Month: March 2006 (Page 6 of 11)

Phil Savage is on a roll. In the second day of free agency, the Browns added punter Dave Zastudil of Bay Village and four-time Pro Bowl nose tackle Ted Washington of the Raiders.

Washington is a huge nose tackle (6-5, 365) that can stuff the middle and helps address one of the team’s biggest needs. He’s 38 years old, however, so he isn’t a long-term solution. That said, he can really help this defense get more physical and give the Browns time to develop some young nose tackles.

Savage is also working to get former Detroit defensive end Kalimba Edwards signed by today. Edwards (6-6, 265), can play linebacker in the 3-4 and might be the pass-rush specialist the Browns sorely need.

The Cleveland Browns and Phil Savage are doing a great job of selling the “hometown” players his theory of bringing pride and winning back to Cleveland. When Phil Savage joined the Browns he spoke of tradition, winning and attitude as three key elements that will bring this organization back its winning ways. The last two have come hard for the first few years of the “second” generation Browns. The team has struggled to find quality players and continually had to fight a string of bad luck with injuries.

The signing of LeCharles Bentley and Joe Jurevicius are great signs of the where this organization is heading. These are two quality players that could have found similar money in warm weather cities and teams with current winning records. Savage has a good football mind and is very upfront with players when negotiating deals. The last two signing have really made our offense a unit that has power, talent and stability. This will give Charlie Frye, whom I’m still nervous about, the same type of supporting cast Pittsburgh gave their quarterback (Ben Roethlisberger) to win in this league. The Browns will have to use the draft and the remaining dollars to shore a defense that put up some respectable numbers last year.