Actor Rob Lowe has tweeted that his sources close to Peyton Manning have told him that Manning will retire from the NFL today.

This isn’t the most reliable of sources, but what the hell, this is a blog that only a few people read.

If Peyton Manning does retire, it will obviously suggest the Colts plan on taking Andrew Luck with the first overall pick in the draft. This seemed to pretty much be a forgone conclusion by most people, but the announcement of Manning’s retirement would confirm it 100% in my mind. Personally, I believe Manning has been the greatest quarterback of my generation and a class act. I’ve always been a fan and I wish the guy well in whatever he plans on doing after football. He’s also had some great skits on SNL!

We’ll see if this news pans out soon. Until then, its just a rumor.

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There were so many comments on my last post about Tim Tebow that I figured it’d be best to write a general reply.
Thank you to everyone who commented and read the post. I always appreciate your feedback, as hateful and wrong as some of it is.

I’d like to address a few key points that some of you made in your comments.

1. I certainly do believe in free speech. That’s one of my favorite freedoms given to us by this great country. It gives me the freedom and opportunity to write a rant about how I do not like Tim Tebow, and it gives readers the freedom to post their thoughts on what I have written, regardless of spelling, punctuation, grammar, and a lack of rational intelligence. I’d like to add that there is a slight difference in meaning between you’re and your. Of course, you’re entitled to write anything you’d like, it just makes it easier to read if you use the correct spelling.

2. I also believe in the freedom of religion. You can believe in anything you’d like, especially when you can ignore your religious teachings and hate on people who believe differently. That’s your (Not you’re) right.

3. For those of you who plainly said I’m just a Tebow hater, well, you’re absolutely right. I’m alright with that. I don’t like him as a player, and he annoys me when he speaks. His beliefs are not specifically why I don’t like him. If he was not insistent about spreading the gospel, I’d still feel the same about him. If he were a Browns player, I’d still feel the same about him.

4. For those of you who say you love what he’s saying and you’re happy to listen to him, good for you! I hope you give the same courtesy and love to the door-to-door people looking to spread the word on the Book of Mormon. Do you do that? Do you really?

5. I also want to thank the few people who agreed with what I said. I appreciate that you understood that what prompted my initial bashing of Tebow was that he should not be among the top QB’s in Pro Bowl voting.

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Tim Tebow is now fourth in QB votes for the AFC Pro Bowl by fans. WHY??? What has he done to earn a Pro Bowl bid as a quarterback?

I absolutely do not like Tim Tebow, and I absolutely hate the crush America has on him. I admit that the kid wins games, so far at least. He wins them with his legs though, he’s not a quarterback! I repeat, He’s not a freaking quarterback! He’s a running back who occasionally throws the ball. When the rest of the NFL runs this type of offense, it’s called the Wildcat! Josh Cribbs won 4 games in a row for the Browns a couple years ago by running the Wildcat. For the record, I didn’t like it when the Browns ran the Wildcat. I thought it was a gimmick and only a matter of time before the NFL figured out a way to stop it and I firmly believe that soon all NFL Defensive Coordinators will know exactly how to stop Timmy. The only difference between the Broncos and the Browns is that the entire nation thinks Tebow walks on water. Which brings up my next rant…

I’m tired of Tebow shoving religion down everyone’s throats whenever there’s a camera in front of him. We get it, you’re deeply religious. Jake Plummer twittered a couple of weeks ago how he’s sick of it too. When a reporter asks Tebow about the game-winning touchdown or what he was thinking when he decided to take off and run with the ball for the 300th time, he should not answer with Psalms 21:3, or any other Bible verse. He should talk about football! I don’t care that he’s religious. In fact, I think it’s great that he devotes his life to something better than some of the other NFL players do, like drugs and guns. However, I firmly believe that being a fanatic about anything is unhealthy, and he’s certainly a religious fanatic. That’s his choice and that’s fine, but I’m tired of hearing about it. Talk about football, or don’t talk at all, because you’re only paid to talk about football.

