Don’t Worry About Braylon in New York
Written By: Craig Lyndall | Category: Cleveland Browns | Comments: 20
AP / Lynne Sladky
Last night I was texting with a friend from college who is a Jets fan. This occurred right after Braylon caught the long pass where he almost scored his second TD.
Friend: “You’re right… he can’t catch.”
Me: “Nice statistical sample. I thought you had a masters?”
Friend: “Catching is binary… you either can or you cannot… 14 drops in 2008 is not enough… enjoy Mangini”
Me: “A false statement and a subject change won’t win an argument. 
”
Friend: “I don’t think anyone outside of stinkland thinks Edwards can’t catch.”
Me: “If you traded him to CLE you would say the same thing. He may start catching. He has a lot to prove.”
After chatting with my friend it occurs to me that I should just stop looking to see what Braylon does. If Braylon turns it around in NY I will just get angry that he dogged it here in Cleveland. Why should I care what happens, though? Braylon had to go. He was a distraction on and off the field. Regardless of what he did in 2007 and what he does going forward, he dropped everything for the Browns in 2008. That is an inarguable fact for us Browns fans. On top of that, he was clearly unhappy and made statements saying he was going to leave Cleveland after this year. Were the Browns honestly going to franchise this guy?
I am just going to sit here and be happy that the Browns got something for Braylon. I will root for Stuckey and hope that the Browns can make some good picks with the picks they got. Trading Braylon Edwards made the Browns worse in the near term, but his leaving was nearly inevitable. With that, I will now stop caring what kind of production he puts up in New York, except with regard to the possible upgrade of the one draft pick.
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 433 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
Braylon Edwards leaving should be compared to when Ricky Davis was traded for a pile of sticks during LBJ’s rookie year. Addition by subtraction and I fully support the move.
Amen Craig… I was trying to explain to my friend, who is a Steelers fan, that nobody who follows the Cleveland Browns thinks that the Braylon Edwards trade was a bad idea. They might think we could have gotten more or they might think that we should have dealt him sooner, but not a single person thinks that we should have kept Braylon Edwards through the end of the season and let him decide whether to walk away or not. I also said the exact same thing as you… you can’t look at his numbers now that he is with the Jets and think that he would have put up those same numbers in Cleveland… his attitude here was all wrong.
I’ll be happy either way. If he continues to drop easy passes and kill drives, I’ll be happy knowing we didn’t lose anything. On the other hand, if he all of a sudden, magically starts catching everything thrown his way (a la KWII), I’ll be happy knowing he’s just a scumbag who dogged it while he played for the team I love. Good riddance.
If the HOF just used MNF to decide if a player gets in or not Braylon would be a lock.
Does anyone know what the criteria are for the 3rd to jump to a 2nd? That’s the only reason to hope he succeeds IMO. Braylon never had a rough time catching the hard ones anyway, it was the 3rd down passes that are thrown right to his numbers that he drops. Good luck DB.
I’m glad he’s gone, don’t get me wrong, but I still want to hate him. So I will. The NFL is more fun, IMO (and esp. when your team sucks) when there are good guys and villains.
Bray, after dogging it, is a villain. I will dislike him accordingly.
I’m just glad the Jets lost. I wouldn’t have been able to see Braylon sitting at the desk with the MNF crew talking about he is a changed man, blah, blah, blah.
Man I hope the Jets come to Cleveland next year
#4 stole my thunder… Braylon has always been “up” for the prime time games.
Dear Jets fans:
Dropping passes in Cleveland was not an anomoly.
As a Michigan fan, I can assure you of this.
Braylon who?
I agree with jack @ #5. I hope braylon goes off this season and gets our 3rd rounder moved to a 2nd rounder.
I believe the Jets do play here in Cleveland next year MacNip. I did hear that somewhere but haven’t found any hard evidence of it yet.
At #9, he did drop an easy 5 yard out against OSU his senior year that would have kept a potential game-winning or tying drive alive. They haven’t beat the Bucks since.
Your friend calls Cleveland “stinkland?” That’s not even clever. Below Isis standards, even.
Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think Braylon dropped some of those passes on purpose. No way to prove it, but would it surprise you?
This was the same guy asking Demps from HOU how to get into acting and modeling in between plays during a real, live NFL game. I just don’t believe its that far-fetched for a guy that immature and delusional…and desperate to get out of Cleveland.
Besides that, I agree with this article 100%; regardless of what Edwards does from here on out, he had to go. No way around it.
i think he was tankin it in cleveland
The bottom line is when he’s not running his mouth, he catches passes. Remember what a dbag he was before 2007? Then, he donated some money to Cleveland kids and said he was going to stop talking and start playing??? Yeah, that lasted long.
He dropped passes since he was a UM, he’s always had butter fingers.
S-Dub, summed it up perfectly right off the bat. This guy really bothers me, we drafted him..I hated him. He played, I actually started liking him, he dropped passes, I still was ok, he said he didn’t care about the fans…I hate him. Many players may feel that way, but you don’t come out and say it. Its like thinking your wife’s best friend is hot, you can think it, but you dare not say anything.
Since the trade: Cleveland (1-0) New York (0-1)
I say we all root for Braylon to do great in NYC so that clause can kick in making it a 2nd rounder instead of a third. That could be his biggest contribution to Cleveland since the one year he actually tried.
Ike, dropping passes on purpose?? C’mon man. He’s a professional football player in a contract year with no stipulation in his contract about being traded following “x” amount of drops. Dude catches everything that he can jump for, nothing when his feet are touching the ground. If/when Sanchez realizes to throw it up high to him, they should be a nasty duo. Unfortunately, he wasn’t signing here after the season anyways, so anything we got for him makes a better team next year. I know…… the name of the website…..
Now, if you were to say he punched homeboy in the face to get out of town, I might buy into that a bit.