EJ Manuel and Other Browns Draft Stuff

Some commentors are right about John Gruden.  He never met a quarterback he didn't love.  But then, he looks for the best in them, and sees what they could become.  Just read or listen to the part at the end twice, where he talks about what the guy needs to do to get better.  That's where he tells you what's wrong with him.  Sorta.

Mike Mayock is far more blunt and brutal.  You only have to read his whole analysis once.

Anyway I liked what EJ Manuel said.  When you listen to Geno Smith, you get a scripted press release.  EJ just talks normally.  I especially like what he said about being like Big Ben.  He's far more athletic and better-looking and smarter than Ben (not saying Ben's dumb or anything), but:

He's a pass-first guy.  No doubt his agent is in his ear about Chud: "This guy was the first with the read-option so say this, this and this", but EJ ignored him, and was honest.  He doesn't run to run, but to buy himself time to complete a pass.  And in reality, that's what every coach wants to hear.

EJ expects to compete to start in his first season.  I'd say that too, but it aint neccessarily so.

I still doubt that he'd be taken ahead of Smith, or that the Browns would take him at six.  But he could end up as the second or third quarterback taken.

I'll defer to the vast majority of real experts (and their echos) about the relative inferiority of this quarterback class.  But once again, these are quarterbacks, so the reality is that if you think you can turn a guy into a franchise quarterback this or next season, you will have to overdraft him.

This is why if the Browns were able to trade down to 11 or 12 and not lower, they MIGHT draft Manuel (if not Smith) there.

Smoke screen?  Bait?  Possibly.  In the case of Smith, that's about shopping the sixth pick and extorting more for it.  In the case of Manuel, it could even be thinking down the road a little and making 11 or 12 more desirable and expensive.

I'm not Mike Mayock, Gil Brandt, Chud, or Turner, so I don't know if the Browns should or shouldn't draft this or that quarterback (and admit it).  For the fifth or sixth time,  I love EJ for his consistantly clutch performances in every big game or tough test (Senior Bowl).

That's obvious enough for even an amateur to recognize, isn't it?  You'd say the same thing about a golfer or pool player.  You don't have to know anything about mechanics or third reads.  Manuel comes through.  He's also unusually smart and has rapidly corrected many of the flaws the older scouting reports talk about.

I now think that they'll have a very good chance of trading down, which makes it unlikely that Milliner will be the pick.  Everybody talks about the tackles, but somebody without a Joe Haden might trade up for Milliner, and somebody else might want Geno Smith (more than the Browns) too.

Joekel might well be the first overall pick, leaving only two ready-for-primetime left tackles on the board with four picks to go ahead of the Browns.  That's why the LT-involved trade-down gets so iffy.

People forget that it's not just the teams in the draft order, but all the teams that might trade ahead of you that endanger your pick.  This is why, rightly or wrongly, Tom Heckert traded up one slot to draft TRich.  He believed that somebody else was trying to get ahead of him to steal his player.

So it's possible that people could jump up to nab both the other tackles before the Browns pick is in play.  But we'll see.  

Now, if you voted for Obama again, served on the OJ jury, believe that there is scientific evidence of man-caused global warming, or think the Browns need more wide recievers, you'll understand this:

If Jimmy Haslam is convicted of fraud/theft, he'll be compelled to sell the Browns.  Who knows who the new owner would be?

Therefore, he must be innocent.  This must be a plot to screw the Browns again.  Ergo, all the evidence which will be presented must be trumped up, and all the witnesses must be lying.  The more of this we see, the more determined we must become to ignore it.

It is our duty to prevent this injustice, and to believe that Haslam is innocent no matter what.

I'm conflicted, because I'm an owner-operator, and as such this whole thing infuriates me.  However, because I am a Browns fan, I know that the owner of my team must have had nothing to do with it.  Despite the fact that the rebates withheld accrued to his company's bottom line.  Yeah, that's the ticket.