MVN - Most Valuable Network

Browns Continue To Make Noise This Off-season

Is there another team in the NFL right now that’s making as much news as our Cleveland Browns?

It started earlier this week with the signing of Derek Anderson to a new three-year deal, then a day later with the trading of Leigh Bodden to Detroit for defensive tackle Shaun Rodgers, and yesterday, in a move that I think surprised a lot of people, the team signed ex-Patriot Donte Stallworth to a seven-year deal.

I know Phil Savage has a lot of money to throw around this off-season, but the Stallworth move doesn’t make much sense to me. I understand that Joe Jurevicious is going to retire fairly soon and we’ll need to replace him, but is that really a high priority at this point? I was hoping Savage would spend money addressing his team’s defense that was ranked almost last in the league in every category, not the wide receiver position where the team was pretty solid last season.

I highly doubt Savage is done making moves. By April, the Browns will have a first round pick in the NFL Draft, and it could come at the expense of Derek Anderson, which wouldn’t be the worst thing. If Miami or Minnesota offer its first round pick for Anderson, there’s no question I think that Savage will pull the trigger.

The Leigh Bodden trade came as somewhat of a shocker. It seems like most fans in Cleveland either loved or hated Bodden, and I was part of the group that thought his six interceptions were somewhat misleading because of his inability to be a solid cover-corner most of the time. To me,  this trade means Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel have a ton of faith in Brandon McDonald and Eric Wright, both of whom are only in their second year in the league. Both showed flashes of brilliance at times last season, and I’m especially excited to see how well McDonald will do if he takes over the starting job. Rodgers had seven sacks in 16 games for the Lions last season, so we’ll see if he can be the pass rusher the team has been looking for.

We’ll see what happens in the next 54 days. I think once April rolls around Savage will aquire a first round pick.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 10:43 am and is filed under Browns News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.