The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Tank Carder has more lives than a cat
Tank Carder joined the Browns in 2012 when Pat Shurmur was coach. He’s survived several regime changes since, and he will see increased playing time as a starting linebacker this season.
A cat with only nine lives has nothing on Tank Carder, who for now is starting at middle linebacker for the Browns.
Left tackle Joe Thomas (11th season, 160 career starts) cornerback Joe Haden (eighth season, 81 starts) and guard John Greco (seventh season with the Browns, 66 starts) are the only Browns with more tenure than Carder.
What makes Carder’s situation unique is he has started only twice while playing in 78 of a possible 80 games for the Browns since being acquired on waivers from the Bills on Sept. 1, 2012.
That, though, is changing this summer.
Carder started against the Saints on Aug. 10 in the preseason opener. Now that he has the job he plans to hold onto it, although he is being challenged by second-year player Joe Schobert.
“It’s kind of been put into my hands to run the defense and make the checks and do what we need to do to win games,” Carder said recently. “I’m going to take it on full bore. I’ve never really been in this position, but you take it as it comes. It’s great. I love it. I love the challenge. We’re working hard. We have a lot of work to do.”
Carder is taking his new leadership role seriously. He indirectly took a swipe at the defensive coordinators he has worked with in the past – Dick Jauron in 2012, Ray Horton in 2013 (and 2016) plus Jim O’Neil in 2014 and 2015 when he talked about the attitude brought by his new boss, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.
“I love the way it’s going because he makes everyone accountable,” Carder said. “In the past, we talked about accountability, but it wasn’t really applied.”
Carder was credited with one tackle in a brief appearance in the game with the Saints. Schobert had two tackles and a sack and earned praise from head coach Hue Jackson a day after the game.
“Joe Schobert played extremely well,” Jackson said. “He handled the middle of our defense extremely well.”
Pat Shurmur was head coach and Tom Heckert general manager when Carder was claimed off waivers five years ago. Rob Chudzinski replaced Shurmur and Carder survived that coaching change along with the change to Mike Lombardi as general manager.
Mike Pettine replaced Chudzinski and Ray Farmer replaced Lombardi in 2014. Again, Carder survived while others suffered the common fate of regime changes. Pettine often referred to Carder as a secret weapon blitzing from inside linebacker, but never used him that way.
Jackson replaced Pettine in 2016, and sure as can be, Carder was on the opening day roster again. He has made a total of 20 career tackles from scrimmage in five seasons. That’s two games for Christian Kirksey.
Even if Carder ends up splitting time with Schobert, “The Survivor” will do more than cover punts and kicks this fall.
The latest on Irving
It’s mid-August, and Kyrie Irving is still a Cavalier. Maybe he’ll change his mind about wanting to be traded after seeing pictures of the snazzy new uniforms he’ll get to wear if he stays. Probably not.
Former Cavaliers general manager David Griffin, who currently does not have a front-office job in the NBA, believes Irving will be traded. Griffin, speaking on ESPN’s “The Jump,” defended Irving. Most critics believe “Ky-me” is whiny for not wanting to play with LeBron James and the Cavaliers, who give him the best chance to win an NBA championship.
“I think Kyrie’s going to end up getting traded,” Griffin said. “I don’t think this is youth and ignorance. This is a guy who handled the situation exactly like he was supposed to. He went to Dan Gilbert privately and told him he thought he would be happier somewhere else. The worst thing this guy could have done is pretend to be all in and sink the ship from within.”
No one is saying who leaked the story last month to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
The Detroit Pistons are the latest team to get involved.
“The Pistons have had some level of conversation with the Cavs,” team president and coach Steve Van Gundy told the Detroit Free Press recently.
Darren Wolfson of ESPN says the Phoenix Suns are the most likely trade partner. He is saying the Suns are willing to offer Eric Bledsoe, a 2018 first-round pick belonging to the Miami Heat and Dragan Bender.
Bledsoe, 6-foot-1, averaged 21.1 points and 6.3 assists in 66 games with the Suns last season. He averaged 33 minutes a game.
Bender doesn’t turn 20 until Nov. 17. Nicknamed “The Croatian Sensation,” Bender, 7-foot-1, played in 43 games with the Suns last season. He averaged 13.3 minutes, 2.4 rebounds and 3.4 points a game.
No matter what trade they make, the Cavaliers will be weaker in the starting lineup but should be stronger on the bench.
The Cavaliers signed guard Derrick Rose three days after Irving’s trade demand went public. Rose isn’t the scorer he once was and he is not a great defender (neither is Irving). But Rose averaged 18 points and 4.4 assists last season with the Knicks. He can flourish with James as a teammate if he stays healthy.
Lumber slumber
The Indians are more difficult than Rubik’s Cube to figure out. They have tantalizing talent at the plate, on the mound and in the field defensively, yet they have been mediocrity personified for most of the season.
The Indians are two games over .500 (14-12) since the All-Star break. Included in that stretch of 26 games are five losses in six games to the A’s and Giants after the break followed by a nine-game winning streak against the Blue Jays, Reds, Angels and White Sox.
The Indians scored three runs or fewer in 10 of the 12 losses since the season resumed on July 14, and in seven of those 10 games were held to less than three runs.
Acquiring Jay Bruce in a trade with the Mets on Aug. 9 should add punch to the lineup. Bruce had two hits on Aug. 11 in his debut with the Tribe.
The Indians going into games Aug. 12 ranked tied for 12th in runs scored with 542. They are seventh in the American League. They rank 17th in hits with 989.
The Indians finished fifth in MLB in 2016 with 777 runs scored. They were second behind the Red Sox (878) in the American League.
• Andrew Miller is making progress from his right knee tendinitis and could be activated from the disabled list for the series against the Twins that begins Aug. 15 in Minnesota.
Miller has been on the 10-day D.L. since Aug. 2. He threw a bullpen session on Aug. 11 and is scheduled for another one on Aug. 13.
“I thought it was really good,” Miller told reporters in Tampa on Aug. 11. “We’ll have to see how the recovery goes and how I feel on Saturday. As far as the actual throwing, it was outstanding. It felt good.”
Miller threw two sets of 12 to 15 pitches in the session to simulate game conditions.
I didn’t know that
… until I read my Snapple bottle cap.
Never odd or even spelled backward is still never odd or even . ... A bolt of lightning can reach a temperature of 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit . ... Humans share 50 percent of their DNA with bananas. ... A flock of crows is called a murder . ... Human eyes have more than 2 million working parts . ... Jellyfish don’t have brains.