Browns cut six including Shaun Rogers

With the labor agreement in everyone's mind,the Cleveland Browns released six players with some of them being players that were liabilities in their stints in a Browns uniform.

The biggest (literally) and best player to be released was Shaun Rogers.
The mammoth lineman from Texas spent three years in Cleveland with the best being his first under Romeo Crennel.
Rogers was a force during that season,which is noted for the "Phil Savage Panic" in which Savage traded his first three picks for players that did not produce (Brady Quinn),players that were ill suited for the Browns defense (Corey Williams) and Rogers.
However,his time under Eric Mangini was not as productive and last season with Rogers hobbled by injuries saw him play less than forty percent of the time.
Rogers was noted for being an excellent teacher of the game to Ahtyba Rubin,who had a huge season and will be the core of the Browns defensive line.
The loss of Rogers could have been a huge one if not for the presence of Rubin,who is more or less a younger,slimmer version of Rogers.

Two of Mangini's Jets linebackers were handed their walking papers as David Bowens and Eric Barton were released.
Both players were over 30 and neither seem to fit in the 4-3 defense that new defensive coordinator Dick Jauron will be running.
Neither player will be a huge loss,but Bowens will always be remembered by Browns fans for a sensational game in New Orleans this season in the Browns upset win over the Saints.
These moves show that the Browns will have to sign a linebacker or draft one reasonably high as only two linebackers of note (Scott Fujita and Matt Roth) are under contract,although I think Marcus Bernard would be a restricted free agent,but I cannot say that for sure.

Kenyon Coleman,another player that was suited for the 3-4 defense,was also released.
Coleman was one of the various non descript players that Eric Mangini traded for in the Mark Sanchez trade that looks to be one of the worst trades in Cleveland history.
Coleman did start much of last season and finished with two and a half sacks and three forced fumbles but being 31,a Mangini guy and a poor 4-3 end,he was figured to be on the way out.

The other two players were Eric Mangini signings in 2009 and some of the poorest that I can remember recently.
I wish that the Browns would have cut these two before the 2010 season,but better late than never as tackle John St.Clair and tight end Robert Royal.
St,Clair ,as I have noted in the past, was so bad that I thought bringing in large men off the street could have been able to perform at a similar level and was sieve like at tackle.
The rock handed Royal caught five passes last year and seemed to drop ten to me.
One of the puzzling offensive calls that Brian Daboll consistently seemed to call in big situations was passes to Robert Royal,which he would usually drop despite being wide open.
This part of the link covers the importance of Robert Royal as this is what the Cleveland Plain Dealer mentioned as Royal's importance-"One of the team's funniest players, he kept things light in the locker room and on the field."
That is the best thing that you can say about a player?
That says it all right there.




All and all,the Cleveland Browns needed to get younger and all of these players are over 30.
Combined with the Jet defenders being 3-4 guys and St.Clair and Royal being,well terrible these were moves to improve the team,open cap space and get younger-a cannot lose situation.

Photo Credit-John Kuntz-Cleveland Plain Dealer