{"id":20778,"date":"2017-05-16T18:05:12","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T22:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=20778"},"modified":"2021-05-30T14:31:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T18:31:23","slug":"jason-mccourty-signs-cleveland-browns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2017\/05\/16\/jason-mccourty-signs-cleveland-browns\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason McCourty Signs With Cleveland Browns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Free-agent cornerback\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/McCoJa99.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jason McCourty<\/a><\/strong> has signed with the Cleveland Browns. The deal is for two years, as first reported by <strong>Ian Rapoport<\/strong>. McCourty played for the Titans since the team drafted him in 2009, but was released after the 2016\u00a0season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Browns?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Browns<\/a> are expected to sign veteran CB Jason McCourty after he visited CLE Monday &amp; today, barring a late snag. Big-time addition<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet\/status\/864587953695330304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Jason McCourty Signs With Cleveland Browns<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3>Physical Skills<\/h3>\n<p>As far as physical cornerbacks go, McCourty might be one of the best in the game. Standing at 6&#8217;0&#8243;, he ran an official 4.3 40-yard dash. Additionally, he has become a shut-down corner for the Titans during his time with the team. Last year, he collected two interceptions and 505 total tackles. While those might not be incredible, highlight-reel style numbers, they&#8217;re very solid. As of right now, Cleveland needs &#8220;solid&#8221; at every position they can get. With the loss of newly-drafted\u00a0<strong>Howard Wilson<\/strong> to a broken patella, the Browns are again short-handed at cornerback. However, it seems McCourty might be the one to save the day for this dismal Dawg Pound defense.<\/p>\n<h3>Veteran Presence<\/h3>\n<p>There&#8217;s no doubt about it,\u00a0<strong>Gregg Williams<\/strong> had a huge part in this signing. During his time with the Titans, McCourty worked a lot with Williams, who now coaches the Browns. Now, does this say more about McCourty or Williams? Well, it&#8217;s really both.<\/p>\n<p>Gregg Williams has a resume in the NFL that is getting increasingly hard to ignore. Outside of the years-old Bountygate scandal, Williams has been an impeccable coach. While with the New Orleans Saints, Williams played a pivotal part in bringing the Saints their first Super Bowl win. Sure, a lot of the credit goes to\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BreeDr00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drew Brees<\/a><\/strong>, but Williams was an integral part. Following that, Williams was an assistant coach for the Tennessee Titans in 2013. While there, he worked with and mentored McCourty, turning him into the cornerback that he is today.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Jason McCourty was a sixth-round pick in 2009. Outside of\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BradTo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Brady<\/a><\/strong>, not a lot of sixth-rounders &#8220;make it&#8221; in the NFL. Of course, quarterback and cornerback are two\u00a0<em>very<\/em> different positions. However, this doesn&#8217;t change the fact that McCourty&#8217;s development only strengthens the resume of Gregg Williams. With the two reunited in Cleveland for 2017, maybe they can give the ever-injured\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/H\/HadeJo99.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Haden<\/a><\/strong> some help in the secondary.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/618988442\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:66.666667% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/618988442?et=uwx2SvMFS9l41uxU64GXlQ&#038;tld=com&#038;viewMoreLink=on&#038;sig=2QKUuCDFTSz5M-88w2flKTcXy9cKVex8IuZ7yZCU3U8=&#038;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\" ><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin:0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cornerback Jason McCourty has signed with the Cleveland Browns. McCourty played for the Titans since the team drafted him in 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1787,"featured_media":20787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,36],"tags":[39,175,264,1179,1102,40,1608],"class_list":["post-20778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-browns","category-nfl-news","tag-afc","tag-afc-north","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-gregg-williams","tag-jason-mccourty","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-free-agency"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1787"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}