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The Cleveland Browns' long, horrible nightmare is over. Well, one of them anyway. Kick returner/punt returner/wide receiver/running back/quarterback/one man band Josh Cribbs has finally gotten the new contract that he's been desperate to sign for most of the last two years. According to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the three remaining years on Cribbs' deal have been torn up and replaced with a deal that will pay him $7.5 million guaranteed and up to $20 million if he hits all incentives. That puts Cribbs ahead of Devin Hester of the Bears and would make him the highest-paid special teamer in football.
That seems like a fair designation for Cribbs, since he is clearly the best special teams player in football right now, but it does raise the question of if the Browns will feel pressured to use him as more than just a returner in the years to come.We were having some fun with the multiple slashes and job descriptions that fit Cribbs's role as a Brown up top, but we're being a bit more serious now. Cribbs is the best athlete on the Browns right now and there might be some pressure to keep finding ways to get the ball into his hands on offense to both take advantage of that and justify his contract.
We've seen how hard that is to do with Hester and the Browns would be wise to avoid doing anything that limited Cribbs's touches in the kicking game. Cribbs has scored 8 career touchdowns on kick returns, an NFL record, and has two other scores on punt returns. That kind of weapon is not easily replaced, especially not on a team that doesn't have many of them.
There's plenty of time to figure all of that out, however, and the important thing right now is that the often acrimonious dealings between the Browns and Cribbs have ended in time for Mike Holmgren to turn his attention to other matters during his first offseason. Matters like figuring out who the team's quarterback will be, for example. Barring a signing, trade or draft pick, we'd probably go with Cribbs.
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