As I've been doing the last few weeks, I'm passing on writing notes as the podcast goes along so that I can be "in the moment." So, here's the email I sent to Scott on Sunday night that sparked the rest of the podcast.
---------------------
Tebow is cut. Nobody makes a waiver claim. Is the NFL finally free of Tim Tebow? More importantly, we know Bill Belichick is great, but can we stop pretending like he can turn dog poop into gold? He has a track record of finding good players and finding ways to use them to their maximum. He's never been known for taking non-players and doing anything with them other than cutting them... which is what he did to Tebow yesterday.
Good news! Buster Skrine rose up and won the second cornerback job opposite Joe Haden. Maybe these guys know what they're doing, but they've really left their chins open on this one if Buster get burned early and often this season.
Same with kicker. I got a Facebook message from a friend who went into his fantasy draft and took Shayne Graham because USA Today had him rated as the fifth best fantasy option at kicker. Apparently not so much for the Browns who still don't have a kicker after having a punter kick field goals in the fourth pre-season game.
On the bright side, the Browns do have a #1 running back and they attempted to use cuts to get better at the position by bringing in a couple of Dion Lewis types from Baltimore and Houston in Bobby Rainey and Dennis Johnson. Running back is the perfect position to try and improve via undrafted free agency and roster cuts. No sarcasm. Even with the Browns' history involving Ben Gay, I believe this to be true.
Finally on the Browns, they did a couple things that were notable merely because the Browns haven't been very competent in the past. The Browns not only hit the deadline for cuts but they almost immediately had coach Chudzinski available for comment. They don't deserve an award or a prize for it, but this level of competence to talk instead of being talked about is novel for Berea even if it shouldn't be.
I was taken aback by my own feelings on Sunday. After the Tribe stinking up another series with Detroit, somehow I still found myself eager to see the Tribe and their newest addition Jason Kubel on Sunday. I know that's kind of silly, but it's true and I couldn't help it. They reward us with a huge grand slam win in extras.
I listened to the end of the game because we were going somewhere, but I can only imagine what Chris Perez' outing looked like.
That's all I have for now. I also wanted to briefly talk about Cleveland Magazine's football issue in which you had a brief section. I'm going to talk to Jason Brill later in the week about the rest of the issue as well.
