Signed off the Jets practice squad by the Browns. Has to be on active roster for at least three weeks. Huge congrats to him.
Blake Hance
- Thread starter DkeCat
- Start date
Awesome. Might be one of the most unexpected NFL careers ever.
Maybe it’s another sign that the potential was always there but the coaching to draw it out of him was not.
In this case believe it’s a bad thing. you don’t make much unless you get to the conference championship. Min salary around 600k but believe around 30-35k game in playoffs first two rounds. May have changed this year so info may be outdated
I’d add Niswander and the longevity of Joe Jones to that list as well
Hance is in due to injury. Just reported that OC Alex Van Pelt has never met him due to COVID protocol.
I just looked this up. Winners of this game got $31k last year. Losers $28k. Lots of other clauses but that’s the general gist. Hance made $8k per game for practice squad games and got bumped up to the minimum for last week’s game.
It also says players on the 53 man who have played fewer than 3 games get paid half, so he’s going to get $15.5k.
Pretty cool seeing Blake playing for the Browns in the playoffs right now as the Browns have all but advanced to play the Chiefs for the division championship.
Close to 3 minutes left 45-29 and Browns have the ball after an interception thrown by Steeler’s Rothesburger.
Close to 3 minutes left 45-29 and Browns have the ball after an interception thrown by Steeler’s Rothesburger.
Pretty cool seeing Blake playing for the Browns in the playoffs right now as the Browns have all but advanced to play the Chiefs for the division championship.
Close to 3 minutes left 45-29 and Browns have the ball after an interception thrown by Steeler’s Rothesburger.
Close to 3 minutes left 45-29 and Browns have the ball after an interception thrown by Steeler’s Rothesburger.
Add a field goal to that for the clincher.
And to think undrafted free agent Hance was on the Jets’ practice squad just days ago !
And to think undrafted free agent Hance was on the Jets’ practice squad just days ago !
It is official 48-37 Browns. Congratulations to Blake Hance making Northwestern proud.
As a Browns fan Blake getting in was icing on the cake for me. Go Browns!
Nice recognition by Baker Mayfield in his initial post game comments as he referenced Blake Hance, a guy he “barely met for the first time in the locker room just before the game” as “stepping up in the 4th quarter.”
Now the announcers are adding on commenting on “a guy named Blake stepping into the game at a critical time as the Steelers were gathering momentum.”
Awesome. Awesome also that Cleveland which was terrible just a few years ago has moved up so quickly. Baker Mayfield is a stud.
Here is Peter King's story on how Blake became a Brown:
A week in the corona-wracked season of the Cleveland Browns begins, actually, on the Saturday before the week started. This was the day before the Cleveland-Pittsburgh regular-season finale, and GM Andrew Berry was worried. Cleveland’s two offensive line coaches, Bill Callahan and Scott Peters, tested positive for COVID-19, and the Browns couldn’t take the chance that the virus would bubble up Sunday and take a player or players off the offensive line.
Berry phoned Jets GM Joe Douglas, a friend, in New Jersey at 9:38 a.m. Berry didn’t want to blindside Douglas by pillaging one of his practice-squad players without telling him. So Berry explained about the line coaches, and his fear that there might be a spread, and he needed an insurance tackle, and he liked second-year practice-squadder Blake Hance of the Jets. The Jets were going to Foxboro that day, and Berry wanted to make sure he could sign Hance before the Jets left for Massachusetts. Douglas understood. In fact, he had Jets personnel coordinator Christina Wedding print Hance’s Jets termination letter and his agreement with Cleveland, so Hance could sign them and they could be filed with the league.
Now for the COVID issue. It’s good that Berry liked Hance—the Browns were going to try to sign him for 2021 camp anyway—because Cleveland needed a player who was within driving distance of Cleveland and had been in a regular team testing program. Huh? If a player flies to a new city, he must test negative for five days while quarantining because of the risk of COVID-contact in an airport or airplane. If Berry had been the Seattle GM, with the nearest NFL city 15 hours away by car (Niners), it would have been totally impractical to get a player. But there are 11 NFL teams within a seven-hour drive of Cleveland. Hance was on one of them, six-and-a-half hours and 443 miles away by car, and he had tested negative that morning in Florham Park, N.J., home of the Jets. He had a car. After signing the contracts, Hance packed his things, hopped on I-80, and was at the Browns’ Intercontinental Hotel by 7 p.m., ready for virtual meetings with his new team.
In an elevator at the hotel, masked, he saw someone he recognized. Hance was a training-camp cut of Washington in 2019, blocking in camp for quarterback Case Keenum. Now he saw Keenum, the backup to Baker Mayfield.
