2009 preseason
Transitions and League Observations
We don’t have any retirements, and QB Bobby Silvers (let go late last season) remains in the free agent pool, hoping to get one more chance from somebody.
Front Office Decisions
Our defensive coordinator is out of contract – and I’ll look for a possible (younger) replacement. I pursue the DC from Minnesota, and we wrap him up with a pretty fat offer.
Def Coord: Ted Keith, 54
EX: DL
VG: LB,DB
GD: PK
AV: YT
Roster Review
Here’s the salary summery – sorted by current salary number, so we can easily see where our priorities have to lie (as we are losing a lot of players).
Code:
Player # Pos Start OnTm EndCnt Exp Cap Cost Save if Rls
Arsenault, Roderick 33 RB 2008 2011 6 $8,750,000 $7,000,000
Huffman, Rodney 78 RDE 2005 2010 5 $5,140,000 $2,390,000
Whiting, Arnie 84 TE 2008 2010 6 $3,700,000 $2,700,000
Richmond, Deon 43 RCB 2006 2010 4 $3,300,000 $1,780,000
Van Pelt, Donnell 21 RB 2008 2009 2 $3,000,000 $3,000,000
Cascadden, Gary 72 LDT 2007 2011 3 $2,380,000 $1,150,000
DiGiacomo, Ricky 91 WLB 2008 2012 2 $2,110,000 $880,000
Goodwin, Cedric 92 MLB 2004 2009 6 $2,000,000 $1,600,000
Ellery, Deron 46 FS 2008 2012 2 $1,840,000 $900,000
Schroeder, Bert 74 RT 2008 2010 6 $1,600,000 $1,200,000
Rose, Mickey 89 SE 2007 2009 3 $1,240,000 $820,000
Fisk, Stanley 98 WLB 2007 2009 3 $1,240,000 $820,000
O'Rourke, Nathan 88 FL 2004 2009 6 $1,210,000 $1,140,000
Jacobs, Thurman 41 FS 2005 2009 5 $1,200,000 $900,000
Dunn, Scott 37 RCB 2007 2009 6 $1,180,000 $1,150,000
Nichols, Kurt 56 C 2006 2010 6 $1,140,000 $900,000
Hambrick, Antoine 54 C 2007 2009 5 $1,140,000 $1,080,000
Fox, Jimmy 93 LDE 2007 2010 3 $1,140,000 $710,000
Casey, Rick 90 MLB 2008 2009 6 $1,070,000 $1,000,000
Marion, Terrell 65 LG 2008 2010 2 $1,050,000 $630,000
Tyler, Howie 99 SLB 2005 2009 5 $1,030,000 $990,000
Wayne, Harry 79 NT 2008 2010 6 $910,000 $890,000
Wickliff, Calvin 42 LCB 2008 2010 5 $910,000 $890,000
Oliveira, Willie 76 LDT 2007 2009 5 $900,000 $900,000
Aceves, Jermaine 85 SE 2008 2009 6 $840,000 $780,000
Blum, Dale 94 RDE 2006 2009 4 $720,000 $600,000
Salisbury, Adam 35 FB 2008 2010 6 $700,000 $700,000
Schulz, Deion 70 LDE 2005 2009 5 $650,000 $650,000
Hampton, Todd 67 RG 2007 2010 3 $650,000 $470,000
Stewart, Jay 7 K 2008 2009 5 $620,000 $620,000
Pieri, Colin 75 RDT 2008 2010 2 $560,000 $380,000
Badalyan, Brent 47 FB 2008 2009 3 $500,000 $500,000
Fox, Marvin 11 QB 2008 2010 2 $380,000 $360,000
Glover, Tyrone 2 QB 2008 UFA 6 $0 $0
Woodson, Mickey 36 FB 2006 UFA 6 $0 $0
Metzger, Rich 82 TE 2006 UFA 6 $0 $0
Sanders, Randall 83 SE 2006 UFA 6 $0 $0
Cochrane, Paul 9 P 2004 UFA 6 $0 $0
Wiggs, Julio 52 WLB 2006 UFA 6 $0 $0
Mace, Wes 23 LCB 2006 UFA 6 $0 $0
Heinlein, Bennie 71 LT 2005 UFA 5 $0 $0
Bass, Frank 73 RT 2007 UFA 5 $0 $0
Gomez, Craig 27 LCB 2005 UFA 5 $0 $0
Ramsey, Kendrick 32 RB 2006 ---- 4 $0 $0
Gibson, Kris 95 LDT 2006 ---- 4 $0 $0
Davis, Steven 14 QB 2007 ---- 3 $0 $0
Adams, Donovan 28 RB 2007 ---- 3 $0 $0
George, Zach 57 C 2007 ---- 3 $0 $0
Clark, James 66 RG 2007 ---- 3 $0 $0
Castaneda, Ronald 64 MLB 2007 ---- 3 $0 $0
Loera, Herman 62 RG 2008 ---- 2 $0 $0
Hardee, Herman 48 FS 2008 ---- 2 $0 $0
One quick adjustment will be to release RB Van Pelt – his $3,000,000 salary is a typo from last year’s offer (extra zero) and that will help. But we still will only have $22m in cap space, with 21 roster spaces to fill. Including, of course, starting quartercack.
