Browns to release John Johnson

  At the NFL combine, Andrew Berry announced that the Cleveland Browns would be releasing starting safety John Johnson in order to give the Browns extra space with their salary cap situation.

Johnson was signed before the 2021 season with a large amount of fanfare from the Los Angeles Rams in what was thought at the time to be quite a coup for the Browns with Johnson being regarded as the top safety available in that free agent class.

With the release, the Browns will save 9.75 million on their cap, and for a team that needs defensive players of impact at several positions, an expensive player that hasn't made such an impact is a luxury that the Browns cannot currently afford.

Johnson intercepted one pass, recovered and forced two fumbles, and finished with a half-sack for the Browns in 2022, which aren't awful numbers but for a player that is earning over thirteen million dollars a year, Johnson's play didn't warrant that amount of pay.

Johnson's two seasons in Cleveland shouldn't be regarded as a bust but even a neutral observer would likely label Johnson's tenure as a bit disappointing.

Johnson often struggled with missed tackles and a player like Johnson isn't paid for making big plays- he's paid for making the average play.

All too often Johnson would have his tackles broken or caught in a missed deep coverage that burnt the Browns several times last season, although other players and defensive coordinator Joe Woods have just as much blame for the blown coverages.

Johnson never seemed comfortable with what Woods asked from him and I would have been interested in seeing how Jim Schwartz would have used Johnson in his system but I understand why Andrew Berry wasn't able to take the chance at the cost for next season entering what seems to be a make or break season for so many in the Browns organization.

Now a Cleveland Browns team that was in desperate need of help at one defensive end, both defensive tackles and linebackers have added another position that will need to be addressed in safety.

Grant Delpit returns at free safety but the only other safeties on the roster are inexperienced D'Anthony Bell and future contract signing Bubba Bolden as Ronnie Harrison is also a free agent that is unlikely to return.

Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that the Browns have a strong interest in signing Jessie Bates of the Bengals, who, like Johnson in 2021, is rated as the best safety that may be available in free agency.

The Bengals would like to keep Bates and they are trying to do so but their cap constraints may keep them from keeping him in the fold.

The Browns would prefer to trade something to the Bengals for Bates (as they did last season with Dallas for Amari Cooper) to have an exclusive negotiating window for a player that will certainly have several suitors but the division rivals in Southern Ohio aren't very likely to do the Browns any favors that will help them improve.

One thing is for sure- the Cleveland Browns are going to be adding some safeties before training camp because they don't have the option not to add any.

Cleaning out the Inbox

  The delightful-looking fellow to the right has been the number one menace to the future of the ash baseball bat, which had traditionally been used for the bats of major league baseball.

The Athletic tells the story of the Emerald Ash Borer, the invasive species that has singlehandedly devastated the ash tree and changed professional baseball bats from ash to maple, but it also discusses other factors, including Barry Bonds, and the lengths that Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto is going to in order to make sure that he will be able to use ash bats for the remainder of his career.

Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer gives us a double play of his work as Pluto writes of the first two Cleveland Cavaliers to participate in the NBA All-Star Game and a tribute to long-time Browns radio analyst Doug Dieken, who finished his final season with the Browns with the conclusion of the 2021 Browns campaign.

John Johnson and Butch Beard were the first two players from Cleveland to make the All-Star teams and while neither are likely to come up in casual hoops conversations, both had solid NBA careers.

Johnson was the Cavalier's first-ever first-rounder in 1970 and would have a solid twelve-year NBA career with four teams and would win an NBA championship in 1979 with Seattle while Beard would play for four teams in a nine-season run in the league.

As for Doug Dieken, he worked as the Browns radio analyst since 1985 and worked with three different play-by-play announcers during his time with the network.

Listening to Dieken and Jim Donovan through the years has often been more entertaining than the lousy Browns games that they worked on!

Autoblog gets in-depth into gas prices and why for all the pain that we feel at the gas pump, there is a certain amount of value (I was stunned to discover this) for gas at the cost that we are struggling with even today.

The article also deals with the variable of state taxes, imports, exports, and just why even if America kept every drop of its own oil- there still is one reason that the United States cannot become self-sufficient with oil.

We wrap up with the New York Times article on the late ABA and NBA star Connie Hawkins and a recent plan to rename a New York City playground after him.

There is a problem. there is another famous person from the same neighborhood- read the article and guess who it is.  

Browns sign John Johnson

    The Cleveland Browns addressed one of several holes on a defense that needed upgrading and the signing of the best safety available in free agency has upgraded the Browns immediately.

John Johnson likely would have remained with the Los Angeles Rams, had the Rams not been trapped in salary cap prison, but with remaining in Los Angeles off the board, Johnson was the main target for the Browns.

Johnson has been noted as calling the coverages for the Rams and Johnson is still only 25 years old.

Johnson was selected by the Rams in 2017 with their third-round pick out of Boston College.

Johnson started eleven games as a rookie and has played full seasons in three of his four seasons in the league, playing the first six games in 2019 before his season ended due to a shoulder injury.

Johnson finished 2020 with 73 solo tackles and one interception and he is a strong safety, so he fits into a potential three safety alignment with Ronnie Harrison and Grant Delpit.

The Browns were often beaten deep for big chunks of yardage over the middle last season (cough Andrew Sendejo.) and the addition of John Johnson will address that problem immediately.

It'll be Johnson that will be the roving "centerfielder" that the Browns lacked last season and it'll be Johnson that will be the captain of the defense.

Johnson's agent said that he turned down an offer from another unnamed team for much more money than the Browns offered and he preferred to sign with Cleveland for three years and 33.7 million, which seems to be a steal considering that Johnson was the best safety available and thought of by many as a top ten strong safety in the league.

Chalk another smart signing up for Andrew Berry for selecting his top priority and landing him seemingly at a discount compared to other offers.

What really makes me feel good about the signing of John Johnson isn't only an excellent player signing with the Browns- it is that the Browns have begun to bring players into Cleveland that want to be there and they want to be there because players have started to feel that they can win games with the Cleveland Browns.

That's the feeling in Cleveland and that's a feeling that hasn't been around for a long time.