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Angemeldet: 04.07.2018 Beiträge: 370
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The Cleveland Browns’ roster still needs major work. Their front office is starting to shape up.
New general manager John Dorsey tapped into his NFL connections to improve the winless Browns Authentic Joey Bosa Jersey , adding former Green Bay executives Eliot Wolf and Alonzo Highsmith on Wednesday in the club’s first major moves in a significant offseason.
Dorsey played linebacker for the Packers and spent time working in the club’s front office with Wolf and Highsmith, two highly regarded talent evaluators with solid reputations.
The 35-year-old Wolf, who is considered a rising star in the league, will serve as Dorsey’s assistant while Highsmith, a former NFL running back, is the Browns’ vice president of player personnel.
”We’re lucky to add Alonzo and Eliot to our personnel staff,” said Dorsey, who was hired last month by owner Jimmy Haslam.
”Alonzo’s 25 years of experience in the National Football League as a player, scout and personnel executive give him a unique perspective when it comes to evaluating talent and building a team.
”Alonzo and I share the same passion for this great game of football. We are going to set out to find talented football players that possess that same passion for the game.
”Eliot has been a fine executive in this league for some time now. It’s been great to watch him grow up around this league when I was with him in Green Bay and from afar for the last five-plus years. He’s been a big reason for the consistent success the Packers have experienced over the last decade.”
Wolf spent 14 seasons with the Packers Womens Joey Bosa Jersey , working as the club’s director of football operations for the past two. He recently interviewed for the Green Bay GM job that went to Brian Gutekunst and Wolf was reportedly offered a spot to work in Oakland with Raiders’ GM Reggie McKenzie. Dorsey, McKenzie and Wolf all worked together in Green Bay.
But the son of Hall of Fame executive Ron Wolf is instead joining the Browns, still crawling from the wreckage of a 0-16 season while preparing for a draft in which they’ll have the No. 1 overall pick and four in the top 35.
”I really like the direction of where leadership is headed,” Wolf said. ”We’re going to build this team the right way and to be a part of that from the ground up is going to be special.”
Highsmith spent 19 years in Green Bay’s scouting department. After starring at Miami, Highsmith was the No. 3 overall pick in the 1987 draft by the Houston Oilers.
”This is going to be an exciting challenge,” Highsmith said. ”It’s great to reunite with John Dorsey. He is someone I’ve looked up to and has always been a mentor to me. We had great success together in Green Bay and we both understand the hard work it takes to create a winning environment.
”I’m grateful to have the opportunity to be part of something special. Some of my fondest memories in football were playing the Browns in the playoffs one year and the fans throwing dog bones at us so we had to turn around and play that series at the opposite end zone.”
Dorsey’s hiring of Wolf and Highsmith is a return to a more ”traditional” football model for Cleveland’s front office, which emphasized analytics in two failed seasons under fired vice president of football operations Sashi Brown.
Dorsey has also brought in former co-workers in Kansas City, adding Jimmy Noel as assistant director of pro scouting, Matt Donahoe as a scout and Dan Zegers as personnel coordinator.
All three worked with the Chiefs under Dorsey Authentic Melvin Gordon Jersey , who was surprisingly let go by the team in June after four seasons.
The Browns also said Ken Kovash, a vice president of player personnel the past two seasons, will transition to a role in the club’s strategy department under Paul DePodesta.
Ryan Grigson, a senior personnel executive, has been dismissed.
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Oakland offensive coordinator Greg Olson was quite clear about what the top priority will be for coach Jon Gruden’s new staff with the Raiders.
Everything from the smallest details like how practice is conducted to bigger decisions about personnel and scheme will be made with the thought of how it will help Derek Carr develop into a top-flight NFL quarterback.
”We grow as Derek Carr grows,” Olson said Wednesday. ”We drafted this guy to be that franchise quarterback. We feel like he has the potential to be that guy that can be here and play for 10 more years. It’s up to us to try and get that out of him. We’ll do everything in our power to make sure that that happens, from practice to offseason programs, to what we’re doing defensively in practice, all those things will be designed to help Derek’s growth.”
Carr showed steady improvement from his spotty play as a rookie in 2014 when Olson served his first stint as offensive coordinator in Oakland to a breakthrough 2016 season under Bill Musgrave that garnered him MVP support and helped him earn a $125 million Womens Melvin Gordon Jersey , five-year contract extension.
That steady ascension hit a speed bump last season as Carr played under his third coordinator in four years after Todd Downing replaced the fired Musgrave. Carr matched his career high with 13 interceptions and recorded his worst totals in yards, touchdowns and passer rating since his rookie year.
”This guy has to get some continuity,” Olson said. ”The fact that they signed Jon Gruden to a 10-year contract, that’s going to provide that stability that he needs and the continuity that he’s going to need. He’s going to be in a system now. He’s going to be coached by a head coach that’s going to be the play-caller. He’s completely hands on with the quarterback position, and that’s the first time Derek will have, first time he’s going to have an offensive head coach that has a quarterback background and will be hands on with him on a day-to-day basis. I just see that growth curve skyrocketing because of that.”
Olson and new defensive coordinator Paul Guenther spoke to the media for the first time since officially joining Gruden’s staff last week. Both coaches have ties to Gruden, with Olson having worked as Gruden’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in Tampa Bay in 2008 and Guenther considering Gruden’s younger brother, Jay, one of his closest friends after spending three years together as assistants in Cincinnati.
The two coordinators had talked to Jon Gruden over the years about the possibility of being on his staff if Gruden ever decided to return to coaching and leaped at the chance soon after Gruden returned to the Raiders.
”Cincinnati made a strong push to keep me there Matt Calvert Jersey , but the opportunity to come out here with Jon and start this thing from the ground up was way too intriguing,” Guenther said. ”I just looked at it as an opportunity I couldn’t refuse.”
Guenther will be tasked with rebuilding a defense that struggled the past two seasons, leading to the midseason firing of coordinator Ken Norton Jr. The Raiders improved a bit in the final six games under John Pagano but didn’t make nearly enough impactful plays despite the presence of 2016 AP Defensive Player of the Year Khalil Mack.
The Raiders lacked enough consistent pass rushers and the secondary got picked apart at times with rookies Gareon Conley and Obi Melifonwu missing almost the entire season with injuries.
Guenther called Conley his ”favorite” cornerback in last year’s draft and believes the pieces are in place starting with Mack to build a capable defense.
”Having a talent like that and ability of a guy like that, certainly you want to make it the centerpiece of the defense,” he said. ”We have to continue to develop our younger players to bring those guys up to speed and add people as we go through the draft and free agency. He’s a guy that you can really build a foundation through and around. He’s an exciting guy to be able to coach for sure.”
NOTES: Guenther called NaVorro Bowman a ”prototypical” middle linebacker and hopes he doesn’t leave in free agency. … Olson was noncommittal about the status of RB Marshawn Lynch, saying he would be doing him a ”disservice” by evaluating his play in 2017 before taking a more thorough look at the film.
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