Ohio.com - Gary Baxter is confident he'll return

BEREA: Anyone who passed a Range Rover driving slowly toward downtown Cleveland on Wednesday might have caught a glimpse of an extremely cautious Gary Baxter.

[Mike]

Question for everyone.....

Why are the Browns keeping the following players on the team?

Gary Baxter (2 years limping broken, tying up a roster spot)

Matt Stewart (multiple years with several games missed, tying up a roster spot that could be used on youth)

Willie McGinest (ancient, broken half the time and tying up a roster spot that could have been used for Short or Smith)

Ted Washington (even MORE ancient and just isn't a "real" nose tackle anymore, tying up a roster spot)

LeCharles Bentley (Ok.... give him a chance to come back)

Tim Carter (has he caught ANYTHING? quick vote..... who would rather see Cribbs as the third wideout in depth chart?!)

David McMillan (saw him in preseason and he was Mr. False Start. Would rather have Short or Smith back. Tying up a roster spot)

Seriously...... does this team WANT to get ahead or should we keep "protecting" Crennel's "veterans"? YOU WILL NOT FIND NEW, TALENTED STARS IF YOU DO NOT GIVE NEW, YOUNG, TALENTED PLAYERS A CHANCE.

[Thall]

Three Words....Salary Cap Hit.

I'm CERTAIN the Browns capologists have told Savage the ramifications of flat out cutting players like WAshington and McGinest. You CANNOT cut an injured player.(by Collective Bargaining Rules) Now they can always work out some sort of injury settlement, but even then they would STILL take a cap.

This is NOT about loyalty per se.....but rather...trying to avoid a salary cap mess.

[Gretchen]

I am confident Gary Baxter will return, too.

[Mike]

Thall wrote:

Three Words....Salary Cap Hit.
I'm CERTAIN the Browns capologists have told Savage the ramifications of flat out cutting players like WAshington and McGinest. You CANNOT cut an injured player.(by Collective Bargaining Rules) Now they can always work out some sort of injury settlement, but even then they would STILL take a cap.
This is NOT about loyalty per se.....but rather...trying to avoid a salary cap mess.

I didn't think of that, to be honest. You have a good point. Still, didn't the Browns have quite a bit of cap space? Take a hit this year.... get some younger blood in there... and deal with it. McGinest and Washington CAN'T be signed to anything much longer than a 3 year deal, can they??? That would be insanity.

My issue with it still is that we are carrying around a LOT of "dead wood". Just seems counter-productive when you are trying to build a winning franchise.

By the way.... here's a laugh for you....
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/p...

Somehow Philly (who at least WENT to a Super Bowl not so long ago and has been a consistent playoff team) and Atlanta (remember all those Braves teams that went to the World Series back in the 90's?) beat out Cleveland AND Buffalo.

We can't even win out on a list like that?????

[Mike]

Wow.... guess I offended the delicate senses of someone at the ABJ with my reply.

Funny that they normally are cool about allowing blatant personal attacks on here.... but call a few NFL players "dead wood" and they yank ya.

[Mike]

And now they re-post it. Nice touch guys.