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The Browns lost another Pro Bowler today, but at least this time it was just a long snapper. Ryan Pontbriand has been a bit of a joke since he was drafted by Butch Davis in the 5th round in 2003. It wasn’t his on-field play that was the joke, it was that the Browns actually wasted a 5th round draft pick on him. Still, most fans forgave the puzzling draft decision when he had 8 solid seasons. He was flawless, as far as long snappers go. When your only job is to snap the ball for special teams, you’d better not screw up.

Well, he started to screw up. He botched two snaps in the last three games, one of which he had some help from Alex Mack. However, the two bad snaps cost him his job. He’s been replaced by UDFA Christian Yount from UCLA.

Will the Browns miss Pontbriand? Probably not.

Will I miss him? Absolutely not. He had one job and started to do it poorly. I don’t think I’d have cut him for just two bad snaps, but I’m not going to cry over the decision either.

In other Browns news, Scott Fujita and Emmanuel Stephens have been placed on injured reserve. Linebacker Benjamin Jacobs and defensive lineman Brian Sanford have been promoted from the practice squad to fill the roster spots.

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I can hardly remember the last time the Browns have started a season 2-1, probably because that was back in 2002, the last time we made it to the playoffs.  I should also explain that with that statement, I’m making no comparison to that season and am NOT implying we’ll make the playoffs this year.  Hopefully we take advantage of a favorable schedule, win some games we’re supposed to win, and compete against Baltimore and Pittsburgh at the end of the season. 

Here are some of the things I noticed yesterday, good and bad. 

Colt McCoy was bad!  He was inaccurate all day and that’s something I normally wouldn’t expect from him.  Some of the discussions I’ve heard regarding him have said that he’s been instructed to stay in the pocket as much as possible.  We all know McCoy likes to move out to the right and throw on the run, and so does every opposing defensive coordinator.  Plus every time he rolls out to the right, he’s essentially limiting himself to the right side of the field.  He looked uncomfortable as a pocket passer yesterday, but I’m glad to see him trying.  You’ll start to see more passing plays open up for him once he becomes more comfortable in the pocket, and has the entire field to work with.  And besides, no matter how awful he looked for most of the day, he came through when it counted.  When the game was on the line and we needed a long TD drive, he was clutch.  All else was immediately forgiven.

Montario Hardesty can be an effective runner.  This was the biggest worry and question mark I had going into this game.  I just wasn’t sure if he could take a full games workload, and had no idea if he’d be any good.  It turns out he can handle his own and broke a few decent runs.  His catch on 4th down in the game winning drive was such a relief.  If he had dropped that pass, it would have had the feeling of every other season where nothing goes right.  He didn’t drop it though, and he kept the drive alive.  When Shurmur can figure out how to use Hillis and Hardesty to compliment each other, it’ll be fun to watch.

You’ll probably hear a little about how the offensive line played badly again, but I don’t think they did.  Yeah McCoy got hit a lot, but he also holds onto the ball too long.  The West Coast Offense is supposed to be fast.  The QB is supposed to hit the receiver in stride and get yards after the catch, and do it quickly.  There’s two things wrong with our version of that offense.  One, Colt McCoy is uncomfortable throwing to receivers who are just a little open.  He wants a receiver to be wide open, but in the NFL that isn’t something that happens very often.  Being open in the NFL is when a receiver has only a small window of separation.  So he ends up holding onto the ball too long sometimes, waiting for someone to get open.  It does seem like McCoy is working on that.  The second thing wrong is the receivers themselves.  Some of them, ROBISKIE, can’t get separation.  These are both things I think will improve as the season continues, once Colt gets more comfortable in the pocket and Robiskie is benched.

I’m loving Sheard, Taylor, Rubin, and Mitchell.  There’s not enough I can say about our defensive line.  It’s the best lineup I’ve seen for a long time, and they’re all young!  They’ll be together for a while and will continue to get better.  The Dolphins gave up 5 sacks yesterday and it was great to see.  I can’t wait to see our d-line do the same thing to the Steelers.  Moving Sheard to the left side seems genius.  It’s something that I don’t think would have happened in years past.  Mangini was more about making a player fit his scheme rather than changing the scheme up a bit to fit the player. 

