Browns Drafting Skill Will Be Apparent This Year
Written By: Craig | Category: Cleveland Browns | Comments: 12
In the NFL drafting is a science. Some teams seem to always get it right, and others seem to miss constantly. The cool thing about having a totally new regime in place is that whatever demons from past drafts can be exorcised. While Courtney Brown, Gerard Warren, William Green, Charlie Frye and Tim Couch are long gone, so are all the people who drafted them. The exciting thing (or scary thing) about this upcoming season is that I think we will know right away whether or not the new Browns’ front office is a capable scouting and drafting regime.
The Browns were thought to have had a late start in getting their scouting and drafting departments ready for this year’s draft. If the players drafted this season turn out to be busts, I am sure that will be the first excuse thrown out by the apologists. Also, a lot of draft “experts” like to say that you have to wait a few years before you can really rate the quality of a draft. But in the Browns’ case with the inherited “depth,” Mangini and Kokinis won’t have the luxury of letting a lot of the young guys work it out in practice. Just look position by position to see which rookies could end up playing meaningful football this season. And I am not just talking about special teams.
Center - Alex Mack is a first rounder who could (should?) beat out Hank Fraley for the starter’s role. Not much else needs to be said. First rounders frequently start and/or play right away.
Wide Reciever – This position (obviously) is where we could potentially see rookies earn the second most playing time this year. Brian Robiskie and Mohamed Massaquoi could both see significant time on the field this season. It seems from reading training camp reports from The OBR and the PD that Robiskie could potentially even find his way to the 2nd or 3rd receiver role this season. And not that I want to scare anyone, but if the Browns fail to work things out with Josh Cribbs, won’t Robiskie be on the list of potential punt returners?
Running Back – The Browns just inked James Davis out of Clemson to his rookie deal. At first glance it would appear that Davis might have trouble finding the field. Then again, I expect Mangini to spread the ball around more than Romeo Crennel did. I also know that Jamal Lewis continues to age and have surgery every off-season. I don’t know much about Noah Herron which is pretty instructive, I guess. If Mangini paints Jerome Harrison into the role of utility back and Jamal Lewis gets hurt and James Davis plays well, it isn’t too far-fetched to think Davis could end up working opposite Harrison a lot this season.
Cornerback – The Browns seem committed to finding depth at corner for the first time since Leigh Bodden was still here. They drafted Don Carey in the 6th round. While on paper it looks like he might have trouble finding the field this year, it also wouldn’t surprise me much if he jumped in front of guys like Hank Poteat and maybe even Corey Ivy. Rod Hood appears to be the third musketeer along with McDonald and Wright. If nothing else, we should see a lot of Don Carey on special teams attempting to block kicks as we have read about at NoLogoNeeded.
Linebackers – This is another position where with and injury or two we could see a whole lot of rookie football this season. David Veikune and Kaluka Maiava could both find their way to the field this year in meaningful situations. This position is especially tough to analyze, though, because we didn’t get to see very much of Alex Hall or Beau Bell last season. In fact, I don’t know if we have heard a Beau Bell update in quite some time.
And that is it as far as I know. We will know very quickly if the Browns are capable drafters. And I know that I, like most of you, are hoping Kokinis is in the mold of Bill Polian instead of Dwight Clark.
Author: CraigLyndall
Craig Lyndall has been writing about all the Cleveland sports teams at WaitingForNextYear since September 2008. When he isn't, you can find him selling insurance or playing music. Follow WFNYCraig on Twitter.Craig Lyndall has written 338 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
Come on, you can’t fault the Browns for drafting Courtney Brown. They would have been stupid not to. He was a total stud at Penn State, and he had no injury history there. This is second-guessing at its worst.
Also, Charlie Frye was only a third-round pick, and a number of “experts” at the time thought he was a steal. He was worth the risk.
I agree that Couch and Green weren’t smart picks.
So let’s put blame where it belongs, but not where it doesn’t belong.
