With training camp a little over a week away and the Indians currently on a six-game winning streak, things are starting to look a little brighter for Cleveland fans. In today's edition of Around the Pound, we take a look at some loose ends we didn't cover the past couple of days, including Jake Delhomme's starting role, a new tight end, some off-beat notes, and more.
After mysteriously placing tight end Greg Estandia on the injured reserve last week, the team signed tight end Joel Gamble to take his roster spot on Sunday.
Gamble played college football at Shippensburg but went undrafted in 2005. Gamble played in the Arena Football League for a couple of years before signing on to the Philadelphia Eagles' practice squad late last season. Gamble, listed at 6-2, 256 pounds, is also listed as a fullback, but that doesn't guarantee he'll see action there in camp. In terms of a training camp preview, I'll just say this: I'd put his roster odds at less than one percent, and his practice squad odds at less than five percent.
While head coach Eric Mangini had been a bit hesitant officially labeling Delhomme as the starter heading into training camp in the past (despite the writing being on the wall), he changed his tune a few days ago in an interview with Pro Football Talk:
"It's really Jake's job to lose, and he did a great job during OTAs," Mangini said. "I couldn't have been happier with him, not just in terms of the way he learned the information but the way he ran the offense."
Mangini stressed that backup quarterback Seneca Wallace will still receive reps with the first team offense, which would make sense if the team plans on inserting him into games for special plays.
I will have a post up soon, either later today or tomorrow, discussing this year's Dawgs By Nature Fantasy Football League. In that post, I'll also have some information on a special discount that DBN members can receive if they are interested in purchasing a CBS Sports fantasy football league. Please refrain from talking too in-depth about fantasy football in this post; I'd like those comments to be saved for the post coming soon. Just wanted to give a heads up!
0 recs | 55 comments
I am glad Mangini is starting to make up his mind about a starting QB. I am tired of seeing QB compitions for the Browns. I believe there has been one every year. lets just let Jake do his thing this year, he is obviously the best one in the bunch.
holmes213 - July 21, 2010
Is this a case of Mangini making up his mind, or just being more open with the fans and media?
Spidey - July 21, 2010 via mobile
I always thought that it was not so much that Mangini wasn’t making up his mind as it was some beat writers trying to twist mileage out of what he said.
JustBob - July 27, 2010
I agree, I think JD will suprise a lot of people this tear at QB. I also think that he for sure is our best QB with the most experience. I think having him will make for a very good future WR team. I also think having him there will be great for McCoy to learn from.
brownsboy14 - July 21, 2010 via mobile
Updated post with more off-beat notes.
Chris Pokorny - July 21, 2010
I’m glad Mangini finally announced that Delhomme was the starter. I think he’ll have an average season, which will be a huge improvement over last year’s QBs.
I’m seeing Inception today! I’m really picky on what movies I see in theaters since tickets are expensive, but everyone who saw it says it was great.
About the Tribe: I’ve only been able to watch the EI previews. And I’m so glad that they chose this week! Watching this 6 game streak has been awesome.
emily522 - July 21, 2010
And the best part is that they’re doing it against teams at the top of the division.
Buckeye Brad - July 21, 2010
This.
emily522 - July 21, 2010
Until today :(. Still, I’ll take a six game streak that includes a four game sweep of the tigers anytime.
Adrock2099 - July 21, 2010
I went to the last Tigers game.
Peralta’s In field HR sent the place on fire, it was amazing.
SpecialBrownie - July 21, 2010
I think Delhomme will have an average season too. Which is why I’m intrigued by what Wallace could do for us, but then we have probably suffered enough QB experiments since #19…
LondonBrown - July 23, 2010
I’m already thinking 1951 New York Giants, baby.
TheDriveStillHurts - July 21, 2010
A worthy addition to the Off-Beat Notes: the new season of Mad Men begins on Sunday. I hadn’t watched it until recently and must say that I think it is easy to get sucked in – and you don’t need to have seen all of the episodes to get into it. The actors have their characters down pat that you understand them very quickly. It’s a short learning curve.
