Cleveland Browns

The Davone Bess Film Room Part 2 is now in session, let's take a look at what I consider to be the Browns very own "First Down Machine". In Part I of my Davone Bess Film Room, I discussed and illustrated how I believe Bess has shown consistency vs. good defenses; great route running ability; quickness; tremendous hands; field awareness and balance; toughness; power; and play making ability. One of Bess' traits / characteristics of play that may have intrigued the Browns brass to trade for him was his ability to find soft spots in the defense and make catches for first downs. He also brings a veteran leadership and attention to detail that the young receiving core has never really had around them. Recently, the Cleveland Browns official website featured Jamir Howerton's interview with Bess. Two of the topics of discussion were 1) how Bess plans to continue finding ways to get first downs and 2) how he can bring leadership to the young receiving core. You can watch video of the interview HERE ( total of 4 minutes ). In Saturday morning's lead story on the Browns official site, Greg Little briefly discussed how valuable Bess' leadership has been: "He's a pro," Little said. "He's one of those guys that's first-in, last-out, and that was good for him to come into our room and bring that with him. I think he compliments our room well, and what he's able to do inside and on third downs, he's proven he can be a play-maker. "Just talking with him and seeing how he runs routes and what he's thinking when he's running routes is really what we've been talking about. He's just added a little bit more to my game as well." With Little and Gordon on the outside; a stout pass blocking offensive line; and an attack style offensive scheme, Bess should continue to be a "First Down Machine" as long as Weeden can read the defense and get the ball out quickly to the open man. In this installment, we will be looking at several catches that resulted in first downs for Bess and the Dolphins. As shown below, 62% of Bess' catches in 2012 resulted in first downs: In Part 2 of my look at Bess, I hope to show his ability to get open and make the critical catches and/or moves to earn a first down. This installment seems long, but it's just over 2,000 words. Feel free to leave your comments below. You'll also noticed that I tried to feature Bess vs. the Cardinals in several examples below, to give readers a look at some of Ray Horton's defense. 2012 Statistics: Bess was ranked 38th overall for WR according to Profootballfocus premium stats shown below. This was slightly ahead of WR's Dez Bryant, Victor Cruz, Antonio Brown, Marquis Colston, and Torrey Smith: Dolphins vs. Jets - First Down Let's take a look at a great route by Bess. It's an inside / out route where Bess sells the curl or comeback route but turns it back up field on a fly pattern to the sideline and then makes a great catch along the sideline. Bess nonchalantly sets up the corner here with a simple sell on the curl route. The defensive back bites hard and starts to jump the route. Here you can see the defensive back has really been sold on the curl route, but Bess has already started his cut back outside and up-field. Here we see Bess wide open, eyes and head are turned back around at the QB. Excellent route running allows the space to be there. Meanwhile, behind the LOS, Tannehill is on a designed roll out, with players in his face, but delivers the ball on time and on target. Bess adjusts to the flight of the ball while in mid-route; here he kinda hops and twists in a maneuver that allows him to see the sideline and put himself in position to jump and come down with the ball. Here you can see an example of Bess focusing on his feet after completing the catch. Bess shows excellent concentration catching the ball first, yet is aware enough through the route / while he was

We have posted another round of results from our in-progress 2013 fantasy football dynasty mock draft. Here are the results from Round 8: 8.01 - Dan Yanotchko (Team 3): Daryl Richardson, RB, St. Louis Rams Of the Rams running backs, I would prefer Pead and/or Stacy over Richardson. Pead was already off the board in this mock, but Stacy is still available. Richardson averaged 4.8 yards per carry on the season, but he had only 24 rushing yards on 16 carries in five games in the month of December. Going forward, I would expect him to be used mostly as a change-of-pace back. 8.02 - Kevin Hanson (Team 3): Vernon Davis, TE, San Francisco 49ers Davis had a relatively mediocre regular season sandwiched by a pair of spectacular postseasons. In other words, Davis was as productive in five playoff games over the past two years (546 yards and five touchdowns) as he was in 16 regular-season games last year (548 yards and five touchdowns). With Michael Crabtree expected to be sidelined at least for half of the season with a torn Achilles injury, however, Davis should be a more consistently-targeted player through the regular season. 8.03 - Brendan Donahue (Team 3): Johnathan Franklin, RB, Green Bay Packers Unfortunately for Franklin (and Eddie Lacy as well), the presence of both talented backs reduces the short-term fantasy value of the other. Taking a longer-term perspective, some/many feel that Franklin is a better value than Lacy. Although he's not as big of a back as Lacy, Franklin has the ability to do it all including running in between the tackles. As a senior, he set the Bruins' single-season rushing record with 1,734 yards, caught 33 passes for 323 yards and scored a total of 15 touchdowns. 8.04 - Sean Beazley (Team 3): Justin Hunter, WR, Tennessee Titans While he has plenty of upside, Hunter needs to improve his focus (reduce his drops). The lanky receiver (6-foot-4 with 33 1/4-inch arms) is an explosive athlete (4.44 forty, 39.5-inch vertical, 11-4 broad jump). Hunter may not have a huge impact with the Titans as a rookie, but Kenny Britt is in the final year of his rookie contract and there is a strong possibility that the talented-but-troubled receiver won't be back after 2013. In addition to the presence of Kendall Wright, Britt and Nate Washington, the inaccuracy of the team's starting quarterback limits Hunter rookie-season upside. [Related: See which quarterback I've mocked to the Titans in my 2014 NFL Mock Draft.] 8.05 - Sean Beazley (Team 2): Reggie Wayne, WR, Indianapolis Colts While he is nearing the end of his career as a 34-year-old receiver, Wayne had a bounce-back season playing with rookie quarterback Andrew Luck, the No. 1 overall pick in 2012. He finished with 106 receptions and 1,355 yards, both of which were the second-most of his career, and five touchdowns. Including Wayne, only four players have ever finished with 1,300-plus receiving yards at age 34 or older. Both Terrell Owens and ex-teammate Marvin Harrison reached that mark at 34 years old and Irving Fryar was the only to do that when he was older than 34. 8.06 - Kevin Hanson (Team 2): Tony Romo, QB, Dallas Cowboys Perhaps I could have waited even longer to select my quarterback, and I certainly recommend waiting on a quarterback in any format (re-draft or dynasty), Romo has the ability and weapons on the roster to exceed his draft slot here as the 11th quarterback off the board. Throwing for a career-high 4,903 yards, the third-most in the NFL last year, Romo finished eighth among quarterbacks in fantasy points last season. Over the past six seasons, Romo has a 16-game average of 4,402 yards and 30 touchdowns. 8.07 - Brendan Donahue (Team 2): Jeremy Maclin, WR, Philadelphia Eagles Despite being a good route-runner with excellent speed, Maclin has failed to live up to expectations since being drafted in the middle of the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft. In four seasons with the Eagles, Maclin has yet to exceed 70 recept

