There is a lot of uncertainty heading into the first offseason without a salary cap since 1994. It is difficult to predict what will happen without a salary maximum. There is also no minimum. (Sorry Jaguar fans.) It has been speculated that the owners known for being more hands-on, like Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder, will approach this season as a one year window to spend whatever it takes to build a championship caliber team. Although I have never seen him quoted, it has also been speculated in the past that if we ever got to an uncapped season, Randy Lerner would do the same and spend, spend, spend to bring a championship to Cleveland. Say what you want about him but you have to give Lerner credit so far for hiring a proven football guy in Mike Holmgren and allowing him to have total and free reign to run the football side of the organization. Our front office is now stacked. We still may see changes to the coaching staff between now and training camp. Lerner is not being cheap when it comes to paying executives and coaches. He's still paying Romeo Crennel, Phil Savage and his scouts while dishing out who knows how many millions to Holmgren, Heckert and company.
Although it comes second in the process, I have to say that I am more confident than ever in our front office's ability to run a successful draft. It's hard to say which direction they will go in the draft, but I feel like we'll have done a better job at identifying needs and the talent available at every position and go into draft weekend with a plan that will work.
The real mystery is what the impact will be on free agency. Players across the league that would normally be slated to hit the open market as unrestricted free agents are now restricted, meaning they are a lot less likely to move. Teams also have multiple franchise and transition tags to use to keep players off the market. Teams in salary cap trouble can use this year to cut dead weight and save money without having to worry about the salary cap ramifications. This is why Donte Stallworth was immediately released and Derek Anderson has little to no chance of being retained next season with a $9 million bonus due next month.
We could see some owners looking to purge their rosters of high priced talent and see some decent names hit the open market. Maybe some unexpected big names. We could see some ridiculous overspending on these players. Similarly, we could see trades consummated that we might have never seen pulled off in years past because, again, there is no salary cap to worry about.
Berea has been quiet lately. Usually we already have an idea of who we are targeting in free agency at this point, but nobody really knows this year. To avoid being skittish, I'm going to go out on a limb and make some predictions for this offseason. I have a feeling that either Donovan McNabb or Matt Hasselbeck will be our starting quarterback next season and I'm leaning towards the former. I also believe that Chris Mortensen may be on to something when it comes to Julius Peppers coming to Cleveland. Although Peppers is somewhat overrated, he is athletic and versitile enough to transition from 4-3 DE to 3-4 OLB with relative ease. He is a natural pass rusher and can be dominant when he is motivated. Who better than Rob Ryan to get somebody fired up. I have nothing to base my predictions on other than having a GUUUUUT feeling that once free agency starts we will all be pleasantly surprised. Nobody saw the Kellen Winslow trade to kick off free agency last year coming. Randy Lerner has already invested so much that I think he is really going to try to take advantage of 2010 and allow Holmgren to assemble a winner now as opposed to waiting.
Theres a good chance I will be completely wrong but I just woke up this morning feeling a little extra optimistic and hopeful than normal. Just imagine the Plain Dealer headline: "Eagles Castoff McNabb Lead Browns to Super Bowl Victory." Picture Jim Donovan's radio call: "Brees in the shotgun, he's got Colston to his left, Bush split out wide right with Shockey, back to pass, and PEPPERS HITS HIM AND KNOCKS THE BALL LOOSE! He's got it at the 40, 45, 50, 45, 40, run Julius, run! 15, 10, 5, TOUCHDOWN! And that will do it, Cleveland, your Browns are SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!!!" And think how excited Doug Dieken will be: "Whoahoho! Well!... (silence)"
The 2010 is going to be a blast and it all begins with the Scouting Combine in a couple weeks!
-Charlie
