With Memorial Day in the rear-view mirror, the Peter Boulware sweepstakes may
now begin in earnest.
Now that Browns
no longer have to worry about the Bengals making a move for the linebacker,
the battle for Boulware's services appears to be centering around Houston,
Seattle, and Cleveland. The latter two are considered the frontrunners, but with
the number of teams inquiring about Boulware running into the double digits,
there's always the opportunity for another suitor to make a late rush.
For now, though, attention circles around Cleveland and Seattle. Boulware
arriving in Cleveland tonight and
will be visiting Cleveland on Thursday.
The Browns would love to see the linebacker cancel his planned flight to
Seattle later that evening. Despite the attraction of playing with his brother,
Michael Boulware, in Seattle, the
Seahawks have
the challenges of having less available cap space than the Browns. The
Seahawks would likely have to release of WR Bobby Engram or WR Koren Robinson to
make room for Boulware. The Seahawks are also perceived as being less likely to
employ Boulware as an every-down linebacker.
The Browns are in dire need of a pass rusher of Boulware's caliber. Not
including Kenard Lang, who is in the early stages of a possible conversion to
linebacker, here are the career sack statistics of the Ravens free agent and
other Browns linebackers:
In other words, the career tally to date is Peter Boulware 67.5, Everyone
Else 28. Even in the Arena League, that's a butt whipping. Peter Boulware
averages more sacks a year than all Browns linebackers but Boyer have had in
their careers.
Acquiring Peter Boulware and a successful conversion of Kenard Lang to
linebacker would give the Browns front seven instant credibility. Suddenly, the
Browns would go from starting linebackers (Stewart and Thompson) with less than
ten sacks in their careers, to a pair with over 100 career sacks between them.
Crennel and Savage have that objective in sight. Stay tuned.
DON'T TRUST ANY SPORTS NETWORKS OVER 20: Last night, during the Bernie's
Insiders Radio Show, I offered the statistic that the Browns defensive line,
sans Kenard Lang, has 6.5 sacks for their career between them.
Consider it a lesson not to trust what you read on one of ESPN's "Insider"
articles, which is where I got the stat. I read it in an "Insider" blog from
ESPN the Magazine, and thought "wow, that's an interesting stat, I've never seen
that before!".
Stupid, stupid, stupid. I should have known better. I double-checked today
and discovered that Orpheus Roye has 14 career sacks himself and Jason Fisk has
19. D'oh!
IT JUST GETS MORE FUN! I linked a story on the Green Bay Packers retiring
the late Reggie White's number on the newswire today. The Packers have only
retired a handful of numbers, and the pre-game ceremonies are sure to be a major
event for Packer fans and the team itself.
Guess which team gets the honor of taking on the Packers at home following
this emotionally-charged ceremony?
Who else? The Cleveland Browns.
Even high-powered elephant tranquilizers won't be enough to calm down the
cheeseheads on that September Sunday afternoon.