No Surprise: Cleveland Browns Still Have $30.4 Million They Can Spend

there’s no delusion about him blowing open holes in the defense that even I could run through. that’s real.

He’s got a ring. If it were all about rings and not money, you would see players take smaller contracts to stay on winning teams. That almost never happens. These guys know what kind of a business this is, especially so soon after the lockout.

Still doesn’t address the fact that the Giants want a first round pick for Osi.

Never in a million years.

If anything, I would have guessed a Washington/Denver lean due to his ties to Shanahan.

i’ve said it before, but with how low of a price we have to make for these guys anyway what with the CBA restrictions on drafted rookies i just don’t see why we don’t give him the max at his position because it’s gotta be a lot less than what we were giving him.

my point is that the receivers haven’t even looked, much less looked “a million times better”, as they’ve all been hurt.

I guess we have different definitions of whining. I saw that you missed the point, and that you were busting my balls anyway, so I just said the tongue-in-cheek “get off deez nuts” statement. That’s not whining, in my opinion.

That’s also the reason I mocked the “power of positive thought” or what ever the hell it was.

Also, the whole point of what I said was to make apparent that I was done bitching about the free agency since it was clear that the FO wasn’t trying to make moves to win now.

The thing is everyone on the field game day wants to win.

They are building. The first step there is finding out about the players already on the roster. They certainly aren’t selling out to win this year, but I think they are trying to win (with what we have). They are certainly not trying not to win.

I think in basketball you sometimes try not to win. It’s the only way for the Cavs to become good again: you have to Bill Simmons and bottom out.

You don’t have to bottom out in the NFL, and I don’t think we are trying to. Though I do understand where you are coming from in thinking we have already bottomed out.

I am being 100% honest when I say that wasn’t meant to be snarky at all. I said it in the way anyone would. Not far before I had just said that I want to win every game.

You can ask those I’ve talked with in emails, I put that at the end of conversations, meaning it wholeheartedly. I want the Browns to do well always, and “GO BROWNS!” seems to be the universal rally cry from Browns fan to Browns fan.

Dude. Get off his possibly Chinese nuts. Jesus.

Lerner held a 5% stake in the old Cleveland Browns franchise. In 1995, he assisted his friend at the time Art Modell, former owner of the Browns, in moving Modell’s NFL franchise rights from Cleveland to Baltimore. Lerner introduced Modell to Baltimore financiers of the deal, and he sat behind on the podium at the press conference Modell announcing the team’s move. However, many Browns fans were angered after word leaked that Modell’s deal to move the Browns to Baltimore was signed on Lerner’s private jet. The two stopped talking shortly thereafter. In 1997, Modell paid $32 million to buyout Lerner’s stake in the Baltimore Ravens, which had grown to 9%. In 1998, Lerner bought the new Cleveland Browns franchise for a record $530 million.

you’re right that i don’t have any real numbers backing it up, but i’ve seen statistics that include the Browns as one of the top 10-15 teams in the league as far as total team worth. i don’t have any direct sources, but i’ve seen some of them here on DBN. and you’re right that Lerner doesn’t need his sports franchises to survive financially, but to assume that the Browns aren’t racking in a good deal of money would be a total baseless assumption of yours as well. the fact of the matter is that it would be a poor business decision for Lerner to do anything of this nature.

They might not make him “much” money year by year but I’d bet the franchise is a pretty solid for his overall wealth.

Idk, but the Browns seem to suffer more than their fair share of injuries.

The way I see it, the “new” coaching schemes are more familiar and better suited to our returning players than last years schemes. Terminology is the only “new” thing. Nbd.

This is where our differences stem from. I’ve been not-so-cautiously realistic (it was so bad, I played golf instead of watching games, because the outcome was so predictable) until the hiring of Holmgren. Since then my optimism has increased ten-fold. And with a good showing by some key players, I’ll most likely hit “overly” optimistic this time next year.

i was trying to come up with a way to politely say exactly this. thanks for doing it.

i don’t understand how anyone can say this team is more talented than last year’s when literally all we’ve added are backups and rookies.

It could mean we all of a sudden have a pass rush, a surprise RT, a beastly WR, a versatile FB, a nightmare matchup, and a solid nickelback with great speed.

It won’t mean all of those things, but guessing how much the draft helped us at this point is pure speculation. It could mean a significant boost in talent, it could mean a step back. We have very little idea at this point.

Obviously it’s different for everyone but, with my eye for talent, we have gained more than we’ve lost over the last 6 months.
I’m a realist first, optimist 2nd, even a little pessimism sprinkled in. My optimism for the Browns isn’t coming from thin air. I see a legit attempt being made to build a winner in Cleveland. That’s really all that matters to me.

you think I didn’t consider the factor that NCF pointed out in his pessimistic prediction above? And besides the lockout issue and using ridiculous hyperboles about Jauron’s skills, you state the same thing multiple times.

Where did I say we were going .500. I am very optimistic but I see 7-9 as about as good as I can realistically see this team going, most likely 6-10.

Honestly, I am predicting a slight setback but I also think that if the 2010 Browns had their 2011 schedule, they would probably win 7 games.

except that 6 wins is still more than we won last year. even though we don’t have to play the Jets, Pats, Saints, Buccaneers, Falcons, and Chiefs and the only team in that realm we do have to play instead is the Colts, we will win less? I don’t think a scheme change will account for more than a loss or two difference between the 2010 team and the 2011 team.

I think this team could win 7 games, but it depends on how much the scheme gels.

and yes, when you have a 16 game season the difference between pessimism and optimism/hopeful rationalism is sometimes two games (i.e. its pessimistic to say the Chargers will go 8-8 but 10-6 is not pessimistic at all and is quite rational)

Me too!

I don’t know why you guys think that’s so crazy. Every year a team goes from a few wins to 10 wins. We did it a few years ago. Last year the Bucs wernt from like 2 wins to 10 with a second yr. QB and a young cast around him.

Most football people would probably tell you Barkley is the better QB prospect, No Way!

that’s your “eye for talent” talking?

every football person would tell you that barkley is the better pro qb prospect coming out of college.