Spidey - July 21, 2010 via mobile
Yup — Mad Men is a great show. If you haven’t seen them all, you should rent the prior seasons because they are really good too.
TheDriveStillHurts - July 21, 2010
@ Chris
I know you didn’t want any Fantasy discussion, but I have question that hopefully won’t spark much conversation you want reserved for the upcoming fantasy post. Anyway, my question is this: Would you be opposed if I started an Unofficial BBN Fan League through Yahoo! Sports service? Just because, I know a lot of us missed out last year due to the limited amount of teams available, and it seems DBN’s regulars have been growing. I also think Yahoo! Sports has one of the best interfaces, and definitely my personal favorite. Of course I’d leave it to the FanPost section, and will probably have (hopefully) entertaining write-ups throughout the season regarding the league, and my take on fantasy this season.
If your opposed to this though, I won’t mind.
Simmsinns - July 21, 2010
Simmsinns - July 21, 2010
If the yahoo sports is the league where you just have to pick winners/ losers from the weeks games I’d be in.
I’ve no idea how “proper” fantasy football where you select players would work. I can’t figure fantasy soccer either…
LondonBrown - July 23, 2010
I wouldn’t mind that. But first, you have to listen to the sales pitch I have to make for the CBS League in the upcoming post (then you’re free to do whatever). As part of the deal with CBS deal (a switch from the past two years of FleaFlicker), I’ll be doing a post per week on the front page about fantasy football related stuff too.
Chris Pokorny - July 21, 2010
I’ve discovered The Wire recently, and I’m amazed.
gahnki - July 21, 2010
A kid in my Speech class last semester gave his “informative speech” on that show. It seemed really good, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Simmsinns - July 21, 2010
Great show.
golanbatrac - July 23, 2010
Ummm, really? I’m sure you’ll talk more about it later. Just curious to see why someone would pay to play.
As of now I’m with Simmsinns. Count me in on that league. Yahoo FF is pretty good.
Brownie's Year - July 21, 2010
I’d like to give it a whirl but I have no clue how it works
SpecialBrownie - July 21, 2010
I’ve never tried CBS’s version, only yahoo. But it was really straight forward. You pick your players, you want TD machines at WR and RB and a good QB as well, and afterwards you can drop and add players ect. Your starters each week get you points and say you were up against me for the week. Whomever scores the most points from their starters wins the game for that week. This continues thru the season until a playoff occurs and the same thing continues.
I had Favre and Manning last year and literally shredded most of the people in my league.
Kimble_79 - July 22, 2010
Paying leagues have many more features for people who want to do keeper leagues and customize their league more than usual.
Buckeye Brad - July 21, 2010
I doubt CBS has any feature that would attract me to pay to play on their site. Yahoo is fine. I’ll do a buy in league where the money goes into a pot, and not a corporate pocket.
Gambling is fun.
But I’m still waiting for what Chris has to offer. He sounds confident.
Brownie's Year - July 22, 2010
Saw Inception today and was totally blown away.
Absolutely worth the price of the ticket. Must see on the big screen.
My brother saw it a day before I did. We exchanged about 50 emails today discussing it. I am convinced I have figured out the movie/ending. Now I just need more people to drop this knowledge on.
I will save it for now as I don’t want to ruin it for anyone else.
Bernie19Kosar - July 22, 2010
I am wholly against the notion that anyone can figure out the end of the movie, I don’t think we’re meant to.
that said, we should probably not discuss this here.
notthatnoise - July 22, 2010
@notthatnoise
It can be done! I ended up writing a 1200 email I wrote to friend explaining it in very in-depth detail. It took time, and 2 viewings but it can be done. As a movie fanatic, figuring it out is very possible.
@Bernie19Kosar
I’ll drop you an email. I too am absolutely convinced as of now, I’ve got it completely down.
Simmsinns - July 22, 2010
Seriously do that.
My finance won’t even talk to me about the movie anymore. I need help.
Bernie19Kosar - July 22, 2010
I would be more inclined to believe you need help if your finance was talking to you in the first place.
notthatnoise - July 22, 2010
Dammit.
