Forgotten Man: Jurevicius as Browns' Second Receiver
by Chris Pokorny on Feb 22, 2009 12:05 PM EST
in General News
21 comments
The other day, the options for the Browns to consider at the receiver position after Braylon Edwards were addressed. With 265 votes tallied at the time of this posting, the results are as follows:
- (1st -TIE) Big-Name Free Agent, Like Houshmandzadeh (29%)
- (1st - TIE) Lower Level Free Agent (29%)
- (3rd) Late in the Draft (26%)
- (4th) We're Fine With What We've Got (10%)
- (5th) Early in the Draft (4%)
The dispersal of the votes among fans is alarming in the sense that no matter what Eric Mangini and George Kokinis decide to do, it's going to be difficult to please the majority. Here's a new question though: would the 4th place finishing statement have been ranked higher if Joe Jurevicius' name was considered a little bit more?
It's easy to forget about the man who missed all of last season, thanks to Cleveland's curse of the staph infection. Many people questioned whether or not Jurevicius would return to football; he may only want to play one more year, and what would be his chances of winning a Super Bowl with the Browns?
If Jurevicius planned on calling it a career, I think he would've done so already. When healthy, nobody can doubt the stability he brings to an offense. Just look at how stable the Seahawks and Browns were at the position with Jurevicius compared to how they were without him.
In Tony Grossi's notes Saturday, Mangini stated that Jurevicius [along with offensive tackle Ryan Tucker] should be ready to return in some capacity to the team's offseason conditioning programs on March 16.
"I like both those guys. . . . I like their toughness and competitiveness."
In a year where the Browns will need to save money after some of the lucrative contracts Phil Savage worked out over the past several years, crossing the receiver position off the "list of needs" could be beneficial, depending on the actual amount of faith the team has in Jurevicius. Although they were very much different circumstances, we all saw what happened to Gary Baxter and LeCharles Bentley under the old regime.
0 recs |
21 comments
|
Email
Print
Comments
I imagine the Browns would have a tough decsion to make if and a big if, if Crabtree fell to them at the 5. I am sure calls would be made to move up to that Browns position. It would be rather tempting to take Crabtree at the 5, because most would agree he is about the surest star to come out of this draft.
Most pre-drafts have Crabtree going to Seattle which makes sense. If that scenario plays out, I would get a receiver in the later rounds and try to pick one up in free agency. ( Marvin Harrison anyone?)
"Have You heard of the Boom on Mizar 5?"
That begs another question in itself: is Marvin Harrison a big-name receiver or a lower level receiver at this point?
Dawgs By Nature - Find out why Pittsburgh still sucks.
by Chris Pokorny on Feb 22, 2009 1:38 PM EST up reply actions
I’m not sure how much Marvin Harrison has left and don’t think the Browns should be interested. We already have one old reciever coming off injuries (Joe J) so I don’t see why we need another.
I’ve said all along that if Crabtree is there, I think he’d be very hard to pass up. I think he’s the surest star of the draft. I wonder if his recent foot injury will drop his draft stock at all.
The best thing probably is to hit [Grady] 2nd -- Jay
by Buckeye Brad on Feb 22, 2009 1:47 PM EST up reply actions
Crabtree will probably be there at #5.
He has a stress fracture in his foot and will need surgery. He isn’t working out at the combine, but plans to run at Texas Tech’s pro day and have the surgery immediately after. The only team I can see thinking about drafting him ahead of us is Seattle now, and they have a range of needs.
Obviously, I am worried about WRs even if Joe J comes back. He is still old in football years and he still is coming off of a missed season due to knee surgery complications. He might come back and be that stabilizing presence he always was, but for how long?
I still think we need some young talent if that means drafting guys or if that means looking at free agents under 25 who we can develop or who can play spot roles.
I don’t know if he will be there where we pick in the 2nd round, but Percy Harvin is growing on me. He measured at 5’11" and 195 lbs at the combine—I thought he would be closer to 5’9" and 170lbs. He clearly is a guy who can hit home runs, and is another option for those hoping we get someone early in the draft.
According to the rotowire sidebar, Daboll is planning on bringing the “New England offense” to the Browns. I think that would benefit Quinn (after having so much success under Weiss) and Stallworth (after having a decent year even while being behind Welker and Moss) who may end up actually catching a few balls this year. It is noteworthy that NE uses a lot of multiple receiver sets (so we would probably need more than 3 WR who can play).
I don’t know if he will be there where we pick in the 2nd round, but Percy Harvin is growing on me. He measured at 5’11" and 195 lbs at the combine—I thought he would be closer to 5’9" and 170lbs. He clearly is a guy who can hit home runs, and is another option for those hoping we get someone early in the draft.
He also has no clue how to be a real receiver. I think he’s a running back in the making.
Percy Harvin didn’t even run a route tree today. Why? Because he has no clue how to.
Teddy Ginn and Devin Hester didn’t play in spread offenses in college. They knew all the routes. They may not have been complete receivers at the time, but they had much more experience with the expectations of a receiver.
John Gruden raised the issue about Harvin today as well. Nobody knows what he is. His speed is great, but if I’m drafting a receiver then he better know how to be one.
So is Percy Harvin the next Eric Metcalf? Nobody was sure what to do with him, either.
I agree about Ginn. He certainly wasn’t a polished reciever, but he did play exclusively there for three years at OSU in a pro-style offense (more or less). Harvin has lined up at RB often at Florida, I believe, and as you said they run a spread offense.
The best thing probably is to hit [Grady] 2nd -- Jay
by Buckeye Brad on Feb 22, 2009 10:32 PM EST up reply actions
Are you seriously forgetting Troy Smith running 4-wide sets? The Shotginn formation? There were rumors that when Ginn got to the Dolphins he said he only ran 3 routes in college. 3 > 0, but the point remains that he wasn’t polished when he got out of college. True, he played only on offense and ST.
