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Browns also acquire defensive tackle Corey Williams
By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Saturday, Mar 01, 2008
BEREA: After a night heavy on negotiations and light on sleep, General Manager Phil Savage finally said what he should have said months ago.
''We are not trading Derek Anderson in 2008, thank you very much,'' Savage said Friday.
And what about Brady Quinn?
''No. We're going through 2008 with both quarterbacks,'' Savage said. ''We're going to have both quarterbacks as long as we can keep them, then we're going to pick one of them. The Cleveland Browns are going to be quarterbacked by one or the other, either Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn, for a long time.''
On Friday, Anderson agreed to a three-year, $26 million contract with $14.5 million guaranteed. And that wasn't even the beginning of a frenzied start to free agency.
Cleveland traded a second-round pick (56th overall) to Green Bay for defensive tackle Corey Williams, then signed the Packers' franchise player to a reported six-year, $38 million deal with $16.3 million guaranteed. Later Friday night, reports circulated that the Browns had traded cornerback Leigh Bodden and a third-round pick to the Detroit Lions for defensive tackle Shaun Rogers.
The Cincinnati Bengals' reported deal for Rogers earlier in the day fell through.
Defensive end Travis LaBoy of the Tennessee Titans, a pass-rush specialist, and receiver Donte Stallworth of the New England Patriots also visited the Browns, according to reports. While Savage wouldn't confirm who was in town, he said players planned to spend the night.
The talk of the town was Anderson.
Savage tried to nix any whispers of a training camp controversy, and in doing so might have stepped on the toes of coach Romeo Crennel.
Asked whether Anderson and 2007 first-round pick Quinn would battle this summer, Savage said, ''When you sign a contract like we did with Derek, I don't think there's going to be quote, 'an open competition.' We go in with Derek as the lead horse. Obviously if Brady goes out there and plays that well and D.A.'s not doing well, we've got the wherewithal to put the relief
pitcher in.''
Savage said that might have been different had restricted free agent Anderson merely signed the one-year tender of $2.562 million the Browns offered him Thursday.
''The scenario you're painting might have occurred had he just come back on the tender because at that point we would be looking at this a whole different way,'' Savage said.
Anderson, who made $435,000 in 2007, said he told his agent, Mark Humenik, on Thursday that he wanted to play in Cleveland.
''We were close on the same page for most of the day,'' Anderson said by phone from Oregon. ''I'm obviously happy to get it done.''
Asked if he had a celebration planned, Anderson said, ''Hanging low, playing golf with my buddies, I've got a birthday party of a friend to go to. Nothing crazy.''
The craziness was all back in Cleveland, where fans did not embrace Anderson's signing, especially when Savage sounded Thursday as if the Quinn era was about to begin. Fans figured another team would give up first- and a third-round picks for Anderson and that the former Notre Dame star would step in.
Their bubbles were burst quickly.
''I know people get their hearts set on first- and third-round picks, but I wasn't interested in late ones and late threes,'' Savage said. ''I'm interested in keeping the player, keeping our offense intact with (offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski) at the controls, bringing our playmakers back, having them at full strength, keeping the offensive line in place and seeing how far this group of players can go and maintain some continuity for once in the history of the new Browns on offense.
''I have to be concerned about our image and our fans, but who are they going to look at if we let D.A. go walking out there and then we lose a quarterback and then we're running a single wing and we go 2-14 because of the decisions we made. I don't want to take that chance.''
Cleveland began free agency with the same passion that Savage's voice held.
First the Browns made the trade for Williams, 6-foot-4 and 313 pounds, who will meet the media at 10 this morning. The four-year veteran who recorded seven sacks each of the past two years has the versatility to play several spots on the line. He is expected to line up at end, replacing Orpheus Roye.
The Browns had to sign Williams to a long-term deal to avoid the compensation of two first-round picks required for a franchise player.
The move left Cleveland without a pick on the first day of the draft that now consists of only two rounds. The Browns gave up their first-rounder in a trade with Dallas to select Quinn.
''We came to the conclusion it was worth a second-round pick to get a defensive lineman who has had success in the league,'' Savage said. ''When we met on the draft two weeks ago and forecast what would be available in that 53-56 range, I was not comfortable at all that we were going to find a defensive lineman.
''We felt Corey was one of the main pieces of the puzzle — he and a couple other players. We felt like we had to get one of them.''
LaBoy, 6-3 and 260 pounds, recorded 191/2 sacks in four years with the Titans.
A six-year veteran, Stallworth caught 46 passes for 697 yards and three TDs last season, and his 15.2 yards per catch matched the average of teammate Randy Moss. If signed, he could become the Browns' No. 2 receiver, shifting Joe Jurevicius, a 10-year veteran, to No. 3.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her Browns blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/browns/.
BEREA: After a night heavy on negotiations and light on sleep, General Manager Phil Savage finally said what he should have said months ago.
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