At the moment, our only QB on the roster is Akron’s own Marvin Fox. I’m not so sure that we’re ready to hand things over to him.
Free Agency
My first move is to try to work out a long term offer for LT Bennie Heinlein, who has been very effective for us in his four years. He’s not all that highly regarded, so we offer 3yrs, $3.6m flat – and might have a shot to work it out with him.
We also get in a reasonable offer to FB Mickey Woodson, despite the fact that we have two other competent fullbacks – this is the guy I like to use.
WR Randall Sanders seems to be a good fit in our system, but is also not holding out for giant cash – so my 3yr offer is very affordable, also. Good news again.
We’ve got to decide what to do at cornerback. Deon Richmond missed nearly all of last year, and Scott Dunn returns. Calvin Wickliff is a nice utility reserve, but I don’t think he’s a starter. So – we’re okay for now, but might pursue a new deal with either Wes Mace or Scott Gomez before we settle everything here.
So – we have some cap space to work with, and the free agency market is open to us more than ever. I’d like, in particular, to wrap up improvements at QB and guard.
QB Quentin McDaniel has been a four-year starter for Detroit, with solid seasons, but not a superstar. Four years, and an 89/81 ratio – decent, but not outstanding. Right now, he seems like the best option at QB – and seeks about $7m a year. I’ll consider making an offer… I’d be more confident if he had put up at least one very good year, rather than being “pretty good” every year so far.
DE Butch Holbert was relegated to the bench in Chicago last year, but seems to be solid – would make a very nice addition to our depth chart up front. We make a standard three year offer.
G Lincoln Gruber would start for us at right guard, providing additional pass protection on the right side. He looks pretty effective – and would probably become our offensive line leader, too. I put in an offer, thinking he’d be a good fit.
CB Zack Callens is a perfect fit for our defense – a man coverage specialist who can make interceptions. Seems ideal, and we won’t have to pay for other skills, so he is affordable to us. Might be the answer for our secondary. I also decide to put in an offer for Chris Gomez, our own guy.
WR Josh Andruzzi is an exciting talent, very fast, but has yet to put it all together with the Jets. I will lay off – I can’t afford $7m for an unproven commodity, I don’t think.
So, including our own players – we have seven pursuits identified, all pretty cheap (under $2m.yr). That leaves enough space for a QB – but if we go after an expensive QB, we won’t be able to make any more moves. I’m not so sold on Quentin McDaniel that I want to leave the whole team with huge gaps – so my plan will be to search for value at the QB position, and to possibly look for a rookie there as well.
In the first week of free agency, we are pleased to see everything going fine with our several pursuits. QB Quentin McDaniel wouldn’t have come to us anyway, it seems – he received a fat offer from Buffalo, and will probably go there.
After seven weeks, all our guys are signed, and so is QB McDaniel to Buffalo (with a $10m signing bonus). We have $8 million or so to spend on three more roster spots – so the resolution of the QB position is obviously the biggest thing left to do.
Our options include re-signing
QB Tyrone Glover, which would make a certain degree of sense. He wants $8m a year – so that’s a challenge financially, but it’s certainly a viable option.
Shawn Mathews, another injury fill-in for us, is also available. Plus, there are other familiar faces – including
Bobby Silvers and
Steven Davis. I cannot find other guys who stand out from the crowd of available free agents – but we might consider a new addition, especially if we don’t draft a rookie.
