American Idol 2008 – Jurevicius voluntarily reduces role
Jurevicius voluntarily reduces role
It was no surprise the Browns signed a wide receiver in free agency, but it was a surprise they aggressively went after a starter. That is until Phil Savage revealed Joe Jurevicius told him he would prefer being the third receiver.
If there is a more unselfish player in the NFL than Jurevicius, he must be the great-nephew of Mother Theresa. In a league in which players whine about not getting the ball enough, Jurevicius, 33, has come to the conclusion he will be more valuable to the Browns, particularly in December and January, if he is coming off the bench on third down.
The new lineup leaves Stallworth and Braylon Edwards as the starting wide receivers with Kellen Winslow Jr. at tight end. The Browns should have more instant offense than they did last year.
“Joe had come up at the end of the year and said he felt like being the No. 2 receiver had taken somewhat of a toll on him as the season developed, so he would appreciate if we could go find a legitimate No. 2,” Savage said. “I think this really clearly defines what each of them will be doing.”
Stallworth is faster than Jurevicius, but not as sure-handed. The addition of Stallworth is a plus because he can catch the quick out and turn upfield. But where the Browns are really going to be improved is when they use three receivers.
Jurevicius will be asked to do well what Tim Carter did so miserably last year.
Carter caught eight passes. That’s it. He was unreliable and did not have the heart of a football player.
Jurevicius will sacrifice his body for the Browns to make a first down. He caught 50 passes last season, 29 of those on third down. If Stallworth catches 40 passes and Jurevicius catches 30, 25 of them for first down, the offense will be better for it, and if the Browns make the playoffs, having a healthy, fresh Jurevicius will be a boost.
It always seems a little suspicious when a talented player lands with his fourth team in four years. So it is with Stallworth, a first-round draft choice of the Saints in 2002.
After four seasons in New Orleans, the Saints traded Stallworth to the Eagles in 2006 for a fourth-round draft choice and backup linebacker Mark Simoneau rather than lose him in free agency the next year and get nothing in return.
Stallworth signed a six-year contract with the Patriots that paid him a total of $3.6 million in 2007. In reality, it was a one-year contract because to retain him the Patriots would have had to pay him a $6 million option bonus on Feb. 25, a $2 million roster bonus on March 1, another roster bonus of $1.6 million based on playing time, a $400,000 workout bonus and $1 million in base salary. Add it up, and the Patriots would have owed Stallworth $11 million for ’08.
So, no, the Browns are not getting a talented but troubled athlete. With $10 million of his seven-year, $35 million contract with the Browns guaranteed, Stallworth will be here for at least three or four years.
“These guys won 10 games last year and they have a lot of young talent,” Stallworth said in a conference call. “I’m excited to bring in what I bring in and I’m excited to be a part of it.
“I kind of know how different organizations operate and I liked what I saw once I was (in Cleveland). Everybody is all about winning. That’s the attitude everybody is looking forward to.”
Stallworth caught 46 passes for 697 yards and three touchdowns last season.
This is why networks step over each other to pay the NFL billions of dollars for television rights: The top seven shows of the 2007-08 season, beginning in September and running through the end of February, were NFL-related telecasts. The Super Bowl topped them all with 97.5 million viewers – almost three times as many as the season debut of “American Idol” (33.5 million) and more than three times as many as the Academy Awards (32 million).
In fact, the Super Bowl pregame show more than doubled the Academy Awards with 64.9 million viewers. IT ranked second among televised events. Various games rounded out the top seven.
The Steelers could be ripe for the passing, if not for the taking. They have been relatively quiet in free agency, and with less than $2 million of available salary cap room and $7 million still due franchised tackle Max Starks, they have nothing to spend in free agency.
A hole at left guard with the departure of Alan Faneca to the Jets through free agency is going to be felt severely by Pittsburgh’s offense. The Steelers have taken a look at Dolphins free-agent guard Rex Hadnot as a possible replacement, but Hadnot is looking for $25 million over five years, which puts him out of the Steelers’ price range. Faneca, after 10 years in Pittsburgh, signed a five-year, $40 million deal with the Jets, making him the highest-paid offensive lineman in the league.
The Steelers and Browns finished 10-6 last season, but the Steelers won the AFC North because they beat the Browns twice. Browns coach Romeo Crennel is 0-6 vs. the Steelers.
Let’s go back to the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 29, the first day of free agency, when the Browns raised their offer to Derek Anderson from a little more than $20 million with $10 million guaranteed to $24 million ($26 million if incentives are reached) with about $14 million guaranteed.
Anderson agreed to the contract hours after the Browns tendered him $2.562 million so that any team signing him would have had to compensate the Browns with a first-round and a third-round draft choice if the Browns did not match the offer. Many fans believe the Browns should have taken the draft picks.
General Manager Phil Savage said he satisfied Anderson’s agents because he was concerned a team picking late in the first round was going to sign Anderson to an offer sheet, gamble the Browns would not match, and then trade him to a team that needed a quarterback.
That team could have been the Cowboys, whose own pick is 28th. The Cowboys also have the Browns’ pick at No. 22 from the Brady Quinn trade of last year. Thus, the Browns would have received the 28th pick in the first round and the 92nd overall pick for Anderson. The Cowboys then could have traded Anderson to the Ravens for the eighth pick in the draft.
The Ravens would have their starting quarterback and he would have cost them only a first-round pick – not a high first-rounder and a high third-round pick. The Cowboys would have been in position to bundle the eighth pick and 22nd to trade with Oakland for the fourth pick to draft Arkansas running back Darren McFadden. The Browns would have been left with the scraps at the end of the first and third rounds.
Sorry, Brady Quinn fans, but Savage made the right move. The Browns have two good quarterbacks and the Ravens have none.
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