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A contract worth celebrating
Credit owner Randy Lerner with another obvious but shrewd move in giving General Manager Phil Savage a three-year contract extension through 2012 on Friday.
“In Savage We Trust” has become the rallying cry of Browns fans, and with good reason.
On the first day of rookie minicamp, Savage thanked fans for their support. A classy gesture, but he probably does owe his job to them when you think about it.
If not for the fans’ forcing the issue on radio call-in shows and through e-mail, maybe Lerner would have caved to the whims of former team president John Collins, who sought to hamstring Savage after the rocky 2005 season, his first as GM.
Collins, genius that he was, suggested Savage stay in the office more rather than being on the road scouting players for the Browns.
Savage was on the verge of resigning back then when Lerner slapped himself in the forehead and realized that would have been a big mistake.
Lerner then took the corrective (and obvious) step of erasing Collins from the front-office picture, arguably his best move to date and certainly best in Browns history by anyone named Lerner.
At his contract-extension press conference, I asked Savage if he and Collins keep in touch. “We send each other postcards,” he cracked.
Where do the Browns and their laugh-a-minute GM go from here? Onward and upward, one would think. Their window is just now opening, it appears, but it wouldn’t be opened even a crack without Savage’s deft personnel moves, from making high draft picks count, to discovering middle-round gems, to adding useful non-drafted players such as Joshua Cribbs, who made the Pro Bowl on special teams.
Charles Ali, a fullback, was last year’s find. Due to a clerical error, many teams thought he was still a junior in college. Savage knew better, brought him in for a nominal price and watched him make the team.
Is there a player in this year’s group of undrafted college free agents who might find his way onto the roster? One to track is Darnell Terrell, a 6-1, 203-pound defensive back from Missouri who wasn’t drafted because teams didn’t know if he fit better at safety or corner.
The Browns need a cornerback, so that’s where they’re looking at him this weekend. Big, physical kid.
“Need to see him a little bit more,” head coach Romeo Crennel said. “I know he had a decent grade on him coming out, but we have to wait and see a little bit more.”
Lance Leggett, a 6-3, 189-pound receiver from Miami (Fla.), is another possibility, along with Gerard Lawson, a defensive back from Oregon State.
Among the 54 players in camp on tryouts, best bets at first glance look like Xavier Mitchell, a rush linebacker from Tennessee, and James Banks, a receiver from Carson-Newman. Savage made a point of mentioning both on Friday.
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