The QB position goes untouched through the entire 20-stage process, and I’m content to wait until after the rookie draft to see where we can go there. I have lots of leverage in this draft (with a staggering five second round picks) so we might be able to make a move, if we like someone in the early part of the draft. Absent such a big move, we might be able to come up with a one or two year deal for someone like Glover or Mathews, both of whom are familiar with our team.
Rookie Draft
There are a few guys from Akron in this draft – again, I don’t think there will be an earth-shattering effect, but I do think we will get one impact player.
LB Don Montgomery (4.1) – Was a great ‘backer at Akron before having academic problems – missed his last two seasons, so he looks like a college guy who came from absolutely nowhere (zero stats his last season show up in FOF 2004). He projects to be a decent all-around player, but it will mostly be potential (he’s 24/49 by my scout).
S Alex Bunch (3.8) – looks like a solid prospect, maybe a late round pickup. High volatility (98) makes him suspect.
CB Wally Maloney and
DE Johnny Rock were both great college players, but neither one looks to be worth much at the next level.
Punter B.J. Wolf looks like he’s got a shot to catch on somewhere – maybe here in Cleveland, even.
Now, I’d love to land a top-grade quarterback in this draft – but as luck would have it, there’s nobody who seems to fill the bill, as nearly as I can tell.
The most fascinating player in the draft is LB Zach Reich, who is graded as an 8.0, and looks to have a very complete skill set. What’s so weird about him? He ran a 4.36 40-yard time, which makes him the third-fastest player in the entire draft. Wow.
Cincinnati takes LB Reich at #6 – so he will be in our division – wonderful.
I’m eyeing a couple of wideouts who slip out of the top ten spots. A.J. Ralston from Georgie Tech looks very good, and Zach Blair from Syracuse would be my next choice. Interestingly, Blair’s college QB Vincent Turnbull is probably the next QB to go in the draft as well. I see both guys as somewhat risky projects, but both have real upside, too.
QB Turnbull goes at pick #17 to Detroit, leaving my options at #22 even more limited. I decide that I want to get a wideout here – and I’ll wait until one of the two goes off the board, and then move up if need be to grab the other one. WR Ralston is #18 to San Francisco, so my hand is somewhat forced here.
With my plethora of extra draft picks, I decide to dip in and approach Denver. Two late seconds and a fourth pick later, and we have selection #19 in this draft, with which we take wide receiver Zach Blair from the ‘Cuse.
At #25, we could go with another wideout, as there are a few available, but instead I want to go with a defensive player. I’m also keeping a loose eye on G Lawrence Davidson from Clemson, who would make a great second round pick, I think.
There are two really good defensive players sitting here at #25 – LB Rickey Morrow and S Kirk Weed. I feel that our secondary is in greater need than our LB corps, so I grab Weed. Last year’s selection of Deron Ellery doesn’t look like it got us a true impact player – so we hope this one will do so. Either way, it ought to give us another legitimate option there.
Lawrence Davidson, my target left guard, gets taken at pick #32, to my chagrin. So, our two picks in the early second round will have to go elsewhere. I don’t have a real plan – I’ll just be looking for BPA. I end up grabbing another speedy wideout, and a pass-rushing OLB.
Code:
Amateur Draft Report:
Rnd 1 - Kirk Weed, S, Auburn
Rnd 1 - Zach Blair, WR, Syracuse
Rnd 2 - Darrin Regalado, OLB, Georgia Tech
Rnd 2 - Oscar Goodwin, WR, Illinois
Rnd 2 - Johnny Burns, DE, Oregon
Rnd 3 - Marco Clancy, QB, Michigan
Rnd 5 - Nolan Newell, ILB, Marshall
Rnd 6 - Lionel Gunther, TE, Boston College
Rnd 7 - Jason Mulkey, G, Southern California
In round three, I finally select a quarterback, Michigan’s Marco Clancy. Super-high volatility might be a good or a bad sign, but he has enough going for him to merit interest. He ranked atop the “adjusted ratings” list since the early second round – so I feel we’re getting some value here, also.
Cincinnati took LB Don Montgomery in round six – so we’ll be able to keep tabs on him from with in the division. We’ll check in to see how he looks after training camp.
