Savage, Browns set for market

When the free agent
market opens Friday expect the Browns to be there.

GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

It’s not a matter of if Phil Savage will try get a relevant free agent to bite. It’s a matter of when in the hours after the market opens Friday the press conference will be called.

The opening bell had barely rung when Savage signed:

UCornerback Gary Baxter on March 4, 2005.

UCenter LeCharles Bentley and tackle Kevin Shaffer on March 11, 2006, and linebacker Willie McGinest a few days later.

UGuard Eric Steinbach on March 2, 2007.

When Savage added Jamal Lewis on March 7, 2007, it was clear he was undaunted that injuries wrecked the Baxter and Bentley signings.

After Steinbach and Lewis played key roles in a 10-6 season, there’s every reason to believe Savage will be a serious player again.

He’ll play. Will he win?

As the offseason has unfolded, Savage has fluctuated between worrying whether a special free agent will take the Browns’ money to sounding determined that one will.

His shopping spree is complicated because his biggest need, impact defensive linemen, is in short supply. Savage might have to take a chance on Justin Smith, who hasn’t paid off for Cincinnati.

Browns coach Romeo Crennel installed a 3-4 defensive scheme in 2005, but no big-time expenditures have been made on a defensive lineman in the previous three offseasons.

The closest Savage came to paying big for a defensive trenchman was 2006, when the choice for a first-round pick came to massive nose man Haloti Ngata or pass-rushing outside linebacker Wimbley.

Wimbley got the nod, and the jury is still out on whether he was worth the No. 12 pick.

Savage wants to add beef up front to help against the run and a pass rusher to take pressure off Kamerion Wimbley. Both of those roles might have been filled by 6-foot-6, 320-pound lineman Albert Haynesworth, but the Titans put the franchise tag on him.

The Browns have been spotty at cornerback, but they figure to let 2007 Round 2 pick Eric Wright and veteran Leigh Bodden grow together. That’s partly because the top potential free agent corners, Nnamdi Asomugha (Raiders) and Marcus Trufant (Seahawks), also were “franchised.”

One intriguing free agent corner is New England’s Randall Gay, who spoke highly of Crennel at the Super Bowl. Gay was a surprise rookie in 2004 when he helped Crennel’s Patriots defense win a Super Bowl.

Savage has said the Browns are looking for a defensive player to inject the kind of toughness Jamal Lewis brought to the 2007 offense — a combination of production and attitude.

It’s doubtful whether linebacker Tedy Bruschi could deliver more than the attitude at this portion of his career, but he is a free agent. Like Gay, he’s also a Crennel fan.

A younger Patriot linebacker, Rosevelt Colvin, would fit Crennel’s 3-4. The Boston Globe reported Colvin would be cut in a salary-cap-related move.

As for the defensive line, easier said than done.

One theory gaining steam: Smith wasn’t a good enough pass rusher to excel in Cincinnati’s 4-3, but he could be a more talented version of Pittsburgh stalwart Aaron Smith in a 3-4.