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2010 Cleveland Browns Pre-Camp Preview: Defense - Part 2
July 29, 2010 By Jeff Biasella
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Now for some bad news and the reason teams will still be able to put up an average of 20 points per game against the Browns; the secondary. Last year, former quarterback and current CBS commentator Rich Gannon claimed Eric Wright was a top 5 cornerback.
That's reason 98,330 concussions should be taken seriously in the NFL. Eric Wright is a top 5 cornerback like I'm currently a top 5 national sportswriter just behind Bill Simmons, Jason Whitlock, Brian Windhorst, and dead even with Adrian Wojnarowski. I've said it a million times: Eric Wright is Dustin Fox good. Dustin Fox would get burnt, juked out of cleats, miss assignments, and tackle like the second coming of Deion Sanders for 90% of the game. But most people forget all that and remember him as this great Ohio State cornerback because he would make one interception or cause one fumble late in the game.
Maybe I'm able to remember him for what he was, all around mediocre on a good day, because he went to a neighboring high school of mine and it blew my mind to hear Brent Musburger praise him like he was Rod Woodson but fail to mention once the thousands of times Mike Doss, Donnie Nickey, or Will Allen had to cover his ass. I have no clue what people see in Eric Wright. It will forever drive me insane because all I see on Sunday is guy who wouldn't make 28 other teams' roster.
In other bad secondary news, Michael Lombardi of NFL.com is reporting that Joe Haden was less than impressive at minicamps. A lot of Clevelanders aren't a fan of Lombardi but I am and I'm not shocked to hear Haden is not looking great. I personally don't understand why there is a combine considering players will be running, cutting, and jumping in full pads but it does say something about a player's work ethic when he shows up unprepared.
I highly doubt Haden was preoccupied with prepping for midterms and writing research papers. So I think the chances of Haden starting alongside Sheldon Brown at cornerback are slim. Since Mangini said Sheldon Brown will not be playing safety and Mike Adams is decent number 2/great number 3, it looks like Eric Wright will be on the other side of Sheldon Brown. This limits Haden's options to less man to man coverage schemes out of the Nickel or possibly, a better move in my opinion, roaming alongside Abram Elam at safety. Haden sees the field real well, reads quarterbacks better, hits hard, and has great hands capable of making a lot of interceptions.
At safety, his speed and footwork won't kill him like they will at cornerback. I'm hoping the Browns make this move at training camp. If not, there's a good chance it gets made during the first preseason game after the "often injured" T.J. Ward plays a snap in a Browns jersey. The Browns secondary isn't as bad as it was last year but that's not saying much. Luckily though, we have Remus Ryan and I'm confident he'll be able to disguise how bad the secondary really is to the extent Rich Gannon claims Eric Wright deserves consideration for NFL defensive player of the year.
Finally, at the start of last year, pretty much everyone on the defense-well pretty much the entire offense too-hated Mangini. Shaun Rodgers wanted to rip off his arms and beat him to death with them. But I think what we witnessed was an example of the Mangenius in action; instituting a Heartbreak Ridge philosophy. In the movie, Clint Eastwood takes over a lazy recon platoon that is more concerned with partying than learning how to become soldiers.
So in an effort to get through to them, Eastwood makes their life a living hell and forces them to work twice as hard as other platoons. His soldiers hate him for this and that's the point; at least they hate him as a group instead of as individuals. When they come together as unit simply to shut him up, a mutual respect is born and the troops realize the method behind his madness. It's almost a reverse psychology tactic or when a captive gets Stockholm syndrome. But you can't argue with results. After the Browns won their fourth game in a row, maybe the team didn't feel as if they made the playoffs, but you could see on the field they felt like they accomplished a goal they set for themselves.
I wanted Mangini out of Cleveland when he went to DAin't and even more when he stuck with him after the epic 2-17, 43 yard performance in Buffalo. But now, I'm going back to the punchbowl for seconds because I think this is the first Browns coach in the expansion era the team has truly respected. Mangini doesn't tolerate bullshit which is why one of his first moves was unloading Kellen Winslow. Players liked Romeo Crennel but they didn't respect him as their coach because he didn't demand players perform better; he just expected they would. I'm not saying this newly formed mutual respect and desire to be better than average makes the Browns playoff contenders but they sure as hell aren't pushovers anymore.
