Joshua Cribbs and the Cleveland Browns Moving Closer to a New Deal

The quest to sign Joshua Cribbs appears to be going smoothly, and Cribbs’ agent now feels a deal will get done.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer , Cribbs’ agent, J.R. Rickert, said the two parties have been exchanging numbers and that they’ve had a “positive” dialogue.

Rickert went on to say the communication between himself and the Browns new front office of vice president Matt Thomas and General Manager Tom Heckert has been “the most professional dialogue” he has had with the Browns.

I went on record last month saying a deal would get done, even though there has been no timetable released. Rickert, probably paranoid because the former front office had been so standoffish with Cribbs over the last year, jumped too soon in going to the public.

Team President Mike Holmgren said on his first day on the job he wanted to keep Cribbs happy, and that he had no problem paying a player for a job well done.

Rickert, hoping to prey on the Browns’ perceived weakness in the face of fan fury, did no one any favors by his antics. While Rickert may tell his client going public is getting them where they are today, the truth is the new organization was going there anyway.

Cribbs clearly has outperformed his current contract which expires in 2012. It was a good contract at the time he signed it, but this ended up being one of the very rare circumstances where a renegotiation was warranted.

If a player grossly underperforms a contract, that player usually is cut. Since NFL contracts have little to no guarantees in them, the player has no recourse for the lost income.

If anyone wants to say Cribbs signed a bad contract, that’s a very good argument, but put yourself in his position at the time he signed it. Cribbs was an unsigned draft pick out of Akron who made a name for himself as a kick returner.

Getting a six-year contract in that situation probably felt like winning the lottery, so most everyone out there would’ve done the same thing in his position.

If Cribbs had developed as a wideout or a tailback, he probably would’ve been approached differently in contract negotiations. The situation presented itself for a six-year contract, and Cribbs took it.

Now he’s being used in other roles on the team, and that probably will continue to evolve in the 2010 season. His evolving role becomes the justification to do the new contract with three years left on this one.

At the end of the day, the Browns will be happy because Cribbs probably will be signed through 2013 now, and Cribbs will be happy because he’ll finally be living up to his new moniker, “Pay the Man!”