REPORT: ROGERS WANTS OUT OF CLEVELAND
Posted by Mike Florio on February 25, 2009, 6:57 a.m.
In 2008, several teams made deals for oversized defensive tackles who had worn out their welcomes in the cities that drafted them.
Specifically, the Jets traded for Kris Jenkins of the Panthers, the Broncos traded for Dewayne Robertson of the Jets, the Bills traded for Marcus Stroud of the Jaguars, and the Browns traded for Shaun Rogers of the Lions.
After, of course, the Bengals tried unsuccessfully to do so.
If Rogers has his way, only two of them will remain in place a year after the fact. Recently, the Broncos cut Robertson — and Rogers reportedly wants the Browns to do the same.
According to Adam Schefter of NFL Network, Rogers wants out of Cleveland in the wake of the regime change from Phil Savage-Romeo Crennel to George Kokinis-Eric Mangini.
Schefter specifically reports that Rogers has asked the Browns not to pay a $6 million option bonus owed to him next month. The payment is part of $15 million in guaranteed money that Rogers is still due to receive.
Rogers’ nose is out of its normal joint in part because of two perceived incidents of disrespect involving the new coach. First, Mangini allegedly entered the team’s training room and failed to greet Rogers. (Maybe they should adopt a “kiss hello” program to avoid such issues.) Then, at a charity event for which both were in the “green room,” Mangini didn’t speak to Rogers.
Mangini later said that he didn’t know Rogers was there.
Yeah, he’s easy to miss.
The Browns, per Schefter, don’t intend to part ways with Rogers. He excelled in his first season as a 3-4 nose tackle, and the Browns will need him as they continue to use that same defensive approach.
But maybe Rogers is eyeing another situation in which the 3-4 is going to be adopted. Perhaps a situation where Crennel has been linked as a potential consultant. Perhaps a situation where the future is perceived to be much brighter with the addition of one of the architects of those these Super Bowls in four years that the Patriots won earlier this decade.
The possibility of Rogers fleeing to the Chiefs is all the more reason, in our view, for the Browns to refuse to let him go. Though both Mangini and Scott Pioli are now with new teams, we’ve got a feeling that the bad blood from the Jets-Pats feud runs very deep, and that Mangini will do nothing if it can directly or indirectly help Pioli’s new team succeed.
Would this gut be of any service? his numbers are not too bad. I do not know much about him...attitude etc.
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