Wednesday, January 16, 2008

OBR News-o-rama

OBR News-o-rama

News-o-Rama: 1/15

Posted: 15 Jan 2008 08:44 PM CST

Together, as if one, the thousands rant: "Where is that confounded News-o-Rama? I feel unrooted, nay, at sea(!) without my favorite blog. Exiled upon the shore of ignorance, I am, and in great need of various links to things that I would have otherwise ignored".

Leaving aside for a moment the question of why you're speaking in gnarled and twisted sentences, you will be happy to know that your humble webmaster and new-o-rama gatherer has been attempting to catch up with "life" following the conclusion of the Cleveland Browns 2007 campaign. A lot of stuff gets left undone during the rush of news during the season, and there are to-do lists which needed to be cleaned up.

Enough of that. Time to start spewing this thing again on a regular basis.

Here's some of the stuff that has piled up in the last couple of days here at OBR World Headquarters.


FLACCOFICATION EXPLAINED

A few days ago, Adam Caplan broke the news that a very interesting quarterback out of Delaware by the name of Joe Flacco had accepted an invite to the Senior Bowl. Days later, I still haven't seen that reported elsewhere, although someone probably has sniffed it out by now.

The reason that this was news was because Flacco wasn't originally supposed to appear at the Senior Bowl. We learned that Flacco was going to appear in the game before we found out why.

Today that news came to light: Boston College's Matt Ryan will not be attending the Senior Bowl, for reasons still unknown. The last person to do this was QB Brady Quinn, who was scheduled to be at last year's Senior Bowl but canceled before his much-anticipated showing.

Quinn was rewarded by falling down draft boards so far that the Browns were able to trade up to snag him. Like Ryan, Quinn is represented by Tom Condon. We'll see if the strategy of having his client skip the heavily-tscouted event backfires. Again.

Props, by the way, to our old pal Tony Pauline for breaking the story.


COACHING MOVES: DEPARTMENT OF IRONY

The Browns, currently pondering a contract extension for Romeo Crennel, might want to pause and think about how much things can change in a single year. Here's an example:

Last year, the Browns lost highly-regarded special teams coach Jerry Rosburg to the Atlanta Falcons, where he was to perform in the same role. It's thought that Rosburg jumped ship partially because of the security offered by the Falcons. The Cleveland Browns were replacing most of their offensive coaches at the time, and it was felt that the rest of the coaching staff was at risk if the team suffered through another bad season. So, Rosburg leapt to what looked like a better situation, while Browns fans cursed their luck at losing a terrific coach.

Falcons head coach Bobby Petrino has now been routed from Atlanta in less than a year, fleeing back to the college ranks, and now the Falcons are the team getting raided. The Cincinnati Bengals have swept in to nab defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer from the Falcons to serve in the same role under Marvin Lewis. The reason: uncertainty about the situation in Atlanta.

There doesn't seem to be much in the NFL that is more pointless than a long-term contract for a coach.


STREAKING THROUGH THE SKY

http://i.a.cnn.net/si/images/football/nfl/players/2600.jpgI remember last year when the Browns first expressed interest in Jason Garrett as an offensive coordinator. The nearly universal response from Browns fans and the media, myself included, was a unanimous cry of "Huh?".

All most of us knew about Jason Garrett at that point was his history as a mediocre, at best, NFL quarterback.  That, of course, and the fact that his player photo made him look like a mental case.

There was a lot of skepticism about Garrett at the time, largely because the Browns history of picking offensive coaches at that point had been (being charitable here) somewhat spotty. A few years of Bruce Arians and Maurice Carthon had created some cynicism among the fanbase.

A year later, though, Garrett's meteoric rise has him being courted as a potential head coach by the Ravens and Falcons.

Ironically, Garrett's trajectory maps very closely to that of the man who eventually got the Browns offensive coordinator job, Rob Chudzinski. The two are only a couple years apart in age, and both have been courted by the Baltimore Ravens to fix the mess left by previous coaching genius Brian Billick. Whereas Chudzinski opted out of the process, for reasons we've outlined on the OBR, Garrett has jumped into the fray.

Now there are rumors that Jerry Jones will match whatever the Ravens offer, much like the Browns extended Chudzinski's contract to keep him in Cleveland. It will be interesting to watch the parallel careers of these two men who have followed very different paths to very similar places.

OBR subscribers can track the latest regarding Garrett and Baltimore via the reports of Ravens expert Aaron Wilson over at Ravens Insider.


HOW'S THAT RAC-TO-MIAMI RUMOR LOOKING?

Uh, Sparano's the guy if he wants it. Big surprise. As I rambled about a while back, the Dolphins just keep hiring Cowboys people as Parcells tries to build up Dallas East.

Nothing against Romeo Crennel, but I think the Browns are over-reacting by extending RAC's contract. A lot of things went the Browns way this year, and both the team and Crennel can wait another season to see if he's suddenly acquired the magic touch. Let's see how the Browns do in 2008 before locking in another long-term deal.

After all, that contract extension for Butch Davis didn't work out all that well, did it? Or the one for Grantham?

I know the arguments for it, with the team extending Chud's deal and not wanting to make Crennel look like he's not in a strong position, but I suspect it's something that the Browns will regret once all the excitement dies down. Again.
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