Rumors are swirling that the Cleveland Browns and kicker Phil Dawson are at a total and complete impass with regards to his want for a new contract.

Dawson has showed up at the mandatory portions of mini-camps, but has opted to stay home for the voluntary workouts.

Dawson insists on getting a new deal this year.  The Cleveland Browns are intent on having him play another year under his current deal.

Adam Schefter is reporting on his twitter page that Dawson could be traded to another team should his demand start to disrupt what new head coach Eric Mangini is working to build in Cleveland.  It is widely known that Mangini wants the team pushing toward the same goal and not divided by off-field distractions.

Dawson was aquired by Cleveland from the New England Patriots in 1999 and has been the staple at kicker for the Browns ever since.  The 34 year old kicker holds the team record for most consecutive field goals made (27), and most field goals in a game (6). Dawson is currently the 7th most accurate kicker in the NFL. Dawson scored the first points for the “new” Cleveland Browns in 1999.

Phil Dawson has the distinction of being the only remaining player from the 1999 squad still with the team. Read more…

No Comments »
Filed under: Cleveland Browns News

Here is a transcript of defensive coordinator Rob Ryan’s meeting with the press on Wednesday:

(On his 3-4 defense compared to Romeo Crennel’s 3-4 defense) - “To be honest with you, I’m not here to farm anyone else’s land. I’m not sure how things were done here in the past. I know our vision, myself, Eric (Mangini) and the rest of the defensive staff. We want to be multiple and we want to have multiple players who can play different spots and cause confusion. That’s where we want to get to. Right now, the first thing is to be able to line up and play with good technique. That’s where we are starting. That’s what we tried to emphasize in the OTAs and the minicamp. I was impressed with how hard the guys were working and picking things up. As soon as you get a grasp of your basic concepts, the sooner you can be multiple and be more effective.”

(On if you plan to play man-to-man coverage like his defense in Oakland) - “I like our corners here with Cleveland. In Oakland it was our style of play. It was how the team was drafted, to play with a middle-field safety. Our team is built a little different way, but I still have good confidence in those guys. I’ve been really impressed in Eric Wright and the way that he has worked and his talent.” Read more…

Comments Off
Filed under: Cleveland Browns News

(Opening statement) – “Morning, how is everybody doing? Good. A couple things here, in terms of practice today we are following the same progression so today will be more of a third down emphasis like you would have on a typical Thursday. Even though it’s the last day of the second voluntary mini camp, really all of these offseason days are looked at as a block of days. The progression isn’t based on okay we are going to have this done at this camp tied up in a bow, put it away, move to the next one. It’s viewed as a block of days, how do we want to install, what do we want our progression to be over that entire block as opposed to this camp, this camp or this camp. Even though it is segmented the way it is, it is still viewed as a group of days.”

“Another note is we will have a group of kids here today. I don’t know if you saw the group that came out last week, but it’s something that’s important to me, and important to us organizationally, is to be able to bring some kids in, have them have a special experience and there are different reasons why each group will come. Sometimes its academic achievements, sometimes it’s just to give them a little bit of a positive boost, but that’s something that I think is really important and I stressed that to the players again this morning. We’ve all had some kind of helping hand coming up, getting to the point where we are and our ability to now go back and maybe do that for somebody else. Not losing track of how important that is, is something that I don’t want them to ever forget and I don’t want us to collectively forget.” Read more…

Comments Off
Filed under: Cleveland Browns News