Cribbs and Twitter
Josh Cribbs supposedly twittered that he apparently “Wasn’t on the Browns to-do list for 2010” because the organization low balled his contract offer. According to Cribbs and his agent, the Browns offered the guy $1.4 million a year, or somewhere within that area. He then went on to say that he loves playing for the Browns, but the odds of him playing for us next year don’t seem good.
Even I think that $1.4 million is a bad offer to Cribbs. It isn’t a fair offer and it is insulting to Cribbs. However, it’s the first offer. Cribbs’ agent rejected it and now hopefully Holmgren will come back with a different offer. If anyone actually thinks these contract disputes get done on the first offer, then you must be crazy… or Phil Savage. Everyone knew Cribbs wanted close to $3 million a year, so why on Earth would the Browns start the bidding around that number? Of course the first offer will be significantly lower. That’s the only way to eventually meet somewhere in the middle, or worst case scenario at $3 million.
I’m all for paying Cribbs. He’s the all-time leading Kickoff returner for touchdowns, and he’s awesome. I want him to retire a Brown.
I’ve heard some people saying that we shouldn’t pay Cribbs more money because we still lost 11 games this year with him, and we’ll continue to lose games even if we pay him. Basically they want the money we’re going to give Cribbs to go to someone else. Who? I have no idea. Cribbs has game changing ability, there’s no doubt about that. Of course his team is going to lose a lot of games even though he’s great. When the offense and defense still need a ton of talent and work, then yes Cribbs’ value as a special teamer isn’t going to win us 14 games a year. However, imagine in a couple of years when we will hopefully have a good offense and defense to go along with Cribbs on special teams. Just a thought.
Anyway, Cribbs is clearly using Twitter to get his side of the story heard and for a bargaining tool. I’m not panicking yet. You also have to think that Holmgren hasn’t even picked a GM yet, or anyone else on his staff yet. What if he ends up firing Mangini and bringing in a new head coach? He’s going to want to get that coach’s opinion on how he’d like to use Cribbs. If Cribbs isn’t going to be a part of the “Flash” package and strictly be special teams, then I can understand not paying him more than $1.4 million a year. I know Cribbs has been patient throughout the season, but I would like him to wait just a few weeks longer so that Holmgren can put his staff together and get this contract taken care of the right way.
January 7th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
If Cribbs is using twitter as a bargaining tool he cant have much to say!!!
January 7th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
ANY coach who thinks after this season that Cribbs only has value on special teams is a fool. I would rather have Mangini than a new fool.
And oh, yeah, Cribbs can’t have much to say is 12000 followers if he is doing it on Twitter. He should instead remain silent, or speak to blog readers like you and me. Pull the other one, brother.
January 7th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
We need him and if his heart wants the browns then why wood it matter how much we pay him what happen to the days wen people played the games cause they loved it now im not sayin he shood get paid less im jus sayin stop the complainin and play the game bc he knows how to do it rite and mangini is gonna come out big next year
January 8th, 2010 at 10:11 am
how about the guy has a three year contract so it sucks to be him. if it were MY money, I’d let him play for what he’s obligated to play for.
January 8th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Ted that’s all well and good, but when a guy is clearly outplaying his contract and is one of the best kick returners ever, you should pay him. If one of your employees is doing a great job, far and above what they’re required to do, wouldn’t you think about giving them a raise if they asked for one? On a more football related note, if you show good faith that you’ll pay a player what he’s worth, it’ll attract free agents to want to play for you.
Was Cribbs stupid to sign a bad contract in the first place? Of course! But I can understand him wanted to renegotiate. He could very well be the best returner to ever play the game. He already has more kick returns for TD’s than anyone else all-time.
January 9th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
GIVE HIM THE MONEY!!!!!
January 11th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Let him go, we don’t need him. he will just drive up prices of tickets. he don’t want to stay to bad if he turned down 5 or 6 million to play here, let him leave.
January 13th, 2010 at 7:49 am
give him the money!!!!he is the most exciting thing in the entire browns lineup…i love the browns dearly and would love to see them capitolize on the fantastic finish they had this year…..look at the stats!!!!joshua cribbs was a very large part of that fantastic finish.baby please don’t go!!!
January 15th, 2010 at 7:27 am
[...] Mike at Chronic Dawgs put up a post last week about how Joshua Cribbs, the best football kick returner of all time, is feeling under-appreciated by his team, the Cleveland Browns. To put it in perspective, Josh [...]