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.