Browns "Absolutely" Plan To Draft R1 QB
- Speaking of the 2018 quarterback crop, Terry Pluto of cleveland.com reports the Browns “absolutely” intend to draft a passer in the first round next year. Cleveland could well possess two top-10 picks, but Pluto notes the caveat here is this plan is contingent on this front office being retained after what’s looking like another miserable season. A quarterback selection would be an interesting development since the Browns passed on Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson the past two years. But the team was higher on Jared Goff in 2016, and executive VP Sashi Brown admitted to some degree the team missed on Wentz — whom the franchise’s new regime infamously said was not viewed internally as a potential top-20 quarterback. A recent report indicated the Browns are high on the 2018 quarterback class and didn’t want a player like Watson to impede them in this pursuit.
Browns Tried To Trade For Terrelle Pryor
The Browns made headlines last week for a trade they did not make, but it appears they had another deal in mind that did not come to fruition.
The team targeted a trade to bring back Terrelle Pryor prior to the deadline, Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reports, but the Redskins did not want to part with him. Pryor, of course, broke out as a 1,000-yard wide receiver for the Browns last season. He’s well off that pace in Washington.
Signed to a one-year deal, Pryor has not made the splash the Redskins hoped and has effectively been benched for Josh Doctson in Washington’s offense. But the Redskins either chose to hang onto Pryor in hopes he will turn it around down the stretch, or the Browns’ trade terms weren’t amenable.
Pryor’s Cleveland exit was complicated. The wideout may or may not have come back to the Browns with a chance for them to top the Redskins’ offer, which ended up being a one-year, $6MM deal. Jimmy Haslam said the team offered the then-UFA pass-catcher a long-term deal, but Pryor’s comments in September seemed to point to teams’ offers in March not being sufficient.
Cabot reports Pryor wanted between $10MM and $14MM per year and categorizes the Browns’ offer as being for around $8MM annually across four years. That’s the contract Kenny Britt ended up getting to come to northeast Ohio.
The Browns would have paid Pryor just $1.5MM in base salary had this trade gone through. The Britt investment appears to have been a major misfire. Whereas Pryor has 20 receptions for 240 yards, Britt has just 10 for 128 as he slogs through the first season of a four-year contract. He was essentially a healthy scratch for the Browns’ London game.
A Pryor reunion, as Cabot points out, would have put the Browns’ ideal version of their 2016 receiving corps — Pryor, Josh Gordon and Corey Coleman — together. Gordon looks to be on track to make a return after nearly three years away. Pryor, though, will have to show more than he has in order to command the kind of offers he covets in next year’s free agency.
Notes on Browns QB Situation
The Browns are in the midst of another season in the cellar of the league and while the 49ers are also winless, the teams’ quarterback situations have Cleveland looking like a much less hopeful franchise moving forward. The Browns struggles in finding a franchise quarterback have been been well documented over the years, but despite a botched midseason trade for A.J. McCarron, head coach Hue Jackson still believes that current rookie starter DeShone Kizer has the ability to end the team’s long QB issues, reports Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal.
- Sticking with the Browns quarterback situation, Mark Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com explained the team’s potential interest in some veteran signal callers this offseason in a video posted to the website. Cabot didn’t shoot down the notion that the Browns could conceivably after names such as Eli Manning, Kirk Cousins and Alex Smith, which would be a major upgrade over what the franchise has this season. The reporter even threw out Andrew Luck as being a potential target if the Colts were to make him available if they have interest in a QB prospect at the top of the draft. She does also note that the team could look at taking another signal caller high in the 2018 NFL Draft. There will be many quarterback options available, but it’s looking likely that the Browns may have a few new faces on the QB depth chart by the time their 2018 training camp begins.