Does Robiskie really have the speed and athleticism to be a dynamic punt returner? Those guys are usually really fast, like Cribbs or Devin Hester, and I thought Robo’s strengths were his route-running, hands and high football IQ, not necessarily his speed.
The 7th rounder Francies might beat out Carey actually at CB.
I hope to see a lot more out of Hall and Harrison this year too. Hall might end up being the best pass rusher this year if Wimbley doesnt find out how to play
@2 same feelings here. I would rather see a quicker Massaquoi or Harrison return if Cribbs is gone. We always have the option of picking up Ben Gay from his mall/rent-a-cop duties and have him do returns.
I think Robiskie is a little on the frail side to be doing returns. Not to mention that if he is the most polished rookie WR, why risk injury on returns with him?
@ Mr. Cleveland:
LT Chris Samuels was there, as well. A year before the Browns drafted a QB, yet could not protect him. If we’re second guessing… why didn’t they try and land a stud left tackle?
@#1: Cleaveland, I agree but we are in the minority. Courtney even had some dominating games, I’m remembering one in particular against the Bears, but injuries just sapped his resolve. Lavar Arrington was there for us but we wanted to build on the line that year. Fan reaction to his pick is similar to fan reaction in the 80’s when Accorsi overpaid to move up and grab Lawyer Tilman, the same year we drafted Eric Metcalf. Dominating, big, fast receiver from Auburn, but yearly injuries just reduced him to nothing. Turns out we wasted that pick and the picks we gave to move up.
@5
Don, I’m not sure what you mean. Which draft are you talking about?
Blame or not, Courtney Brown was a bigtime bust. Even when it isn’t your fault it goes on your record. And a good drafting organization makes up for busts by finding great players in the later rounds to make you forget about the busts. For the Browns it was just another in a long line that didn’t work. It is all revisionist history, for the record. I thought hiring Butch Davis was a good idea at the time.
Think about this. Denver drafts Terrell Davis in 1995. Do you think they even cared about the rest of the busted out guys they drafted that year? Prolly not.
Yes, Brown was a bust as a PLAYER due to UNFORSEEN and UNFORSEEABLE injuries. But he was a smart DRAFT PICK.
You just can’t blame the Browns for picking him. All this 20/20 retrospective know-it-all hindsight is b.s.
I know MrCleaveland… And I won’t blame Kokinis if Alex Mack never finds the field due to injury. It was still a good pick.
I just wanted to point out all the futility that has resulted since 1999. Even if we can say Courtney Brown was a good pick, the lack of results overall in the draft have failed to overshadow a single one of those busts.
We haven’t had hardly any success stories from the draft since 1999 for whatever reasons. Joe Thomas is on pace to be the best one by far and that didn’t occur until two years ago.
Passed up Beanie Wells in round 1, and Ray Malaluega in round 2-keep an eye out for those guys.
Does Kokinis even exist or is he a shell of Mangini? The dude is some kind of GM; his public personal and appearances are as rare as Howard Hughes.
I think when you look back at the previous drafts, some of the players we got were drafted out of an idea of a type of team we were looking to play…Tim Couch was a good short to middle range sort of guy, and i believe the thinking was to use a west coast type of offense here, but it didnt work…he had no long ball and in the winter or cold fall days, his ducks would just float all over the place…thus, he was a bad pick because he was in a bad situation…am i advocating the pick of Couch? no…i didnt think he was the right pick at the time, but hindsight is always 20/20…
as for other draft picks, i dont see how you can look at someone like courtney brown and think he was going to have as many injury problems, although, in that draft, we definitely should have taken arrington, only because he had that mean streak you look for in a franchise backer…
as for this year, the more I look at the needs of this team, and what they did, I cant really complain…I like the picks, and I think they addressed what they needed pretty well…obviously time will tell, but I like the idea of getting the best available center with all the D’s in the North playing the 3-4 or some sort of flavor of it…he is a big upgrade at center…i think he will do a good job and this running game may actually work well…especially when you give harrison the shot he has been due…
i think the brownies will go 7-9 or 8-8…I think they will be competitive and I think they can beat Pittsburgh and Baltimore at least once out of four tries…