We receive a trade offer – a 4th round pick for FB Adam Salisbury – and quickly accept. He’s solid, but decent fullbacks are pretty easy to locate, and we have three. Done.
Late Free Agency
With all but our two first round draft picks signed, we have about $12m total to spend – with 47 roster spots spoken for. That leaves room to bring in rookies, and to spend some money on a player, or a few. We would like very much to resolve our immediate quarterback picture, with one or maybe two veterans.
Tyrone Glover has substantially adjusted his demands since before the draft, and is now seeking something along the lines of $3 million per season – half of where he was a few weeks ago. That is an awful lot closer to what I can afford than the $7m he sought before.
We also like what we see in RB Archie Ramsey, who did pretty well for Carolina playing for three seasons. Good, quick back who should be helpful for us as we need some depth there.
So, we settle on an offer to QB Tyrone Glover, and prepare to move onward. However, a twist in our plans arises – we now have competition. Detroit has put in a four year offer – comparable to ours, I think. Might make this a bit tougher. Through six weeks, he cannot decide between our offers – meanwhile, all our other players are signed.
As an insurance policy, we re-sign QB Stephen Davis – I really am not wild about the prospect of him taking over as our starter, but he could grow into the #2 job, I suppose.
In week seven of eight, Tyrone Glover decides – and accepts our offer. We are offering him to return as the starting QB for a playoff team – that has to be worth something, even if he’s upset that we didn’t pay him big, big money.
I give one last look at the free agent market, and I’m a little but concerned about the QB position. If rookie Clancy isn’t ready to contribute this year (pretty likely), then we’ll have Steven Davis as our #2 – and each of the last two years, our #2 ended up being the main starter. That’s a bit too much pressure, I fear. I check out the field – nobody really strikes me, but we have some options if we need them. That should be fine, rather than laying out yet another signing bonus.
Training Camp
We bring 62 players into camp this season – here’s the layout:
Code:
Player # Pos Exp Cest Fest Cest Fest ChgC ChgF
Glover, Tyrone 2 QB 6 60 60 60 60 0 0
Fox, Marvin 11 QB 2 19 43 21 43 2 0
Clancy, Marco 8 QB 1 15 65 20 63 5 -2
Davis, Steven 14 QB 3 16 47 19 47 3 0
Arsenault, Roderick 33 RB 6 61 61 61 61 0 0
Ramsey, Archie 29 RB 4 49 49 51 51 2 2
Adams, Donovan 28 RB 3 40 41 41 41 1 0
Ramsey, Kendrick 32 RB 4 37 43 38 43 1 0
Tiller, Myron 45 RB 1 29 37 31 40 2 3
Cambini, Brad 20 RB 1 29 33 30 33 1 0
Woodson, Mickey 36 FB 6 52 53 52 53 0 0
Badalyan, Brent 47 FB 3 28 42 30 42 2 0
Goodwin, Ian 23 FB 1 28 45 29 45 1 0
Whiting, Arnie 84 TE 6 67 67 67 67 0 0
Schroeder, Lamar 87 TE 1 18 40 22 43 4 3
Gunther, Lionel 86 TE 1 14 44 15 39 1 -5
O'Rourke, Nathan 88 FL 6 45 45 45 45 0 0
Blair, Zach 81 FL 1 36 69 34 64 -2 -5
Aceves, Jermaine 85 SE 6 60 61 62 62 2 1
Sanders, Randall 83 SE 6 48 49 48 49 0 0
Rose, Mickey 89 SE 3 39 48 41 48 2 0
Goodwin, Oscar 80 SE 1 36 54 39 51 3 -3
Nichols, Kurt 56 C 6 46 46 46 46 0 0
Hambrick, Antoine 54 C 5 40 47 40 47 0 0
Marion, Terrell 65 LG 2 32 59 34 59 2 0
Mulkey, Jason 55 LG 1 20 34 24 38 4 4
Gruber, Lincoln 63 RG 5 53 53 53 53 0 0
Hampton, Todd 67 RG 3 27 37 29 37 2 0
Heinlein, Bennie 71 LT 5 52 54 52 54 0 0
