Lito landing in Cleveland?

The Cleveland Browns took a gigantic leap forward last season under the leadership of Derek Anderson. The Browns added to fan excitement this offseason by adding Shaun Rogers, Corey Williams and Donte Stallworth, among others, to a team that had plenty of offensive firepower but not quite enough to get it done consistently on defense.

With expectations high in 2008 the Browns have too much at stake to let up now. So, with the knee injury suffered this week by expected-starter CB Daven Holly, it would make some sense for them to pursue an upgrade at cornerback.

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WR Schroeder misses having name in the news

Ahh, Packers fans often make themselves an easy target for ridicule. Somewhat less often … well, no, fairly frequently current and former players do as well. Today is no exception.

Remember Bill Schroeder? Yes, THE Bill Schroeder? The moderately successful, decent wide receiver from the late 90s and early 00s who last played with the Pack in 2001 and last donned an NFL uniform in 2004?

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Bengals continue housecleaning, cut Thurman

Troubled Cincinnati linebacker Odell Thurman, reinstated last month after missing two seasons due to suspension, was cut by the Bengals Monday.

“The NFL provided Odell the opportunity to earn his way back onto our team, but we have not seen the right steps taken by him,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said in a statement. “With our offseason work in progress and new talent added at our linebacker position, we’ve determined it’s best to keep moving in a direction that does not include Odell.” (more…)

Players as bored as we are

You’ll notice the lack of posts over the last few days. There are several reasons for that, including our respective day jobs.

But it’s also true that the NFL draft is over and the speculation about who has won or lost has slowed some leading to the slowest and probably dullest times of the NFL off-season.

For the most part, until training camp, there will be little on-field-related news – so we’ll have to make some stuff up. We’re working on some longer-term items for the blog that will be posted in the coming days and weeks. They include our fantasy mock draft and some other draft-related “stuff”.

It sort of seems as though a lot of NFL players are kind of bored right now as well, as ProFootballTalk’s turd watch counter has been resetting frequently. Cedric Benson, who will be pushed by the hard-nosed Matt Forte this season, was charged with drunk boating and resisting arrest after an arrest early Sunday morning, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. According to the Chicago Tribune the police had to pepper spray him in order to get him to comply – if only he displayed so much passion and fight on the football field.

Matt Boley, linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons, was arrested Saturday for battery. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution doesn’t have a lot of detail on the arrest, but as PFT to aptly puts it, the move detracts from the team’s efforts to emphasize character and put a new face on the franchise.

ProFootballTalk generally does a pretty nice job of keeping up on the NFL’s jail bait – to the point where there’s rarely much to add to their coverage. It’s a good thing minicamps are getting started – evidently their counter stays closer to zero days the less players have to do to keep busy.