I wanted to say better than your furnace and post a picture, but I can’t remember the name of the movie with the scary talking furnace.
Recall fail.
Villeslgr - July 22, 2010
Home Alone? the furnace wasn’t talking but it was portrayed almost like it was.
bross09 - July 22, 2010
Yeah that was it. Good call.
Villeslgr - July 22, 2010
yeah…I love that movie.
bross09 - July 22, 2010
Don’t you worry about me and my money. I spell like a fourth grader.
Bernie19Kosar - July 22, 2010
Sure thing, I’ll have to get around to it later tonight though, I’ve got to run out of town.
Simmsinns - July 22, 2010
I wasn’t talking about whether or not we could figure out what happened, I was just talking about the very last shot, I think it was left that way on purpose, and one could come up with hundreds of theories that fit the movie, but it’s impossible to prove one any more viable than another.
notthatnoise - July 22, 2010
I disagree. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are enough clues to determine the CORRECT answer, in the sense that there are two most plausible ones: Situation A or Situation B.
Based on the many clues I’ve found, only one can be the true outcome. These clues and facts within the movie also make the other situation illogical.
Simmsinns - July 22, 2010
I agree.
I have my belief of what happened, by I can see why someone would believe otherwise. Perfect ending.
Bernie19Kosar - July 22, 2010
Those endings are the coolest but leave a purist like myself pissed off.
I realllllllly need closure in a movie.
SpecialBrownie - July 22, 2010
I am the opposite.
I like deciding for myself. I loved the ending of the Sopranos. There was a Law and Order that ended like that also. Makes you decide.
All this being said, Inception doesn’t follow any of those. I haven’t talked about a movie like this in a looong time.
Bernie19Kosar - July 22, 2010
I still need to see it! Saturday I think I will.
I am not surprised it is good.
bross09 - July 22, 2010
in other movie-related news, Joseph Gordan-Levitt is rumored to be playing the riddler in the next batman movie. According to a couple sites the casting list was leaked, and while JGL hasn’t confirmed, he is listed as “interested” next to the riddler.
notthatnoise - July 22, 2010
He’s a good actor.
golanbatrac - July 23, 2010
Oh God, he’s not sinister enough. He looks like the little kid next door who you want to give a noogie…
I would love to see the guy who played Rorschach and the new Freddy Krugar be cast as the Riddler. That guy gets into his roles just like Ledger did for the Joker
The Licensed Pessimist - July 24, 2010
I’m absolutely positive JGL is capable of playing a very convincing sinister character. He’s very talented. I know I’m jumping the gun here but, I envision a “Ledger as Joker”-like performance. A lot of credit goes to Nolan though, for the great character development in his scripts.
Also, Jackie Earle Haley is a decent actor, but he didn’t do the original justice, when compared to the comic. This applies to the whole movie, really. People said for years it couldn’t be done (make Watchmen into a movie), and they weren’t proven wrong.
Simmsinns - July 24, 2010
hey, just wanted to point out that the site got linked to from espn, who also gave recognition to chris: http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/post/_/id/14892/afc-north-links-benson-goodell-meeting-set
notthatnoise - July 22, 2010
Nice! SBN is getting a lot of recognition recently in the media. There is this on ESPN, Pluto referenced us, and yesterday on SportsNation (though he annoys me) Cowherd referenced the Mile High Report.
bross09 - July 22, 2010
When did Pluto mention SBN?
gahnki - July 22, 2010
In his most recent Sunday notes column he mentioned that D’Qwell Jackson has only forced one fumble in his career and mentioned that he heard it from DBN. I linked to it in the post about the linebackers.
Buckeye Brad - July 22, 2010
Thanks; I’m heading over there to read it now.
gahnki - July 23, 2010
Very nice.
Bernie19Kosar - July 22, 2010
Booooo Mangini. McCoy for starter!
mooncamping - July 22, 2010
And here I thought you were a Ratliff supporter.
Simmsinns - July 22, 2010
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