Cox, Hugh 60 LT 1 20 43 23 48 3 5
Schroeder, Bert 74 RT 6 64 64 64 64 0 0
Wolf, B.J. 1 P 1 7 19 8 19 1 0
Stewart, Jay 7 K 5 45 45 45 45 0 0
Vallejo, Jeremy 19 K 1 29 50 34 57 5 7
Holton, Butch 97 LDE 6 57 57 57 57 0 0
Fox, Jimmy 93 LDE 3 45 46 47 47 2 1
Schulz, Deion 70 LDE 5 35 39 37 39 2 0
Huffman, Rodney 78 RDE 5 79 79 79 79 0 0
Blum, Dale 94 RDE 4 37 41 38 41 1 0
Burns, Johnny 96 RDE 1 16 47 17 42 1 -5
Rock, Johnny 77 RDE 1 14 22 15 24 1 2
Cascadden, Gary 72 LDT 3 52 68 54 68 2 0
Gibson, Kris 95 LDT 4 45 52 47 52 2 0
Oliveira, Willie 76 LDT 5 31 46 33 46 2 0
Pieri, Colin 75 RDT 2 19 40 21 40 2 0
Wayne, Harry 79 NT 6 44 51 46 51 2 0
Daveria, Greg 59 SILB 1 22 50 26 53 4 3
Goodwin, Cedric 92 MLB 6 59 59 59 59 0 0
Casey, Rick 90 MLB 6 55 57 55 57 0 0
Castaneda, Ronald 64 MLB 3 29 50 32 50 3 0
Tyler, Howie 99 SLB 5 58 60 58 60 0 0
Newell, Nolan 53 SLB 1 14 51 16 45 2 -6
DiGiacomo, Ricky 91 WLB 2 37 73 43 73 6 0
Fisk, Stanley 98 WLB 3 38 51 41 51 3 0
Regalado, Darrin 52 WLB 1 35 60 37 57 2 -3
Wickliff, Calvin 42 LCB 5 55 55 55 55 0 0
Gomez, Craig 27 LCB 5 41 53 43 53 2 0
Callens, Zack 39 RCB 6 57 57 57 57 0 0
Dunn, Scott 37 RCB 6 52 52 52 52 0 0
Richmond, Deon 43 RCB 4 48 54 52 54 4 0
Cowley, Kelly 31 RCB 3 32 53 36 53 4 0
Weed, Kirk 24 SS 1 44 62 43 60 -1 -2
Jacobs, Thurman 41 FS 5 55 66 60 66 5 0
Ellery, Deron 46 FS 2 36 57 41 57 5 0
I don’t even have my top two picks signed, but the early returns are not too encouraging. Both lost some ground in their future ratings – which just isn’t a great sign.
We get WR Zach Blair signed, and it looks like he won’t be quite what we had hoped for – he has pretty good hands, but may not have the crisp skills needed to get open a lot. Oscar Goodwin, drafted later in the second round, might turn out to be more prolific – though each has his own set of skills.
QB Marco Clancy, however, looks like he might be pretty solid. Mixed skill set, but he has some real upside. LB Darrin Regalado looks like he can be a very effective pass-rusher, whether it’s from an OLB or even DE position.
In the draft review, we are awarded a B-plus, our best rating yet. We have two players on “The Green Page” – QB Clancy ranked 8th, and WR Zach Blair down the list a ways.
Season Analysis
Tough to say where we will go this year. I don’t think we made any major impact additions – perhaps save DE Butch Holton, who certainly helps us with depth, and might even become a starter for us. But the rookie receivers will be rotation players at most, and I don’t think we’ll see a breakout there. Overall, we’re largely the same team as how we ended up last season – hoping that a year to gel will help us to improve a shade further.
Our roster rating is up to 61… still in the bottom third, but rising.
I haven’t been watching cohesion closely – but now it stands at 89-98-99-87, pretty highly regarded in every area. The passing game took a dent by adding two promising rookies, and we have rookie Zach Blair currently slated to start for us at flanker. But overall, we have been pretty stable.
This year, we will try to put it together again, and make another run at the postseason. Our WR corps has never been better, and we ought to have pretty good offensive balance. On defense, we just want more of the same from last year – maybe add in a few more sacks. Tough to argue on that side. A division win will again be the main goal I don’t know if we have enough pieces in place to be thinking much bigger than that.