“I know you, right?” Keenum said, trying to place the face—hard to do, when the face is masked.
“Case, it’s Blake—Blake Hance,” he said.
Whoa. Keenum wondered what this masked man from his past was doing in the Browns hotel the night before the biggest game of the year.
“I’m on the team now,” Hance said.
Blake Hance is going to have a great story to tell his grandchildren one day. Said Berry, who started the wheels turning: “It’s very much a 2020 story.
profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
A week in the corona-wracked season of the Cleveland Browns begins, actually, on the Saturday before the week started. This was the day before the Cleveland-Pittsburgh regular-season finale, and GM Andrew Berry was worried. Cleveland’s two offensive line coaches, Bill Callahan and Scott Peters, tested positive for COVID-19, and the Browns couldn’t take the chance that the virus would bubble up Sunday and take a player or players off the offensive line.
Berry phoned Jets GM Joe Douglas, a friend, in New Jersey at 9:38 a.m. Berry didn’t want to blindside Douglas by pillaging one of his practice-squad players without telling him. So Berry explained about the line coaches, and his fear that there might be a spread, and he needed an insurance tackle, and he liked second-year practice-squadder Blake Hance of the Jets. The Jets were going to Foxboro that day, and Berry wanted to make sure he could sign Hance before the Jets left for Massachusetts. Douglas understood. In fact, he had Jets personnel coordinator Christina Wedding print Hance’s Jets termination letter and his agreement with Cleveland, so Hance could sign them and they could be filed with the league.
Now for the COVID issue. It’s good that Berry liked Hance—the Browns were going to try to sign him for 2021 camp anyway—because Cleveland needed a player who was within driving distance of Cleveland and had been in a regular team testing program. Huh? If a player flies to a new city, he must test negative for five days while quarantining because of the risk of COVID-contact in an airport or airplane. If Berry had been the Seattle GM, with the nearest NFL city 15 hours away by car (Niners), it would have been totally impractical to get a player. But there are 11 NFL teams within a seven-hour drive of Cleveland. Hance was on one of them, six-and-a-half hours and 443 miles away by car, and he had tested negative that morning in Florham Park, N.J., home of the Jets. He had a car. After signing the contracts, Hance packed his things, hopped on I-80, and was at the Browns’ Intercontinental Hotel by 7 p.m., ready for virtual meetings with his new team.
In an elevator at the hotel, masked, he saw someone he recognized. Hance was a training-camp cut of Washington in 2019, blocking in camp for quarterback Case Keenum. Now he saw Keenum, the backup to Baker Mayfield.
“I know you, right?” Keenum said, trying to place the face—hard to do, when the face is masked.
“Case, it’s Blake—Blake Hance,” he said.
Whoa. Keenum wondered what this masked man from his past was doing in the Browns hotel the night before the biggest game of the year.
“I’m on the team now,” Hance said.
Blake Hance is going to have a great story to tell his grandchildren one day. Said Berry, who started the wheels turning: “It’s very much a 2020 story.
FMIA: How The Browns—And A Guy Named Blake—Survived Weird Wild-Card Week And Upset The Steelers - ProFootballTalk
Peter King's Football Morning In America column begins with a look at the Cleveland Browns' wild week, culminating in a wild-card upset win over Pittsburgh.
Awesome story. What a way for his dream to come true.
Sounds like Blake has found a home at guard. He was our best tackle here, but he seemed to struggle with the exceptional footwork required of the position during pass protection. He always seemed more comfortable going forward (as most people do).
Maybe Hance can find a home there in Cleveland. Best of luck to him!!
Thanks BosCat for providing the video clip. Looks like my from memory contemporaneous rendition of what Baker Mayfield had just said regarding Blake Hance was pretty close to accurate. Nice to hear it again as it got posted the next morning by @coachfitz51.
If someone already posted this I apologize. Blake sporting the Northwestern shirt! Amazing story.
www.nfl.com
'Guy named Blake' Hance reflects on sudden playing time in Browns' wild-card win: 'It's what you want'
Previously unknown offensive lineman Blake Hance received deserved attention Tuesday for his play in Cleveland's wild-card win over Pittsburgh on Sunday. Signed to the team's active roster out of dire need in Week 17, Hance didn't see the field until Sund
Blake Came in half way thru the game and is playing a very good LT right now. Impressed.
He is playing really hard, getting to second level consistently on run blocks and pass blocking well. This could be a big upset in the making because Mahomes is out with a concussion.
Impressive. Brought in to plug a backup OG role on 1/2 and then thrust onto the field at LT. Getting up to speed at OG AND LT in a couple of weeks for a complex NFL offense cannot be easy.
