Akron Coventry's worst. Discuss.

Can he catch the ball out of the backfield now?

"The Browns on Monday announced that problem has been taken care of -- the two sides reached a multi-year contract agreement.

There's no word on the length of the deal or the terms involved."

Wow. Perloff has us trading up (giving up at least our #22) to #2 in order to grab RG3. Really?

Of the UFA's listed, I'd say we keep Hillis, Dawson, DQ and Dimitri Patterson . . .

The Browns should build around Colt McCoy, not draft a quarterback in 2012 to replace him. I'd seen snippets of McCoy flailing around this year, but hadn't watched every throw of a game. And so I watched Thursday night to get some sense of the near- and long-term prospects of the former University of Texas quarterback. And I came away thinking the Browns should stick with him and use a rich 2012 draft to finally build the kind of offense around McCoy that any quarterback would need to succeed.
Mike Holmgren is a disciple of Bill Walsh. I remember when Walsh was shown a few plays of Charles Haley rushing the passer at James Madison; he told his scouts he really wanted him. "If we see him make a few plays like this, we can coach him to do it all the time,'' Walsh said, and he was proved a prophet -- Haley became a top NFL pass-rusher for San Francisco and Dallas.
Well, on Thursday night, I saw McCoy, with limited help from grade-D skill players, make enough plays to convince me he's not the problem. Now, I realize he made two or three idiotic throws in the second half -- and you're not going to win doing that consistently. But one of the bad throws came after he was concussed and should never have been put back in the game. And those throws have to be addressed.
But he did enough good things that I came away thinking: Use the three picks in the top 40 next April (Cleveland has its own first- and-second-round picks, plus Atlanta's first-rounder from the Julio Jones deal last April) to help McCoy, not replace him. Three plays showed a mature quarterback making good decisions:
1. On the first series of the game, using play-action, McCoy set up, looked over his options and found tight end Evan Moore down the left side on a crossing route with a step on linebacker Lawrence Timmons. The high-arcing pass settled into Moore's arms. Gain of 33.
2. Also on the first series, Josh Cribbs found a gap downfield in the left seam and McCoy made a great touch pass over cornerback Ike Taylor. Gain of 25.
3. In the third quarter, on third-and-eight, down 7-3, McCoy faced a five-man rush and moved up in the pocket. Feeling pressure, he threw the ball about five feet to the right of tight end Alex Smith, because that was the only window open to make the throw -- Troy Polamalu, Ryan Clark and William Gay converged on Smith and seemed ready to pancake him. But the throw was zipped in perfectly, Smith made a diving catch, and the Browns had a first down. Good judgment, great throw.
Of course, we wouldn't be talking about any of this if McCoy didn't make some brain-fart throws. But I believe he can be coached out of those -- it's what Bill Walsh would believe, watching him -- and I believe some of that stems from the fact that the Browns are a poor offensive team as a whole.
McCoy has holes. He also has a coach, Pat Shurmur, who can correct those, and is in an offense he's so well-suited to run. He's well-liked and respected in the locker room. If I'm Browns GM Tom Heckert, I'm looking for an offseason upgrade at wide receiver (the Browns need two), guard, running back and tight end ... before I even think about replacing the quarterback.

From Banks' SI "Snap Judgements" section: • "It it a little known league rule that Cleveland and kicker Phil Dawson have to have something funky happen on a field goal try every week? After last week's ground-ball snap on a potential game-winning 22-yard field goal, Dawson this week had a missed late-game 38-yard field goal that may or may not have gone over the top of the right upright. Seems to me that's exactly when you do need the ability to use instant replay on a field goal try, not just when the officials can't quite tell if the ball went inside or outside of an upright."

@TonyGrossi
Tony Grossi
#BRowns waive WR Brian Robiskie to make room for RB Thomas Clayton. Wow.

A good look at how the move to a 4-3 has affected TJ Ward . . .

Here, our ESPN AFC North blogger tells us why the Bengals are doing more to help their young QB. Discuss.

Oh my this is entertaining . . .

Damn. I thought that we might bring the big guy back to his hometown . . .

Interesting write up that, while not earth shattering new, is still a worth taking a gander at . ..

While I agree that our DL absolutely needs improvement I see eye to eye with our dearly departed leader who was quoted yesterday as saying that it is the Browns dearth of offensive playmakers that holds them back.

My butcher is a Jet fan. The Greek guy who owns the diner across the street from my apartment is a Jet fan. MY WIFE IS A JET FAN. A win this Sunday would put me in seventh heaven (coupled with a terrible day for #17 in green) . . .

And the bandwagon starts to fill up . . . 23-21 Browns.

Still looks clean to me . . .

Just ran across this tidbit in the NY Post. The part about Mangini bottling up his emotions did not surprise me, but the voices of support from a few key Jets was nice to read:

" With a number of Jets players coming out with criticism of their former head coach, Eric Mangini, Cotchery and Nick Mangold had complimentary words for Mangini.

"I enjoyed playing for Mangini, and a lot of other guys did, too," Cotchery said. "You had only a few guys that didn't like it."

Said Mangold, "The biggest difference between [Rex Ryan and Mangini] is Rex wearing his emotions and intensity on his sleeves, whereas Eric kept most of that inside. Both are amazingly smart people and coaches and good guys to be around.'"