Cornerback Eric Wright also receives a second-round tender offer, making him a restricted free-agent as the team ties up some loose ends as the league continues to work on a collective-bargaining agreement.
View full sizeQuarterback Seneca Wallace was 1-3 in his four starts with the Browns last season.BEREA, Ohio — On the eve of a possible lockout, the Browns finished some important business by signing quarterback Seneca Wallace to a three-year deal worth $9 million plus incentives, and linebacker D'Qwell Jackson to a one-year deal worth a little more than $4.5 million including incentives, league sources said.
They also extended cornerback Eric Wright a second-round tender offer, making him a restricted free agent under terms of the current collective-bargaining agreement.
Jackson's contract is incentive-laden and will reward him for staying healthy and producing. He missed 10 games in 2009 with a torn left pectoral tendon and all of 2010 with the same injury on the right side, both of which required surgery.
"I'm extremely grateful to the Browns for bringing me back," Jackson said in a phone interview. "They didn't owe me anything after these injuries, so I have to make sure I step up to the plate and pay them back."
Wallace's signing means he will most likely come in as the backup to Colt McCoy, whom the Browns have said is their starter heading into training camp. They said they'd also like to have Jake Delhomme back, but he's due to make $5.4 million in the second and final year of his deal and would most likely have to take a pay cut.
View full sizeLinebacker D'Qwell Jackson missed all of last season and most of 2009 because of injuries.Wallace, acquired in a trade with the Seahawks last off-season for a sixth-round pick, will be back playing the West Coast offense, which he ran for six seasons under Mike Holmgren in Seattle and one after Holmgren left.
New Browns coach Pat Shurmur runs the same scheme.
"I'm a Seneca fan," Shurmur said at the NFL Scouting Combine last week. "He's a West Coast quarterback. I'm not thinking about the wildcat. He can line up under center. He's done it for a lot of years in this system."
In addition to running it himself, he can help teach the scheme to McCoy, who ran some of it at Texas. The Browns also like Delhomme as a tutor to McCoy if they can afford him.
"I think that's an important piece to have an experienced quarterback in a mentoring role. I saw it in St. Louis. A.J. Feely was outstanding for Sam Bradford. When I had the chance to meet Jake, I sensed that. What I know about Jake, he's an outstanding person."
Heckert said "it's not that super far out" to have both Wallace and Delhomme back.
"If not, you have to find another one," he said. "I don't think I can answer [if Delhomme will accept a paycut] right now. I think Jake really likes Cleveland."
Wallace went 1-3 in his four starts before suffering a high ankle sprain against Atlanta on Oct. 10.
Despite running an offense that was foreign to him and that he didn't like, Wallace started coming around his last couple of starts. Against the Falcons, he completed 11-of-15 attempts for 139 yards and a TD for a 124.0 rating. After recovering from the sprain, Wallace played sparingly in the wildcat.
View full sizeEric Wright struggled in coverage last season.Wallace was vocal last season and this off-season about wanting to start, but the Browns have made it clear they want to get behind one guy -- and that guy is McCoy.
Jackson, who led the league with 188 tackles in 2008, is better suited to the Browns' new 4-3 scheme, GM Tom Heckert said last week. He said Jackson can either play on the weak side or inside in the new defense. "He's just better suited, body-type," Heckert said.
"I had a chance to speak with the defensive staff and they assured me they think I can be productive," Jackson said. "Ever since I've been in the league, guys have been telling me, I'm more suited for a 4-3. That was also an enticing thing about staying with the Browns. It's similar to Philadelphia's attack-mode defense."
Jackson, a sixth-year pro, said he's almost 100 percent recovered from pectoral surgery and should be cleared for football action next month. He said he has no theories about why both of his pectoral tendons tore.
"My goal is to play all 16 games and get back to that 2008 level," he said.
On Wright, Heckert said he couldn't explain his down year in 2011, "but I think Eric's a good football player. I really do."
To Reach This Plain Dealer Reporter: mcabot@plaind.com, 216-999-4670
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2011/03/cleveland_browns_hope_seneca_w.html
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