- While the Browns have performed close to their already low expectations, the Jets have been one of the bigger surprises in the NFL thus far. After seemingly starting the year trying to tank, the Jets are right in the thick of the AFC wild card race after beating the Bills last week for their fourth victory of the season, which has Ralph Vacchiano of theJetsBlog already saying that head coach Todd Bowles has proven that he’s the man to lead this team into the future. Vacchiano argues that although the Jets are just sniffing the playoff hunt, this season was never really about winning, but instead proving to the front office that he is the right head coach for the years to come. He notes that Bowles has the team playing loose and free after a tumultuous 2016 season. The third-year head coach has one more year left on his current deal, but Vacchiano states that he thinks the Jets should invest longer than even 2018 given the way the team has overachieved over the first nine weeks. There is still lots of games to be played and the Jets schedule does get tougher from here, but there is no doubt that the team is playing harder and better even with so many unproven players all over the roster.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 11/9/17
Today’s practice squad updates:
Cincinnati Bengals
- Signed: TE Scott Orndoff
Cleveland Browns
- Signed: LB Deon King
Indianapolis Colts
- Signed: WR KeVonn Mabon
Kansas City Chiefs
- Signed: CB Will Redmond
New England Patriots
- Signed: OL Anthony Fabiano
- Waived: WR Jake Kumerow
New York Giants
- Signed: DE Jordan Williams
Tennessee Titans
- Signed: OL Tyler Marz
- Waived: OL Brad Seaton
Minor NFL Transactions: 11/9/17
Today’s minor moves:
Cleveland Browns
- Signed off Bengals‘ practice squad: S Derron Smith
- Waived/injured: S Ibraheim Campbell
Indianapolis Colts
- Activated from injured reserve: OL Denzelle Good
- Promoted to active roster: WR Matt Hazel
New England Patriots
- Waived: DE Geneo Grissom
Washington Redskins
- Waived from injured reserve: S Stefan McClure
Josh Gordon On Browns Future
Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon was asked this week about whether he wants to continue his career in Cleveland. He didn’t exactly give a straight-on answer.
With the trade deadline in the rear view mirror, we know that Gordon will be in Cleveland at least until the end of the year. The Browns are working to get the newly-reinstated receiver ready in time for their Week 13 clash against the Chargers. If he plays well, it’s possible that the Browns could shop him to interested teams.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 11/8/17
Today’s practice squad updates:
Atlanta Falcons
- Signed: K Mike Meyer
- Released: QB Garrett Grayson
Cleveland Browns
- Signed: OL Korren Kirven
Denver Broncos
- Signed: C Dillon Day
- Released: WR Tim Patrick
Houston Texans
- Signed: OL Dorian Johnson
Kansas City Chiefs
- Signed: WR Devin Lucien
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed: DE Patrick Gamble
Washington Redskins
- Signed: DE Tavaris Barnes, WR Keenan Reynolds
- Released: T Givens Price
Minor NFL Transactions: 11/8/17
Today’s minor moves:
Cleveland Browns
- Claimed off waivers: LB Josh Keyes
- Promoted to active roster: CB Darius Hillary
- Placed on injured reserve: CB Reggie Porter
- Waived: LB Deon King
Dallas Cowboys
- Promoted to active roster: DT Lewis Neal
Houston Texans
- Promoted to active roster: DL Jarrod Clements
New Orleans Saints
- Signed: DT John Hughes
- Waived: OL John Greco
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Promoted to active roster: WR Freddie Martino
Browns’ Joe Thomas On Future, Raise
Last week, the Browns gave injured offensive tackle Joe Thomas a pay bump for both this year and next year. The gesture was appreciated by the veteran, but he tells Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal that he is still undecided about his future. Here’s a look at some of the highlights from Thomas’ Q&A with Ulrich:
On whether his declaration that he doesn’t “want to go out like this” means that he’ll play in 2018:
I’ve told everybody that I’m going to sit down kind of after the season and take my time and make a decision when you’re in a little bit better mental state. Because right after you get hurt, your emotions are up and down, and during the season is a hard time to kind of make serious decisions on your career. So the offseason will be a time when I make a decision on that, but I think that [feeling] will certainly play into it. 
