DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns Sign TE Robert Royal

j/c

An article on the Royal signing; implications, expectations, etc. Not really much at all, but something to read about our newest guy.




By Steve Doerschuk
CantonRep.com staff report
Posted Mar 06, 2009 @ 12:02 AM
BEREA —

The Browns aren’t making much of a free agency splash, but they went for some mash Thursday in acquiring physical tight end Robert Royal.

Signed away from Buffalo, Royal is expected to spend more than 90 percent of his field time blocking.

“He has been a consistent professional and effective blocker throughout his NFL career,” General Manager George Kokinis said.

That never was said of Kellen Winslow Jr., traded out for draft picks last week.

With Winslow gone and wideout Braylon Edwards’ status diminished, Head Coach Eric Mangini is free to build a team that runs first as it explores what can be done in the passing game.

Terms of Royal’s deal — four years, $10 million, with $3 million guaranteed — point to Royal as the No. 1 tight end, with veteran Steve Heiden and 2008 fourth-round pick Martin Rucker fitting into roles.

The 6-foot-4, 255-pound Royal is viewed as a good enough pass catcher to keep defenses honest. In 15 games with the Bills last year, he caught 33 passes for 351 yards. Winslow gave the Browns 43 catches for 428 yards in 10 games.

Royal, signed partly because of his veteran maturity, will turn 31 on May 15. With Royal part of a reshaping of the Browns’ blocking personality, the Browns are expected to add a running back to share time with Jamal Lewis and Jerome Harrison. That might not happen until the draft.

Royal entered the league as a fifth-round pick out of LSU in 2002. He played four years with the Redskins and the last three with the Bills. Royal

Some of us said after the Winslow deal, don't be surprised if we don't get get a solid TE that is a better blocker and a more underneath control type pass receiver... Seems to me a guy like this is a wonderful stop gap in the plan EM is putting into place...

Going off of that article, it sounds like we may as well have re-signed Darnell Dinkins and promoted him to 1st string.

In years past it seems our goal in free agency was to make the big splash signings and fix all of our holes that way. What happened, however, is we ended up making one of those great "on paper" rosters. When forced to test our depth, that is where we failed. I like how the Ini's recognized the need for depth and are fixing the depth through free agency.

As far as our TE's, I am very happy with Heiden and Royal doing the blocking for a run-oriented team. I would be even happier if they could find a way to keep Rucker on the field as a converted WR much like Marques Colston. Just my uneducated opinion.

I don't think Rucker can be converted to a Wide Receiver. If you look at how Parcells/Belichick/Mangini teams play they use a lot of tight ends.

Belichick has used two 1st round picks on tight ends (Benjamin Watson and Daniel Graham) and one 3rd round pick (David Thomas). He has also signed Kyle Brady and Chris Baker.

Parcells drafted Mark Bavaro with the Giants. He used Ben Coates successfully with the Patriots and Kyle Brady with the Jets. And with the Cowboys he drafted Jason Witten and Anthony Fasano (who he later traded for with the Dolphins.)

And even Mangini with the Jets, Chris Baker had some pretty good seasons, and the Jets drafted Dustin Keller.

I think the bottom line is, if you are a tight end who can block and catch passes consistently, you will play in a Parchickien system. Hopefully Rucker has those abilities.

Just clicking...thought I had already opined on this thread but guess not.

Good solid signing. And a beginning of the type of FAgents that Kokinis is good in acquiring as we set out in this FA market to not target any top tier guys but improve our TEAM with good solid acquisitions from the 2nd tier.

Royal is a perfect example.

1. We are going to run a lot of 2 TE sets along with One.

2. We would like a TE in there who is proficient at both pass and run game as we could take advantage of a teams game plan and pass 20 times in a row...or Run 20 times in a row! I think teams who watched film could find tendencies with us when KW2 was at TE. Royal "TALENT" wise isn't close to KW2 but Royal "TEAM" wise is perfect for the flow of the Offense that we envision.

Good solid pickup.

JMHO