The one thing that we sometimes forget as we lose ourselves trying to help the Browns win the off-season is that a lot of this stuff has to occur over time. You can only plan so much when there are moving pieces. Who will every team take ahead of you in the draft? Who will re-sign with their current teams? What player will get caught up in an elaborate mail-order marijuana distribution business that will result in indictments and jail time? There’s just only so much planning you can do.
When Pat Shurmur came out yesterday and said that the media and fans were getting ahead of themselves, I truly believe it. Everyone seems to think they can predict that the Browns will go get Robert Griffin III as if it is so easy to predict it.
First, there is no telling where Robert Griffin will be selected in the draft just yet. There is no telling if the Rams are going to be inclined to absolutely trade that pick and risk missing out on the best left tackle. There’s no telling that even if they do trade it that some other team won’t come up with multiple years’ worth of picks in some kind of elaborate package to give them more incentive to trade than with the Browns.
This isn’t even to mention Matt Flynn or Peyton Manning.
I know I get wrapped up in the mock drafts and all the talk too, but let’s just remember to dial it back and stop talking in absolutes.
In some respects right now all teams have are contingencies. Going back to Pat Shurmur’s talk with the media yesterday, exhibit A: Colt McCoy. I have no doubt that Colt McCoy will be far more comfortable and potentially more productive if given the chance to play the west coast offense this season. I have no doubt that Pat Shurmur will be more prepared to handle the team in his second year as a head coach and with more hands on deck, namely Brad Childress helping run the offense.
People with the right skillsets that get them certain jobs generally do get better at those jobs as they get used to them and gain experience whether we’re talking about gas station employees or NFL coaches. The only question really is how high the ceiling is. Given what we saw from the Browns last year, we obviously hope they get better organically and also bring in enough new people to raise the ceiling overall for the team.
Is that Robert Griffin III? Maybe. Is it Andrew Luck? Nobody is talking about it, but maybe. The Colts are presumed to be taking Andrew Luck, but they have new front office leadership too. Maybe they’ll be looking to make a big trade.
The point is that we can have some fun with it, but it is important to remember that even if the Browns know a lot of things absolutely, they can’t possibly know what they are going to do over the next few months. They have no idea how things will play out with their own free agents, free agents on the open market or the NFL draft.
Think about that the next time you say “just trade the two first rounders for RG3!”
(Photo @GlennMooreCLE)