Joe Haden will make the Pro Bowl this year.  He handled Brandon Marshall all day long and turned him into a non-threat.  Marshall even got upset and threw a temper tantrum, pushing Mike Adams down after a play.  That’s how frustrated he was all day.  I read on a Miami blog that their fans thing Marshall blew the game by “Dropping” the pass in the endzone.  They give a bit of credit to Haden saying he had tight coverage, but that Marshall dropped the pass.  Are they blind?  Did they not see Haden reach around and knock the pass away?  What was Marshall supposed to do when the ball never hits his hands?  It’s not like the single pass to Robiskie where the ball hit him squarely in both hands and was dropped.  (Sorry, had to get in another shot on Robiskie.  Wait, no I’m not sorry.)  T.J. Ward had another good game and Mike Adams is playing much better this year than in the past.  Even Patterson had a pretty good game covering Bess.  It seems our weakest link is Sheldon Brown.  If you think about it, that’s not really that bad of a weakest link, in my opinion anyway.

I wasn’t happy about the linebackers.  I thought they played pretty badly.  There were too many missed tackles and Miami was able to run Thomas at will up the middle.  Reggie Bush still sucks in my mind.  Jackson, Fujita, and Gocong just didn’t play well.  Yeah they had a couple of decent plays, but as a group they should be a lot better.  What happened to the Jackson we saw during the Bengals game?   If Miami had run the ball with Thomas at all on their final drive, I think they would have been set up nicely for the field goal.  Which… brings me to my next point.

Thank you Brian Daboll.  You still suck and I’m incredibly happy you’re now ruining another team.  Why do you constantly play not-to-lose?  You do realize that all you needed was 15 freaking yards to have a manageable field goal attempt?  Instead, you passed the ball 4 times in a row, one of which was wasted as a deep pass caught out of bounds.  15 freaking yards and you completely ignored the fact that Thomas had been running it down our throats all game.  A nice little draw play might have won the game for you.  So yes, thank you Brian Daboll for being as bad an offensive coordinator that I thought you were. 

I’m giving game balls to Massaquoi for getting his feet in bounds after the TD catch, Cribbs for keeping us in the game with a beautiful TD catch, Adams for the game winning interception, McCoy for not sucking when it counted, and…

my last game ball goes to Brian Daboll.

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Have you seen this man???

If so, Please call Pat Shurmur

Ok, it’s great that the Browns won on the road against the Colts… But first I want to talk about Robiskie.

Where the hell was he?  Where the hell has he been?  Why do the coaches even bother playing him?  Am I allowed to say “Hell” on this blog?

Seriously, my dad and I watched the game Sunday and spent the entire second half laughing about the possibilities of where Robiskie might be.  Did Shurmur send him to the locker room to keep the toilet seat warm for the coach’s post game ritual?  Did Robiskie get sent to the bus to start it up in preparation for the ride back to the hotel?  Who knows!  What I do know is that Robiskie is a no-show on the field and I have no idea why they still put him out there on game day.  He doesn’t get separation from defenders therefore he’s never open.  I’ve waited patiently for him to come along, but I think it’s safe to say he sucks.  That’s my opinion.

Ok, now for the rest of the game, ya know, the part that was awesome.  The Browns won!!!  We don’t have a losing record through the first two games!  That’s an accomplishment we’ve only done one other time in the last five seasons. 

All joking aside, there’s plenty of people saying that the Colts suck without Manning, and that may have been true last week.  However, I thought Collins had a much better game this week and the offense is starting to come along for him.  The Colts’ defense did not lose Manning, so what’s their excuse for the Browns putting up 27 points?  Would the Browns have won if Manning had played?  Probably not, I’ll admit that.  But Collins is no slouch and I thought the Browns played a good game, most of the time.

Cribbs had a great game returning kicks.  I get a little nervous when he takes the kick from deep in the endzone and starts running out.  I feel like he’s going to get tackled around the 13 yard line every time, but he makes the most of the return opportunities he does get.  It also makes me nervous that the Browns have a hard time scoring touchdowns when we start at our own 20, but luckily for us Cribbs helps us out there. 

I thought Shurmur did a fine job calling the game.  The offense was much more balanced than last week between run and pass plays.  Hillis got his usual amount of carries and that’s necessary for the type of back he is.  You need him to wear on the defense until he finally is able to make a guy miss and break a long one.  Also, you really don’t want Colt McCoy throwing more than 40 pass attempts.  Don’t get me wrong, I like McCoy, but that’s a little too unbalanced in my opinion.

