P.M. Cleveland Browns links: Was the off-season productive? Time and a lot of pontificating will tell

Browns off-season may provide some hope ... and some concern.

View full sizeRichard Conway,
The Plain DealerDid the Browns improve their secondary this off-season? Time -- tempered with a little patience -- will be the determining factor, notes one blogger, who observed that it took a while for DB Hanford Dixon to develop into the superstar he was in this 1984 Plain Dealer photo.

Cleveland, Ohio -- The tenet in journalism is that if you steal from one person, it's plagiarism; if you steal from two or more, it's research. One is ethical – sort of, anyway. The other is a firing offense, as it should be.

We professionals circumvent this via attribution. Soooooo, since Starting Blocks didn't hear this from two or more people and is accustomed to the benefits of a regular paycheck (i.e. eating on a daily basis) we're going to attribute this account to the proper author, Christopher Maher of bleacherreports.com.

Maher correctly noted that this time of the year in the NFL is like the "silly season" in NASCAR: "the period between Homestead and Daytona" when nothing happens. In football, organized team activities are done; training camp is still a few weeks away. The biggest concerns are all pretty much conjecture.

This time, Maher goes into full "Six Points" mode, discussing everything from whether the Browns improved their secondary to Jake Delhomme's chances for success to the chances (slim) that coach Eric Mangini will be fired.

(On a side note, Starting Blocks notes that this could be the only time this year when "slim" and "Eric Mangini" appear in the same sentence, however out of context.)

Want Eric Mangini fired yesterday? Don't hold your breath.

Mangini walked into a train wreck of a team and an organization, weeded out the divas, and began building the foundation.

In 2009, the Browns eliminated the exasperating penalties of the (Romeo) Crennel era, going from one of the NFL's most-penalized teams to one of the least-penalized.

The special teams, once mediocre at best, were one of the NFL's premier units.

That's just a small sampling of what really is a pretty nice little piece of writing and/or analysis.

Silly or not.

and Shaun Rogers could be facing suspensions for carrying loaded weapons into airports. Oh, listen to us. COULD be? Commissioner Roger Goodell has shown a tendency to rule with an iron fist (and good for him for it, unless, of course, he reduces Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's suspension for conduct unbecoming to a decent man to four games).

That said, it's likely that Smith and Rogers (not to be confused with Smith & Wesson), will start the year on the suspended list. Rumor has it that their contrition could limit those suspensions to as little as one game, but a three-gamer is more likely.

NFLshare.com noted that the absences of either or both defensive linemen will require some others to step into the breach (so to speak).

If suspensions are handed down before the season begins, the Browns may face playing without two starting defensive linemen. That means some young players will have to step in and step up.

The Browns did select a late-round defensive end in Clifton Geathers, and even though he has good size and arm length to succeed in the NFL, he is still a green rookie.

Even greener is defensive tackle Kwaku Danso, who hails from Africa. He's been playing football for only three years.

The wild card of the Browns' possible final roster candidates who could make the biggest impact is Brian Schaefering. He played in only five games in 2009, but still registered one-and-a-half sacks.

Looks like it could be a, um, crapSHOOT.