But on the other hand, you don’t get to choose how things end. Everybody wants the Jerome Bettis — what I mentioned in that column — where you go to your hometown, you win the Super Bowl and you ride off into the sunset. That’s the dream, but 1 in 100,000 players get to realize that. Even Brett Favre, you look at how he ended his career, losing the NFC Championship Game and getting hurt. What a great career, and he wanted to have that moment where you win the Super Bowl and you ride off into the sunset, but in the NFL, you don’t get to pick your exit strategy for the most part.
So if you do decide to come back and you say, “I don’t want to go out getting injured,” well, there’s no guarantee you’re not going to get injured again. So you have to be realistic about the possible outcomes of everything.
On the pay raise:
It’s just the way that the team shows their love and appreciation for you…The conversation came up about two years ago actually. So they’ve been talking about giving me a market adjustment for my contract since I did sign it so long ago [in 2011] and since I’ve tried to go about my business as well as I possibly can, representing the organization, playing as well as I can, trying to be a team player, and they felt a market adjustment was not only good for me, of course, but good for them, good for their business, because when you reward players when you don’t have to, that sends a message to the locker room that says, “If you do the right things and you put yourself on the line for this team, we’ll reward you, even if you’re under contract.”
Because in the NFL, it’s a one-sided contract. When the team is ready to get rid of you, they just cut you if you’re not playing up to your contract. If you’re outplaying your contract, your only possibility of getting your raise or a market value adjustment is to either make a huge stink, demand a trade or hold out. I told them that’s not the type of person I am. So I think they realized it’s the right thing to do, and it sends a good message going forward to the rest of the players in the locker room.
On whether the Browns can turn things around after the failed A.J. McCarron trade:
In the NFL, winning cures all, and when you lose, it makes everything worse, and it magnifies all the little things that go on in every building. But you only make a big deal about it when the losing is attached to it. For us, it’s just a matter of turning things around and start getting some W’s. I don’t think it’s necessarily any big issue or any different than any other NFL front office. It’s just a matter of getting those wins.
Browns Notes: Gordon, Thomas, McCarron, Hue, Currie
On the heels of his reinstatement into the NFL, Josh Gordon detailed his extensive drug use and recovery in a revealing Q&A with GQ.
In the piece, Gordon admits he was a highly functioning addict who would drink “a couple shots” before games, including his back-to-back 200-yard performances during his standout 2013 campaign. Gordon said his drug use began in the seventh grade with marijuana and Xanax, and he believes he has had something in his system for every game of his career.
When asked why his recovery this time is different, the receiver said, “Every time I would try to stop, it would be for the wrong reason. … Last time, I wanted to do it to save my career. Just for the job. [Now] I have the positive reinforcement and motivation of having a daughter and stuff like that, but kids can’t save you in that aspect. Only thing saving me at this point and time, and the difference between now and then, is that I’m doing it for myself. And I want something more for myself.”
Gordon will be allowed to begin practicing with the Browns on November 20, with the hopes of getting back on the field for the team’s Week 13 matchup with the Chargers.
Here is the latest from Cleveland:
- Browns head coach Hue Jackson issued no comment on his relationship with the front office when addressing reporters, including 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland’s Keith Britton (via Twitter), on Monday. The comment stemmed from the team’s fiasco in attempting to acquire A.J. McCarron from the Bengals and executive vice president Sashi Brown‘s comments earlier in the day. Brown also noted the botched deal for the quarterback made last week a tough one from a public relations perspective, Albert Breer of The MMQB tweets.
- It occurred to some with the Browns during the McCarron talks that Jackson could be back in Cincinnati next season with the team’s second- and third-round picks from the deal, CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora tweets. Whether Jackson is with the Bengals or another team, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the coach looking for another job after winning just one of his first 23 games in Cleveland.
- Brown also said the raise to Joe Thomas had been talked about before the veteran’s injury, the Akron Beacon Journal’s Nate Ulrich tweets. As previously mentioned, Thomas was given $3MM in new money last week.
- Safety Justin Currie has a workout scheduled for Friday, the Houston Chronicle’s Aaron Wilson tweets. Signed to the Browns’ practice squad in December 2016, the Western Michigan product was released in the preseason and has yet to sign with another team.