Roster issues are atop this week's reader mailbag for beat writer Mary Kay Cabot.

The Browns were sluggish on offense last season, but new coach Rob Chudzinski promises to unleash a wide-open passing game in 2013. Wideout Josh Gordon has already seen a difference.

Third-year wide receiver Greg Little has taken the time to learn from veteran wideout Davone Bess during the team’s organized team activity practices and meetings.

Johnson was a run-stopping, pass-rushing tackle for the Browns from 1965 through 1976.

According to Mary Kay Cabot of the Plain Dealer, the Cleveland Browns will be parting ways with Neal Gulkis, their Vice President of Media Relations: #Browns Vice President of Media Relations Neal Gulkis let go, club interviewed #Ravens Chad Steele Thursday s.cleveland.com/wM4wpgY — Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) May 24, 2013 Per Cabot, Gulkis is expected to remain with the team until mid-June, which is presumably when they will name his successor. He was hired during the Eric Mangini regime after previously serving in a similar role with the Miami Dolphins. It is unclear whether Dan Murphy and Brian Smith, media relations coordinators who served under Gulkis, will remain with the team or not. This might not be a big public story, but it will surely have an impact on the local media, for better or for worse. All I know is that in my personal experiences with the Browns' PR staff, I have contacted them several times over the past few years to ask a simple question. I never heard back once from them. Cabot noted that "Baltimore Ravens director of media relations Chad Steele was in Berea for an interview on Thursday." We'll see if any other candidates end up getting the job, or if it will be Steele's for the taking.

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports The Cleveland Browns possess a sneaky-good all-time team when you reach a bit further back to the 1950s and 1960s to factor in the likes of Otto Graham and Jim Brown. Pro Football Talk has been doing a Mt. Rushmore series that is nothing groundbreaking, but it is always a fun offseason game to play. PFT is ending the nomination part of their series with the Browns, but they are also including the city’s run with a football franchise before Art Modell moved it to Baltimore. It’s technically a different franchise completely, but that’s fine. Since I only have four spots to work with, I’d like to stick with the post-expansion rosters instead of automatically throwing in Graham or Brown. The following faces to be carved into this mountainside hail solely from the terrible era of Cleveland football, the current one from 1999-2013 following the expansion squad coming to town. George Washington: Left tackle Joe Thomas is the only post-expansion Brown who can sensibly claim the throne of best at his respective position for a multi-year stretch. Thomas Jefferson: Joe Haden established himself early in his career as arguably the best cornerback outside of Darrelle Revis. He possesses both the youth and the skills to do so in the near future. Theodore Roosevelt: For the most concave sculpting of the monument, we’ll have Josh Cribbs — great but sort of hidden away on special teams. This makes more sense if you’re consulting a picture of Mt. Rushmore while reading this. If so, good on yah, reader. Abraham Lincoln: We’ll give this one to Shaun Rogers for getting an All-Pro nod, and at one point during the mid-aughts he was considered an elite interior defensive lineman. Thomas Emerick is a Senior Writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasEmerick, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google

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The injury troubles that plagued Cleveland Browns running back Trent Richardson in his rookie season have been well-documented. But he came into this year’s offseason program feeling healthy and ready to improve on what was a deceptively strong entry into NFL action. However, the injury bug has already found its way back to Richardson, as he sat out organized team activities this week with a pulled shin muscle. There is a chance the injury could keep him sidelined through the team’s mandatory minicamp June 4-6. Head coach Rob Chudzinski said that holding Richardson out of OTAs is a “precautionary” move, but the running back’s recent injury history is certainly cause for at least a little concern. Of course, there is plenty of time before training camp, and even more time until the season actually starts. A lot of players get dinged up getting back onto the field, and this could be the case with Richardson. But wait until September; if these little injuries start to build up, he’ll be building up a reputation he doesn’t want.