may not have all […]

THE PRE-DRAFT SUCCESS STORY

Even before Paul Tagliabue steps up to the mike, I’m already a big fan of what the Browns and GM Phil Savage have accomplished. The April 18 press conference by Savage and Bill Rees, the director of player personnel, was truly a masterstroke, for several reasons. First, it established that the team’s draft planners can […]