Cleveland Browns Roster

Cleveland Browns will have a combination of problems once NFL lockout ends

CLEVELAND, Ohio — No team has been hurt more by the NFL owners lockout than the Browns.

Of the eight teams that changed head coaches, seven of them also changed both coordinators. Among those teams, the Browns had the worst record in 2010 and, thus, have the longest road to respectability.

(Denver's 4-12 record was one game worse, but the Broncos retained their offensive coordinator and won't change their offense drastically.)

So when the lockout is lifted, the Browns have to act in hyper-speed to try to make up for lost time.

Pat Shurmur and his coaching staff are tasked with familiarizing themselves with their new players and implementing offensive and defensive systems that are new to those players.

In a normal off-season, these would have been nearly accomplished in the practices before the start of training camp. Now they have to be done on the fly, complicating Shurmur's first camp as an NFL head coach.

The No. 1 priority of every NFL coach in training camp is to get his team ready for the season. Shurmur will have to be part-Paul Brown, part-magician to reach that goal.

General Manager Tom Heckert's tasks are no less daunting. His roster is incomplete and he has been blocked by lockout rules from doing the normal spade work necessary to facilitate contract deals.

The lockout also held up the major issue of defining free agents as unrestricted or restricted. Reports now say a new collective bargaining agreement will return the free agency distinctions to previous levels.

That means players whose contracts are up qualify for unrestricted free agency after four seasons. Players with three are restricted, giving their old teams rights of first refusal.

A new CBA would void the restricted contract tenders given to cornerback Eric Wright and tight end Evan Moore. Those players would become unrestricted free agents. They could still re-sign with the Browns, but all it takes is one team to change their minds.

When the lockout is lifted and the NFL resumes business, action will be fast and furious. Heckert and the coaching staff have had time during the lockout to formulate decisions. They would have to implement them quickly.

Here is a list of things they should do.

Browns players, besides Wright and Moore, who would qualify as unrestricted (four years or more) are: safety Abram Elam, defensive end Jayme Mitchell, linebacker Matt Roth, receiver Chansi Stuckey, fullback Lawrence Vickers, linebacker Jason Trusnik and offensive linemen Floyd Womack and Billy Yates.

Terrelle Pryor has piqued the interest of the Cleveland Browns ...

Are the quarterbacks currently on the Browns roster, and no disrespect to those gentlemen, but you could understand why the Browns might want to do their homework on Pryor. Or, given that depth chart, anyone else who has ever touched a football, really.

I’m getting to the point where I’m starting to believe that Pryor could be a worthwhile investment, too. In fact, I wonder if he didn’t make a mistake by not waiting another year to enter the draft. Even if he didn’t want to return to Ohio State, maybe he should’ve considered spending a year in the UFL or Canada, or even just working out with a private quarterback coach, and then rolling the dice in the 2012 draft.

My reasoning is this: Is Pryor not the kind of fellow who could seduce a team with mind-blowing individual workouts and insane combine numbers? By all accounts, physically, he’s a beast — more on that in a minute — and aren’t there always teams who can’t resist spending a high draft pick on a beast, regardless of character or maturity concerns?

On that front, here are some reviews from people who have witnessed Pryor’s workouts in person. First, Chad Ochocinco:

“Dude’s arm strength [and] timing was unbelievable. I don’t care what ESPN said, I don’t care what they report, I saw with my own eyes. I’ve seen every NFL quarterback play. Dude, it was unbelievable. With the right coaching, he can become a great NFL quarterback because he has all the tools. He has all the tools that these scouts look for in a quarterback.”

As far as Pryor’s character concerns, I think we should be careful not to confuse NCAA violations with actual immorality. Maybe maturity’s a concern (as it is for nearly every other 22-year-old on the planet), but character? It may be a little rash to assume that that’s a problem.

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