In today's edition of Around the Pound, we take a look at some praise that Bruce Arians has for a former member of the Browns' staff, a new addition to the SB Nation network, and more.
Arians: Rob Ryan's Defense Was Exotic
Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, who is gearing his team up to face the Green Bay Packers in this weekend's Super Bowl, had some praise for former Browns defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and what he will now bring to the Dallas Cowboys:
"Rob this year went into a very exotic sub package," Arians said. "They were exotic before but they really get after it this year with seven and eight defensive backs and guys standing up all over the place. He brings a lot of passion to the defense. The way he coaches, the way his brother [Rex] coaches I’ve great respect for both of them. They’re extremely bright. They know what they’re doing. They have a very sound first- and second-down package in base defense, which these players should have the skull to adapt to right away, but I think he’ll bring an exotic sub package to them. Having not played them the last couple of years I don’t know that they’ve been doing a lot of that. But he’ll definitely bring a lot of fun to the defense."
The article also briefly mentions how the Browns' defense did not fare too well against the Steelers this year and were destroyed in the season finale 41-9.
Rob Neyer Joins SB Nation
For those of you who are baseball fans, Rob Neyer probably needs no introduction from me. The highly regarded baseball writer from ESPN has left the company after 15 years. His new home is at SB Nation, where his first post is already up and has the Internet community buzzing:
There are a lot of things to love about SB Nation, which is why I'm here. But among them is that they -- excuse me, we -- don't see us as us and you as them. We've got bloggers who most professional writers probably consider them ... but we know better. We know that some of our writers are every bit as talented and knowledgeable as anyone you'll find working for newspapers or the Big Boy websites. We also know that today's readers are tomorrow's writers, and that often the only difference is opportunity (one fantastic thing about the Web is that opportunity is everywhere).
Welcome aboard, Rob! I know this isn't football related, but I'm sure many of our multi-sport posters will find the news interesting.
Joe Thomas a Candidate for Another Award
Per the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the awards for left tackle Joe Thomas could just keep pouring in:
Browns left tackle Joe Thomas, who in 2010 earned his fourth Pro Bowl selection in four seasons, is again a finalist for the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission's professional athlete of the year. Thomas's competition has been narrowed to Browns all-purpose player Josh Cribbs and Indians right fielder Shin-Soo Choo. The GCSC will announce the winner at its annual awards banquet Feb. 10 at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.
Of course it doesn't matter which of the three finalists receive the award, as long as it doesn't involve last year's winner (LeBron James).
Off-Beat Notes
- Watch out for the ice in the morning if you are driving in the city of Cleveland or anywhere else nearby. The sidewalks were already pretty slick when I went outside at night, and if all of these weather reports actually come true, things are only going to get ten times worse.
- Pretty soon, I will be accepting "resumes" again from any of the members of our Dawgs By Nature community who would be interested in contributing regularly to the site. By regularly, I mean at least several times per week, preferably once every day. If you visit some of the other SB Nation sites, many of them have about ten contributors, each of whom contribute compelling pieces, even they be short in length.
- Starting Friday, I am going to start pumping out a lot of Super Bowl material to get everyone hyped for the big game. Who knows -- maybe we'll even have a "sound off thread" for our friends in the yellow and black.
- If I see FanPosts that are informative, well-written, and/or unique, even if they are short, you might start seeing me promote them to the front page to help give them some more exposure.