2016 season
Three retirements – DT Gerald Poteet (position leader), and linebackers Rondell Niechniedowicz and Brant Morley. We are close to just starting over on the defensive front – and judging by the results there recently, that might not be such a bad idea anyway.
Among our position leaders, it also looks like we will lose WR Plumtree, so I am planning to work with WR Willie Madison as our likely new leader – it looks like we will be able to re-sign him, and he has a 95 leadership rating, making him a pretty stable choice there. We already have one affinity with Madison, and can go from there, I hope.
It looks like we are going to once again have trouble signing G Billy Joe Shea – but we have built up so much chemistry around him that we have to bring him back, almost no matter what.
CB Dennis Wohlabaugh and RB Glenn Moll are probably safe in their respective leadership roles, if not in playing time.
In free agency, we have worries pretty much everywhere. I am fairly comfortable with our OL, and our secondary is in okay shape (though we need depth) so those are the exceptions. Everywhere else is up for grabs.
QB Marcus Settles is still on the roster for cohesion, but has basically zero skills at this point. Shame. That makes Christian Frieswyk our default starter – and that is not an exciting prospect, really. We do manage to re-sign Dale Richardson, and that gives us a little stability – he’s a decent-enough guy who has had some limited success with us before, so he probably becomes our #1 option.
Into camp, we have signed something like 600 linebackers, and it’s a total free-for-all among guys with pretty modest talents. Run-stopper Andrew Hoosier is our new position leader, and will be joined by returning friend A.J. Mulcahy (back after one season in New Orleans), but past that I don’t know who stays and who goes. We’ll probably carry nine linebackers, and use them in the DE slot sometimes.
We also have a legion of running backs, all looking for a piece of the pie. Several rookies who look okay will get a shot – we’ll probably have a committee approach this season, yet again, as nobody truly stands out here.
Here is the roster as we head into 2016 – a big unknown lies ahead:
Code:
Cleveland Browns Roster, Scout Overview
Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Richardson, Dale 7 QB QB 6 36 36 3 yrs
Frieswyk, Christian 10 QB 5 36 40 2 yrs
Settles, Marcus 12 QB 8 10 13 2 yrs
Moll, Glenn 21 RB 11 36 36 2 yrs
##Conley, Sammie 27 RB 5 32 32 2 yrs
Peck, Ed 43 RB 2 32 35 1 yr.
Lucas, Norman 44 RB RB 3 31 36 2 yrs
##Bombard, Gerald 47 RB 1 25 33 2 yrs
Flake, Lincoln 39 FB FB 11 39 41 2 yrs
Matson, Marco 81 TE TE 6 49 52 3 yrs
Droker, Horace 85 TE 6 45 45 3 yrs
Wynn, Dexter 86 TE 7 41 43 1 yr.
Fee, Levon 11 FL FL 6 34 35 3 yrs
Handley, Gene 82 FL 3 26 44 2 yrs
Samuels, Sedrick 14 SE SE 5 26 31 2 yrs
##Brownell, Nick 80 SE 1 23 37 2 yrs
Greenlee, Archie 84 SE 5 22 37 2 yrs
Upshaw, Ray 58 C C 4 32 42 1 yr.
Harmon, Drew 57 C RG 2 29 43 1 yr.
Terry, Robert 73 LG LG 4 30 36 3 yrs
Clausen, Brant 75 LG 5 24 41 2 yrs
**Hilgendorf, Steven 60 LG 8 15 20 2 yrs
Shea, Billy Joe 68 RG 13 20 27 1 yr.
Carpenter, Glenn 71 LT LT 2 22 37 1 yr.
McCarthy, Dwight 70 RT RT 6 44 52 2 yrs
Shaw, Julio 67 RT 3 20 44 3 yrs
Vecchio, Sammie 16 P 17 71 71 3 yrs
Blanchard, Shannon 15 K 6 44 50 3 yrs
Brayshaw, Rodney 77 LDE LDE 6 42 43 3 yrs
Taylor, Ernest 76 LDE 4 30 43 3 yrs
Joyner, Kim 78 RDE RDE 1 27 40 2 yrs
Shanabrough, Vincent 79 RDE 2 24 32 1 yr.
Wayne, Bert 64 LDT 3 40 45 2 yrs
Buenavista, Wally 96 RDT NT 13 37 41 3 yrs
Beyer, Bucky 93 MLB 5 35 42 3 yrs
Dotson, Walt 59 MLB SILB 2 33 43 1 yr.
##Pinner, Oliver 56 MLB 10 31 36 3 yrs
Mamula, Sedrick 74 SLB 10 46 52 3 yrs
Van Brocklin, Tim 99 SLB 13 37 41 3 yrs
Carroll, Deion 51 WLB SLB 7 42 45 3 yrs
Hoosier, Andrew 53 WLB WILB 13 41 41 3 yrs
Gaylor, Lee 65 WLB 5 39 43 3 yrs
Mulcahy, A.J. 92 WLB WLB 10 36 42 3 yrs
##Bolton, Graham 50 WLB 10 34 41 1 yr.