Hester was hardly a finished product. He didn’t play in a “spread offense” because he didn’t even have a position, and I was listening to the radio in Chicago as they blasted the pick for hours on end. They kept asking where he was going to play and if he could make it as a WR or where they were going to put him on defense because they didn’t even know. I’d say that up to this point he has been a better 2nd round pick than ours that year (Jackson). Here is what ESPN said in 2005:
“Hester is one of the biggest "boom-or-bust” prospects in the 2006 draft class. He was drafted this high due to his explosiveness as a return specialist, and he should immediately upgrade the Bears in that area. However, the concern with Hester is that he doesn’t have a true position. The majority of Hester’s experience came at cornerback, but he was never more than a nickel starter and wound up getting benched during his junior season in 2005. In our opinion, Hester lacks the instincts to play cornerback in the NFL, and his best fit will be as a slot receiver. He will need lots of coaching as a route-runner, but there’s no arguing his home-run potential with the ball in his hands in space. "
I still think any one of those three would be an eventual upgrade over all of our wideouts except Braylon and Joe J if he comes back at 100%. I am faster than Steptoe, and I bet Harvin is a better route runner (meaning Steptoe is terrible, not that Harvin is any good).
Mangini just wants football players (is Jenkins a FS or a CB? I don’t care, he is a good football player wherever you put him). If Daboll is going to be any good, he will use what we have to move the ball down the field and put it in the endzone. Is Harvin going to come out and know the nuances of the position immediately? No, but a good coordinator could get him the ball in space and let him move it down the field. I never thought I would see the read option work in the NFL and now everyone is using it and finding success; teams just found a way to put their skill players in a position to succeed. Maybe Harvin could run the ball or line up in the backfield or do some crazy stuff with Cribbs in the backfield.
Rookie WRs rarely make a big impact anyway, even Calvin Johnson. He would have a year of relatively low expectations and time to learn.
Maybe this comes down to my optimism. In the right situation, I would be inclined to take Harvin even though I realize he is a boom or bust guy, believing that whoever is designing our offense could put him in place to succeed and that whoever was coaching him could teach him to run wherever and however we needed. The kid just can move the football and is bigger (and thus is looking better) than I thought is all I am saying.
Maybe I will be wrong and you can tell me about it then, just like I can tell whoever thought Pennington would play well in the playoffs how right I was now.
Draft season baby!
Multiple wide receiver sets =/= spread offense. OSU ran some spread, but there was a clear difference between what OSU ran with Troy and what Florida runs.
Ginn was asked to run many different routes even though he was not as proficient at them as other receivers. Harvin ran a slant, go, and flat route. That was the close to the entirety of his routes as a receiver. And I am being entirely serious. He may not even know what a post corner route consists of.
I love Harvin as a runningback prospect. I think he is a much more natural player at RB than wideout.
Just take a peak at his highlight video. I didn’t see one “real” route being run there. He either settled into a zone and caught a pass or just outrun a guy in man coverage. He is a freak of an athlete, but that won’t work at the NFL level
Its just that our terminology isn’t lining up. I was taking the definition of “spread offense” to be any offense that uses the concept of utilizing a large part of the width of the field, “spreading” the defense horizontally to create favorable situations for the offense.
Maybe OSU didn’t base their entire offense on that concept, and maybe Florida did more in terms of using a running QB, and maybe Florida ran more read option, etc. but whatever you want to call it OSU used multiple receiver sets to spread the defense horizontally across the field. That is all I was trying to say; Ginn wasn’t entirely in a “pro” offense.
I think Harvin can play. We shouldn’t draft him if there are better options (and it is hard to not imagine that situation right now), and there are reports that he won’t even be there when we pick in the 2nd round. Again, only time will tell if he can make it in the NFL.
I think when most people use the term “spread offense”, they’re referring to the Florida/Utah/WV/NW offense that uses read option and often features a running QB. Ohio State did use many 4-WR formations with Ginn but I don’t think most people would describe that as a spread offense.
The best thing probably is to hit [Grady] 2nd -- Jay
by Buckeye Brad on Feb 23, 2009 10:40 PM EST up reply actions
Does the poll prove that a simple little article can change people’s thoughts about a team’s situation at a certain position? Excluding the Early in the Draft option, the results have now nearly flipped.
Dawgs By Nature - Find out why Pittsburgh still sucks.
I voted the same even after reading the article because I was hoping for some kind of return from Jurevicious. Also, from the first vote to the second my opinion of Stalworth’s reliability hasn’t changed. Sure, if both of those guys are healthy and playing their A game we’re set, but if one or both of them are not healthy then we had better hope that the guys on the practice squad have made some major improvements.
What are the odds that the new regime will want to keep Stalworth with his injury history? (That’s actually a question looking for an answer, not just an attempt to get fiery responses.)
Joey J
You can kiss all your hopes and dreams of taking an offensive player with the #5 pick away. This team needs linebackers. This team needs cover men. This team can get away with Edwards, Joey J and a lower to mid level free agent. Stallworth, ya, right, he will hurt something in the off season while washing his car or playing PS3. No reason to count on him. Good talent, but hasn’t had a full season in years. If we take any offensive players in the draft before the second day, I would be very surprised.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Non-stop coverage of the team with the best fans in the NFL, the Cleveland Browns.
Related FanPosts on Dawgs By Nature
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
Follow DBN on Twitter
Browns Links
Local Media Sources
Official Browns Site
Orange and Brown Report
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Akron Beacon Journal
Browns Communities/Blogs
The Watercooler
Waiting for Next Year
Dawg Scooper
Dawg Talkers
Dawg Bones
The Browns Board
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