The o-line looked a bit sloppy at times and McCoy had to scramble a lot, but when you’re playing against Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis, that’s going to happen.  After Joe Thomas gave up his sack (Which McCoy is partially to blame for holding on to the ball too long), you didn’t hear a whole lot more from Freeney.  Pinkston had the false start, but give the rookie a break.  Artis Hicks got the start at RT and I thought he did alright.  It’ll take a few games for the line to come together, but I still think they’re doing a good job.

Greg Little could be a great player.  He’s produced more this season than Robiskie has in 3 seasons.  That’s enough to win me over right there.  Massaquoi had a decent game and it’s nice to see him back.  I’m starting to enjoy seeing Cribbs as a receiver.  I know I was very adamant about him not being a good receiver, but I might have been wrong.  I use the word “Might” because I only have a mediocre-at-best receiving core to compare him to.

Our secondary is good!  Haden and Ward have not disappointed in their second seasons.  I’m not high on Sheldon Brown anymore, and I think that’ll get shored up once Skrine gets a little better.  Even Young and Adams have done a good job so far. 

I’m impressed with Taylor, Rubin, and Sheard.  For once, our defensive line could be dominant for years.  Sheard needs to get a little better against the run, but it could happen.  There’s a lot of promise there and its great that you can already see it only two games into the season.  I’m not high on Mitchell so far, but maybe switching sides with Sheard will help him out.

D. Jackson was quiet this game, in fact all of our linebackers were.  I’m not sure if they took a game off or they were quietly getting the job done.  It didn’t seem like it though the way Addai and Carter were running against us.

Punting was fantastic.  No shanks!  ‘Nuff said.

If you look back to last week, which was awful, you can see that the team improved drastically coming into this week.  Timing looked better between McCoy and the receivers.  Penalties were cut down considerably.  And most of all, we didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot.  I whole heartedly believe we should have beat the Bengals, but we blew it.  The Browns didn’t blow it against the Colts.  They finished the game, and overall that’s the biggest improvement.  So if the team can build on that and continue to improve each week, we’re bound to be better by the end of the season.  And possibly, by that time, maybe we’ll be good enough to beat the likes of the Steelers, Ravens, and teams like the Colts (With Manning).  Or at least maybe we’ll be able to compete with them.  Right now they’d slaughter us I think, but we’re getting there.  It sounds like the usual BS, and maybe it is, but we’ll know for sure how the season will play out in 15 weeks.  Until then, enjoy the ride.

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It looks like after only a year of service to the Browns, Peyton Hillis could be getting a long term contract.  I’d say he deserves it.  Normally I’d want a player to show they can produce at the same level for another season, but I think Hillis will be ok.  It could be wishful thinking, but that’s everyday life as a Browns fan.

Here’s the story that profootballtalk.com did on Peyton Hillis.  I think the story shows what kind of player and person Hillis is, and makes me glad we don’t have whiners like Chris Johnson on our team.

Peyton Hillis takes quiet approach to contract talks

by Michael David Smith

In Tennessee, Chris Johnson is so angry about how much money he’s scheduled to make this season that he insists he won’t show up to work until the Titans give him a huge raise.

In Cleveland, there’s a running back who had more yards from scrimmage and more touchdowns than Johnson last year and is scheduled to make even less money than Johnson this year. But that running back, Peyton Hillis, showed up to camp and isn’t complaining about his contract.

Still, there’s increasing chatter coming out of Cleveland that a new deal for Hillis will come soon.

Although Browns GM Tom Heckert declined to comment, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, citing an unnamed league source, that the wheels have begun turning for talks about a new contract for Hillis.

Hillis changed agents this year, which is usually something a player does when he wants to get moving on a new contract. And it’s easy to see why he wants a new contract, considering he’s scheduled to earn $555,000 this season, which is the league minimum for players with four years of experience.

Asked if he wants to sign a long-term deal with the Browns, Hillis said he absolutely does.

“Most definitely. I think this team, this city, even the colors, represent who I am. As an individual, as a person and as a player,” Hillis said. “So I would love to be here as long the Browns want me here.”

