"The Sunday Five" is a loosely-titled piece where I talk about five NFL- or Browns-related topics related to this past week. In today's edition, we take a look back at the NFL jerseys that were released last week, the rumor that Mike Holmgren will retire, how the Indians are doing, and drafting a right tackle.
Happy Easter to everyone at Dawgs By Nature! Don't go overboard with the chocolate on what is projected to be a nice day weather-wise. Now, for those of us who are multi-sport fans, let's hope the Cleveland Indians can turn things around today after rough endings to their first two games.
Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez were very good in their first two starts, but the offense has been stymied unless they hit the long ball. The team's lineup isn't perfect, but they have enough talent in the 1-5 spots where the run support should be at a higher level. Don't forget to head on over to Let's Go Tribe, our Indians affiliate, to join their game threads whenever you have a chance to.
I assume that a few of you have heard about the rumor that says team president Mike Holmgren will be retiring after the draft. ESPN Cleveland's Tony Grossi was asked about this rumor in his weekly mailbag, and he responded with the following:
I’ve looked into this rumor and have been told by a team source that there’s nothing to it. After being told that, I bounced the rumor off somebody who knows Holmgren and has a connection to the Browns. "I’ve heard it, too," was the response. "Something about (Holmgren) going to CBS." The person didn’t know if it was true or not.
I believe there is nothing to it, simply because it would come out of left field and probably cause people to lose quite a bit of respect for him (it would be like him abandoning ship). And, I can't imagine some gig at CBS Sports would be as lucrative as what he's making with the Browns.
When Nike unveiled the new jerseys for NFL teams, there weren't any significant changes for the Browns, as expected. The brown cleats and the previously-seen gloves, aside from the Nike logo, will be the differences you notice on game day. Nike chose to show a brown jersey, which begs the question: will that be a uniform the team actually wears next season? Cleveland wore white jerseys for all 16 games this past season. According to the Chronicle Telegram, every time they wanted to wear brown on the road, the home team wanted to wear their colored jerseys.
Browns spokesman Neal Gulkis said the team is still discussing which color jersey to wear for home games. Teams must declare home jersey color at some point before the season. The Browns have almost always worn white pants. "White-on-white was tradition-based," Gulkis said. "We have a strong belief in the team’s heritage and tradition."
Make the switch.
In his weekly Sunday column, Terry Pluto took a look at Mike Mayock and Mel Kiper's thoughts on how high certain quarterbacks from this year's class are rated and whether the Browns should be interested in them. He also talked about the fact that Morris Claiborne's low Wonderlic score isn't an indicator of his football IQ. I'm still teetering on whether I'd like the Browns to take Justin Blackmon, Matt Kalil, or Morris Claiborne at No. 4 overall. Two of those three players will be available. Trent Richardson and Ryan Tannehill will also be available, but I'm still saying, "no thanks."
Looking at our draft tracker, the team has been interviewing a lot of prospects who are projected to go in the first or early-second round. That makes sense, considering the team has three picks in the top 37 and really needs to hit on all of them. What stood out to me when compiling the list yesterday was the team's meeting with offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz from California. Schwartz is projected to go in the late-second or early-third round. The team has already come forth and said they plan to find their starting right tackle via the draft, and I can't imagine they'll bank on finding a gem in the fifth- or sixth-rounds. If there aren't any of the top right tackles on the board in the first round, maybe the Browns either reach for Schwartz in round two, or trade back up into round two to make sure they get him.