Mike80;2230320; said:
If Haslam is serious about changing things Shurmur will be gone the week after he's confirmed.
Holmgren and all the rest of the upper management will go after the first of the year.
Not disagreeing with any of this but, some headscratching decisions are starting to make a lot of sense. Well, as much sense as it can make in Brownsland.
First thing is, I'm wondering how Long Randy Lerner has known he was going to sell the team as soon as the 10 year AL Lerner Moratorium (what the hell was that anyway?), or whatever it was expired. More important, how long has Holmgren known, and what was he instructed to do as a result as of the planned sale. My guess is around the draft or just after the draft last year. I don't know that I've ever seen a team do any less in FA than this one. And I'm not even talking about getting big named guys... its to the point that they're getting guys at only the (comparative in Browns terms) most needed backstop positions. I mean is there any way they felt that good about all 15 or whatever rookies coming into the season?
And it may have been as early as hiring Shurmur, in the sense that its a you've got nothing to lose type hire, and maybe the guy is a genius and you hit a home run...
But having said that, it might explain why they've done everything possible to develop young talent and on the other hand, leave as much cap space as possible for the incoming owner to be able to have the flexibility to make an impact. (ie using the fact that they don't have to be at the 90& floor in a particular season) I think they're probably in the ballpark of 40 milion under for '13 and the biggest name (as usual) is probably Phil Dawson.
I mean, if I were gonna buy a bad team, I'd at least want room to make a difference... and as many young restrictable guys on the roster as possible. Much better than buying a 6 and 10 team that's gonna be 10 million over the cap. I'm sure those are out there.
It kind of is building for the future, so you can make the team more attractive, and let the next guy spend his money as he sees fit. (Who the hell knows how long Haslem has been the guy, and he want to pay X amount of money based on XYZ)
I think it sort of expains why they burned the extra picks to get Richardson when the might not have had to (they felt like they had to get him) and why they pulled th trigger on Weeden, you knew McCoy isnt a franchise guy, so, why not give it a shot that you might have one (though I think the framework was worked out before we knew much about Weeden)
Now, the lack of FA going into '12 might have been partly due to the labor situtaion, etc, but, I really think that they were even planning for this back then, and if any of the stories of Lerner "interfering" were based on some kind of guidlines to make the team look a certain way going into this season.
At any rate, I think this was a long time coming and the moves have mirrored it for some time, they got to hide behind the labor situation last year a bit, but, I think it explains a lot and, if some of these unknown first and second year guys pan out when they otherwise might not have gotten a shot, it might be good in the very near future.
