Browns sign Morgan Burnett,Garrett Gilbert

The Cleveland Browns continued to rebuild the backside of their defense and added the veteran safety that the team had been looking for as the team signed Morgan Burnett, most recently released by the Pittsburgh Steelers, but importantly a former Green Bay Packer, to a two-year contract worth nine million dollars.

Front office residents Eliot Wolf and Alonzo Highsmith are very familiar with Burnett's play from their days in Green Bay and should Burnett return to that level of performance in Cleveland, the team should be very pleased, but there are questions.
The first is- can Burnett return to his days as a Packer?
Burnett was thought to be a top signing last year when the Steelers inked him to a contract, but Burnett was beaten out at safety by Pittsburgh's top draftee Terrell Edmunds and spent most of his season miscast at inside linebacker.
Burnett's desire to return to safety led to a demand to be released and after the Steelers were unable to trade Burnett after attempts to do so failed, the Steelers knuckled under and did so.
Burnett is an excellent tackler against the run and is among the best in the league among safeties, so if Burnett can do that at 30 years of age, the Browns have likely upgraded over the traded Jabrill Peppers in tackling, if not in athletic ability.

The other issue with Burnett is durability.
Burnett has not played a complete 16 game season in six years and even though Burnett only missed a few games each year, he still misses time, which makes the recent trade for Eric Murray with the Chiefs make a little more sense as if you assume that part of the package of having Burnett means that you need to prepare to be without him for a few games, so a solid backup is more than a luxury.
The signing of Morgan Burnett comes with a mild risk that his year in Pittsburgh was a sign that he may not be the player that he once was, but I think it could be a motivator for Burnett and a motivated Burnett is an All-Pro level safety.
I would have normally added a Burnett highlight video here, but the few that I found comes with music that just drives me nuts.
So many of these talented people do such great work putting together these highlight videos with perfect cuts and jumps, only to ruin it with music that distracts rather than adds to the presentation,

The Browns also signed an AAF alumnus in quarterback Garrett Gilbert.
The 27 year old son of former NFL journeyman Gale Gilbert, who played his college football at both Texas and SMU before being a sixth-round draftee by the Rams in 2014, spent time in camps and on rosters for various teams before throwing his first three NFL passes last year for Carolina in their last game of the season after the Panthers starter in that game- third-stringer Kyle Allen was injured.
Gilbert was likely to win the AAF's MVP or offensive player of the year as the signal caller for the Orlando Apollos, who won seven of their eight games with their only loss to "your" Arizona Hotshots 22-17 before the league was folded earlier this week.
Under the tutelage of Steve Spurrier, Gilbert threw for over two thousand yards in those eight games with 13 touchdowns against only three interceptions in the developmental league and along with Arizona's John Wolford (Wolford threw more touchdown passes 14, but more interceptions with 7) were head and shoulders above any other passer in the league.
Spurrier's offenses were always dominant as a college coach and in the rival leagues (Spurrier also was the head coach for all three seasons of the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits and the well-remembered Bandit Ball), but his quarterbacks never fared well at the NFL level ( his best NFL product was likely Rex Grossman
) from his college coaching career and his USFL quarterbacks would only receive NFL chances in the 1987 strike games so Gilbert may have learned plenty from Spurrier, but that doesn't always convert to success in the NFL.
However, I think that Gilbert has a chance to make this team and here's why- Gilbert attended the same high school (Austin Lake Travis) as Baker Mayfield, preceding Mayfield by a few years and they have a friendship dating from Mayfield's childhood when Gilbert was the top-rated quarterback recruit in the nation at Lake Travis.
There is an opening with Tyrod Taylor electing to pursue free agency and it would make a lot of sense to put Gilbert, who Mayfield respects on a personal level, with Drew Stanton as the veteran mentor that has played in the league in the quarterback room to help Mayfield along in his development.
It is very possible that the Browns are likely to draft a quarterback in the later rounds as a developmental project so that potential player will likely be the player that Gilbert will battle to make the Browns.