Comparative Castles and Market Mispricing
April 30, 20132014 Mock Draft has Browns missing out on quarterbacks yet again
April 30, 2013Perhaps as pointless as giving out draft grades the day after, ESPN released a post-draft preseason version of it’s NFL Power Rankings. The Browns, who last season ‘peaked’ at number 20 and finished the year at number 24 must not have impressed many with their draft and off-season acquisitions. They were ranked number 28-
“The AFC North team that needed an influx of talent the most decided to sit out this draft. Cleveland made two picks in the first five rounds, trading away its selections in the fourth and fifth rounds.”
The Browns were the “biggest drop” in the rankings moving three spots south while the Cardinals enjoyed the largest “jump” going from number 29 to 26.
Seattle claimed the top spot in the rankings, followed by San Francisco and Denver. Last year’s Super Bowl winner earned the 8th spot. Cincinnati was 9th and Pittsburgh 16th for those curious about the rest of the division.
[Related: The Cleveland Browns cornerback situation]
17 Comments
Great, just great.
At least the teams below (Bills and Jets) just selected QBs this year 🙂
I would love to see the draft grades from prior drafts handed out immediately after the draft compared to the retrospective grades from a few years later depending on how the players developed. It would be a great bit of perspective on how little this all means before anyone has played a snap in the pros.
And we play them both
Uptick, that would definitely be interesting… get on it WFNY!
I think Seattle was laughed at last year…..
..and that is pretty interesting about the Jets/Bills. That’s definitely a good thing.
“What I’m asked to do here is grade how well teams hit their needs based on where I had the players valued,” Kiper wrote. “That’s it. I talk to teams, and they have players rated higher and lower than I do. I’m not claiming to be smarter than them about how they value a player, but if they get a guy in Round 2 whom I had tagged with a late-round grade, it matters here.”
The Seattle Seahawks tied for the lowest grade among all 32 teams, a C-minus punctuated with this comment from Kiper: “The needs were met outside of wide receiver, but in terms of maximizing value, there are huge questions. Again, this is a grade of the draft process, not the players alone.”
Am I crazy for thinking that the Browns’ prospects for next season never strongly correlated with the influx of talent from the 2013 draft? Would they move up three spots instead of dropping three spots if they grab a safety in the 4th round and a TE in the 5th round? I mean, the draft definitely matters to an extent, but I would put way more importance on the progression of the young guys who were already on the team. The 2nd youngest team in the NFL is a year older and a year wiser. Bigger things are expected of Brandon Weeden, and it’s reasonable to think that he WILL be better given the coaching additions of Chudzinski and Turner at a minimum, and his presumed better fit in their offense versus the WCO. You have depth at all positions in the defensive front 7. You have an elite RB in his second season. You have talented young receivers who grew up a bit over the course of last season and are continuing to get reps with their QB. You have position upgrades in Davone Bess, Paul Kruger, and Desmond Bryant.
But no, those missing 4th and 5th round picks have doomed the Browns… drop them 3 spots!
My conclusion: Jamison Hensley is an idiot.
Sounds like a job for mgbode!!!
You just gotta relax and just enjoy what these things for what they are worth it’s completely subjective and more importantly not even May. That being said in all honesty how much better can a die hard Cleveland Browns fan feel at this moment then he did a year ago? This doesn’t mean there aren’t things to be positive about it just means there are probably as many questions as there have been and possibly even more if you want to factor in the off-field issues of the newest owner. And this is after having an owner who sold the team and another one who had a son inherit it who probably didn’t even want it. OY VEY!
Yeah, I’m not really as upset about it as the writing makes it seem… rankings are meaningless, especially preseason rankings, I just took exception with the logic.
Honestly, more than the team’s talent or anything else, I’m most worried about Jimmy Haslam and his thing. If he gets ousted as the Browns owner, that could have a huge effect on the team and I don’t think the circus surrounding him will help anything if it’s still there during the season.
I think I differ from most people in that I don’t think the Browns lack talent on their team. Actually, I think they have some fantastic talent at the positions that matter most, and I do feel quite a bit better about the prospects of this year’s team than last year’s team (although I was reasonably high on them too… I think I predicted 7-9 or 8-8, which was attainable if a few breaks went their way). I think the Browns have holes on the team, but so does every team… even Superbowl winning teams (remember how bad the Giants’ CBs were supposed to be two years ago?). I think the Browns have the level of talent now where the right coaching staff can flip their win-loss record. We just have to see if this is, in fact, the right coaching staff.
Bring on the “everyone on the Browns sucks” routine folks, I’m ready for it.
ESPN has to continue to generate content, I suppose. If you take a step back and look at our free agents, our draft picks and our trades I see a really strong off season.
The Browns have one of if not the youngest team in the league. All but 4 players are 28 or younger. If they can accumulate the talent, sign some free agents and keep the core together without blowing everything up in two years I’d be happy. I’d rather deal with one more subpar season then having to start over from scratch…again.
2015 Superbowl: Tampa vs. Cleveland
meaningless searching around the internet is my area of expertise, but I’ll let you handle this one
I’m with you 100%. Name me one position where this team has gotten noticeably WORSE this offseason. The only one I can think of is Kicker, and Shayne Graham might not be Phil Dawson, but he’s no slouch.
Soild O-line, stud RB, average at worst WR corps, our defensive front 7 looks good, and our secondary should be OK if Haden can stay on the field and the rookie can hold his own. The key will be Weeden, and if he falls on his face we have a serviceable backup in Jason Campbell.
I know it’s easy to get excited about the Browns in April, but I genuinely am. There will be a learning curve with the new coaches and systems, but I don’t understand how anyone can look at this team and not be at least somewhat optimistic. Nobody in the division scares me, and the rest of our schedule is favorable. I don’t see why a .500 record and an outside shot at the playoffs is such a stretch. I can’t wait to see what this all looks like on the field. Sucks that it’s 3 1/2 months away…
Who cares what the Espn people say! Are you like them and think they are experts, if the Browns would have taken a QB can you imagine what they would have said?