But Hillis isn’t going about getting a long-term deal the same way Johnson is.

The Titans say they’re willing to make Johnson the highest-paid running back in football, but Johnson appears to want more than just that — he wants to be the highest-paid running back in football by a huge margin. Hillis isn’t making such demands, although Hillis could be viewed as just as good a long-term investment as Johnson, seeing as Hillis is a little younger than Johnson and has had about 600 fewer carries in his career than Johnson.

“Whenever’s my time, whenever the Browns feel like they want to take care of me, they will,” he said. “I’m going to do my best, try to prove myself to them. This is a business and you still have to produce every day, every year. That’s going to be my outlook from here on out.”

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Thank God we don’t have to worry about this guy testing the free agent market next year.  It’s nice to see a pro bowl player who wants to be a Cleveland Brown. 

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Joe Thomas signed a 7 year, $84 million extension with $44 million guaranteed.

I’m happy, I’ve wanted Heckert to lock Thomas down for a long extension the entire offseason.  I figured if we waited until free agency next year, we might lose him.  He’s the only thing Phil Savage ever did right during his time with the Browns.  Plus we can easily say he’s one of the two best left tackles in the league, without our normal Browns bias.

Oh, and I also saw Joe Thomas up at Gander Mountain in Sheffield on Saturday.  I didn’t approach him for a few reasons, he was busy, he’s gigantic, and he was at the gun counter.  I’m not entirely sure what he was buying, so don’t quote me on saying he was buying a gun.  I was too busy thinking of a way to approach him and ask for his autograph.  Ultimately I just walked past him and chickened out. 

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A lot happened after I left work yesterday and I didn’t have a chance to post the news.

The Browns agreed to terms with Green Bay RB Brandon Jackson for $4.5 million over 2 years.  The good part about this deal is that Jackson is only 25 years old, so he’s probably got some miles left on the legs.  He’s not going to beat Hillis out, but we have no idea how good Hardesty can be, or if he’s even healthy.  The best case scenario is that Jackson is our insurance if Hillis or Hardesty gets injured.  He’s a huge upgrade over Jerome Harrison and Mike Bell.  The thing that worries me though is the possibility that Hardesty is still recovering from his injury last season and is further behind schedule than anticipated.  If that’s true, then Heckert is keeping it quiet since we moved up in the draft to grab Hardesty and he hasn’t played a snap.

Now the bad news.  Eric Wright has agreed to terms with Detroit.  That sucks!  I was really hoping we’d keep Wright.  I know he took a lot crap last year for getting burned and screwing up, but I never put all the blame on him.  He’s been a good CB for the most part and last year was his one off year.  Plus, he had Abe Elam and TJ Ward backing him up, which isn’t the greatest tandem.  Don’t get me wrong, I love TJ Ward, but he’s got some learning to do.  He had a great season, but he was out of position a lot.  Ward should do much better this season in coverage.  And I’ve never been a fan of Abe Elam. 

That’s about it for now.  Tony Grossi has listed Nate Clements as a possible replacement for Eric Wright, but I just don’t see that happening. 

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Mike Florio at Profootballtalk.com is reporting that Phil Dawson has agreed to sign his Franchise tender.  The Franchise tag gives a player a salary of an average of the top highest paid players at a specific position.  So, this will make Dawson one of the higher paid kickers in the league.  I’ve always liked Dawson, and have wanted the Browns to make it so he can retire a Brown.  The guy’s been with us since we returned in ‘99 and the only player considered as a safe bet in buying jerseys.  Oh yeah, and he’s a pretty good kicker too.

Here’s the article:

Profootballtalk.com

By Mike Florio

The latest PFT piece of info comes from our colleague John Taylor of CollegeFootballTalk.com.  Taylor reports, citing a source with knowledge of the situation, that Browns kicker Phil Dawson will sign his franchise tender and report to Browns camp on Friday.

Dawson, a 12-year veteran and the last member of the original reconstituted Browns, has had periodic issues with his contract over the past few years.

The deal is expected to be in the range of $3.25 million, guaranteed, for one year.

Thanks for the scoop, John.  Let’s show our appreciation by giving CFT a click or two today, when you’re not hitting F5 here at PFT.

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