Best Available?

#7 is pretty cut-and-dried if the Browns don't trade out of that spot. The best available overall talent should coincide with a (legitimate and not hallucinated) team need. And I still say that if Clausen is there and Mike likes him, he'll be it. And I won't argue.

Otherwise, it would be Berry or Haden, either of whom would transform the secondary. I would hope for Berry.

If you argue for an offensive tackle for this team at #7 overall, please get back on your medication or turn yourself in.

OK but at #38? Well, need-wise, we're probably still talking QB (even if Mike goes with Quinn and they grab an old vet), a fast wide reciever (per Heckert), and in reality not much else, but let's say right tackle and running back---in that order.

What's that? Well now, Quinn couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, and Massequoi was the only viable target. Robiskie is still here, along with a boatload of young/growing linebackers, we have Harrison, Davis, Vickers, and Moore, and the offensive line (inc. RT in point of fact) did pretty well the last six games. THAT'S why.

Anyway, somebody will always slide. But the most realistic best available there is Ryan Matthews, who led the NCAA in rushing. He is ranked fourth among the running backs, but is in reality the best running back period.

CJ Spiller can't be expected to block, nor to carry the load. He is a role-player. He is ranked at the top because of his big play ability, but an NFL offense would need to be modified to get him on the field.

Matthews just clocked 4.41. He looks very much like Jamal Lewis; a 5'11" ball of fat-free muscle. He's 220 lbs--so maybe he's Lewis-light. Steuber says his running style would probably get him hurt in the NFL, because he's very physical and doesn't sweat contact.

He's a good reciever and a good blocker. He could be a workhorse, but the Browns could instead platoon him, and have him share the backfield with the much-different Harrison to help keep both healthy.

I checked his highlight films. I know that these of course were only his BEST plays, but I was more interested in what Steuber was talking about, and you can see that early in the plays...

I say early, because too often after the first two seconds it was Matthews outracing the defense for the end zone. Fortunately, there were also some where he actually got tackled, which was instructive.

Anyway, I repeatedly saw him hopping over guys diving at him in the trenches, or alternately hunching down and running through arm tackles. Steuber might have meant that the secondary guys all went for his legs because he was too strong to take down otherwise.

I bet Steuber saw the one take-d0wn where a safety got him on the side of his knee and it bent inward. The tackler almost fell on his calf...hurts to think about.

However, this goes for any big back. In the tape I watched, Matthews did avoid contact when he could. It's just that every single front I saw was stacked, and everybody was zeroed in on him from the get-go; sometimes even on dump-off passes.

If he's there at 38, they gotta consider it. He'd bump Davis to the back seat, and the backfield would be admirably deep even for a 2-back. (Don't forget--Cribbs can play there too, ok? And he's actually a really strong, tackle-breaking dude).

But then, I haven't really studied all the recievers much yet, and there might be a good one there. This draft isn't as deep at that position, so...maybe you can't go exclusively best available...

...and there are other big, servicable backs who'll be there in the third...

There's even one 6'1" , 222 lb. tight end who posted freakish speed numbers, and should go very late, if at all. He could play fullback, and be a deadly recieving threat out of the backfield. I doubt that he's a running back--you need swivel-hips for that and most tight ends are stiffer there.

I heard Dez Bryant interviewed. I won't pick on the guy, but I doubt that he's a good candidate for a complex offense. 'Nuff said.