EVERYONE LOVES ROY, MAN: The Dallas Morning-News gives us our update on Horsecollar Roy Williams, who hasn’t been linked to the Browns in any substantive way, but has “several teams” interested in his services.

Relevant to the Browns, Williams hopes to play in a 4-3 defensive scheme so he could play closer to the line of scrimmage. Whether or not Williams would have an interest in playing inside linebacker, another position of interest to the Browns, hasn’t been documented as of yet.

Stoking the potential interest is ESPN, which has an insider post about Williams that will probably get some people falsely excited. While ESPN claims “interest?” on the part of the Browns, all the article says is this:

“While no team has publicly stated any interest yet, several teams are rumored to be in the market for a safety and will probably take a good look at Williams. One option is the Cleveland Browns”

That will be enough to get some people thinking that there’s something going on, but the writer knows no more than any fan does. He simply made the incredible intuitive leap that Roy Williams is a safety, and that the Browns need one. There’s no indication the Browns have even talked to him, or vice versa. There are reasons for the two to talk, but there are also reasons why it wouldn’t be a slam dunk for Williams to play here, as mentioned both yesterday and today.

So, if you hear anyone saying the “ESPN says the Browns are interested in Williams!” or something similar, be assured that there isn’t anything to it yet that anyone reading the OBR couldn’t have put together.

But, as predicted, in the era of Mangini, the bottom of the media barrel will most certainly be aggressively scraped.  

YES, WE NEED MORE TIGHT ENDS: Carlos Holmes is reporting that the Cleveland Browns are among many teams “showing interest” in South Carolina TE Jared Cook. Of course, one can claim that teams “show interest” in nearly every draft-eligible player, since they do their due diligence on 300 or so of them.

Over recent years, the Browns have shown that they will collect second-tier tight ends like Butch Davis used to collect second-tier defensive ends. Following the acquisition of Robert Royal, the Browns now have Martin Rucker, Steve Heiden, Royal, John Madsen, and Brad Cieslak on the roster. Cook is the second-highest rated TE in this year’s draft, according to Scout.com’s Chris Steuber.