O'Neal, Jackie 33 LCB RCB 6 47 47 3 yrs
Cook, Nolan 38 LCB 10 45 49 1 yr.
Grier, Junior 31 LCB LCB 13 42 42 2 yrs
Kelley, Mercury 28 LCB FS 7 36 37 3 yrs
Brewer, X-Man 36 LCB 3 34 45 2 yrs
##Carlisle, Kyle 41 RCB 11 42 46 1 yr.
##Wohlabaugh, Dennis 45 RCB 11 19 20 3 yrs
Restifo, Tracy 42 SS SS 5 40 42 1 yr.
Hill, Quentin 49 SS 2 17 29 1 yr.
Webster, Alvin 35 FS 5 35 39 2 yrs
Off we go. Worst roster in the NFL? Check. Low cohesion in every area? Check. Unproven players at many key positions? Check. Draft picks worthless an already dealt away? Check. Sign up for your season tickets now, gang!
An 0-4 start befits the current state of affairs here in Cleveland. We are actually running the ball okay behind RB Lucas, but are below average in everything else, and we are losing the turnover battle – which you just can’t do with such a marginal team to begin with.
We finally squeeze out a win behind a 100-yard game from Lucas and 4 field goals from K Blanchard, the game MVP. Yay. We finish out not quite as pathetically as we started, but our final mark of 5-11 is basically one of futility. There’s very little hope here.
Code:
Front Office Football 2004
2016 Summary for Cleveland Browns
Record: 5-11
Winning Pct.: .312
Cleveland Browns Team Rank
Rushes 525 1
Rushing Yards 2174 2
Yards Per Carry 4.14 11 (T)
Pass Attempts 408 32
Completions 220 32
Passing Yards 2218 32
Yards Per Attempt 5.43 32
3rd Down Conversions 41.2 24
Points Per Game 16.5 28
Turnovers 27 22 (T)
Turnover Margin -9 27 (T)
Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 489 25
Rushing Yards 1949 21
Yards Per Carry 3.98 14 (T)
Pass Attempts 510 20
Completions 317 22 (T)
Passing Yards 3557 13
Yards Per Attempt 6.97 14
3rd Down Conversions 52.4 31
Points Per Game 21.8 28
Turnovers 18 29
Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 12 BAL 17
2 29 WAS 46
3 9 HOU 24
4 3 at BUF 16
5 16 PIT 23
6 26 MIA 17
7 7 SPR 17
8 33 at NED 27
9 13 at BAL 34
11 14 at CIN 17
12 27 PHI 24
13 10 at OAK 27
14 9 at NYG 3
15 7 CIN 20
16 24 at DAL 30
17 26 at PIT 7
Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
7 Richardson QB 399 217 2200 5.51 13 19
**Team --- 408 220 2218 5.43 14 20
Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
44 Lucas RB 345 1459 4.22 6
43 Peck RB 122 446 3.65 4
7 Richardson QB 33 159 4.81 1
**Team --- 525 2174 4.14 11
Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
11 Fee WR 79 42 471 11.2 73 4
14 Samuels WR 72 37 383 10.3 36 1
82 Handley WR 72 36 385 10.6 30 3
85 Droker TE 38 24 232 9.6 34 1
84 Greenlee WR 55 22 261 11.8 26 2
81 Matson TE 33 21 223 10.6 48 1
39 Flake FB 28 19 121 6.3 61 0
**Team --- 404 220 2218 10.0 361 14
Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
53 Hoosier OLB 73 34 0.0 1 1 0
51 Carroll OLB 73 23 10.5 7 1 13
59 Dotson ILB 73 33 0.0 0 0 6
42 Restifo S 70 21 0.0 1 1 13
33 O'Neal CB 62 18 0.0 0 2 7
38 Cook CB 60 26 1.0 0 1 9
31 Grier CB 48 11 0.0 0 0 19
65 Gaylor OLB 47 19 4.0 3 0 1
92 Mulcahy OLB 46 19 0.0 1 1 1
96 Buenavista DT 42 20 4.5 7 0 0
77 Brayshaw DE 41 13 4.5 10 0 0
36 Brewer CB 35 10 0.0 0 0 1
28 Kelley CB 30 8 0.0 1 2 1
78 Joyner DE 22 14 0.5 4 0 0
99 Van Brocklin OLB 21 3 0.0 0 0 2
93 Beyer ILB 20 12 1.0 1 1 1
86 Wynn TE 17 0 0.0 0 0 0
**Team --- 882 308 34.0 49 10 75
Let’s mention RB Norman Lucas first, whose season now ranks atop the best we have seen in this franchise’s history. Nicely done, son.
As for the rest of the offense – ouch. Richardson earns a 61 passer rating, none of our receivers amounted to much, and we were ranked last in every passing category. Ugh.
On defense, LB Deion Carroll stepped nicely into the SLB slot, and gave us a very solid season there – effective as a pass rusher, but don’t overlook the 13 passes defensed, either. CB Junior Grier stepped up and became a coverage standout, with a 20.6 PDPct despite not getting a single pick – that’s impressive. So, our defense turned out to be average, but was hampered by being on the field way too long.
Another tough season – perhaps it’s time for some re-thinking of our entire approach?