Corrections:
1: Hoyer is the best quarterback by a good margin. It's true. Manziel is a longshot to become a consistent match for him by the time the Browns have to face the Steelers defense in Pittsburgh.
The Steelers deliberately confuse and screw up young quarterbacks about as well as the Patriots do. You want magic? How about less than three interceptions and your quarterback not hospitalized?
There's no Dog and Pony show. It's just that the adults are in charge.
2: Mitchell Schwartze is not a great prospect at guard in this offense. He's a possible fit at right guard, as Shanahan and company could tweak the zone scheme to make the most of a mauler there, but the others he'll compete with are better scheme fits. Even Greco might fit better.
3: Greco has started at/can play right tackle.
4: Billy Winn was always a better 3-4 DE than Rubin. Hughes at DE is not a good thought. Winn is MUCH faster and has MUCH better range than the other guys. Hughes and Rubin are best rotated and used situationally inside.
Now for the sleepers:
Chris Faulk is no longer much of one, as even people in Oblivia have gradually become aware of his existance. Oblivia is less aware of the fact that he is athletically a good fit at guard here.
The notion of replacing Schwartze at right tackle has reached a fever pitch, so everybody who is tall enough is being penciled in there.
But there are two reasons why Faulk will probably be tried out at right guard first: Paul McQuistan and Reid Fragel.
McQuistan is, of course, no sleeper. While he looks good at either guard spot in this offense, given the other personnel on hand, he looks even better at right tackle. He has the size, and is more nimble than Schwartze. His experience (including at this very position) makes him a plug-and-play prospect who won't get outsmarted.
Fragel, who was a blocking tight end until his senior season at Ohio State, stands 6'8", and it's tackle or nothing for him. But this guy has the highest upside at either left or right tackle of any player on this team.
This is a new regime, and they're trying to complete the core of a perennial contender. They are hoping that Faulk and Fragel will have learned and developed enough to start right now.
As Ross Tucker will tell you over and over again, continuity is more important than talent for an offensive line. The offensive line is a unit, and it takes a lot of repetitions for it to become efficient. The sooner the offensive line which the coaches project years into the future is put together, the sooner it becomes efficient, and the better it will ultimately become.
McQuistan is 31, and is not part of this future. Greco is even older, and doesn't fit well to boot. (Note: I love Greco. Those who bash him are morons. I hope he sticks around for versatile depth).
Both Faulk and Fragel have a real shot at becoming starters at right guard and right tackle this season.
I don't hate Schwartze, but I trust Peter Smith (Dawg Pound Daily). Peter says that while Schwartze improved a lot over last season, he did get a lot of help from the tight end in pass protection. The other guys are quicker and more nimble, and you don't want to use a tight end that way unless you have to.
Fullback Ray Agnew, a new undrafted free agent out of Southern Illinois, might have made the veteran free agent fullback on the roster expendable. Tony Grossi is crying in his beer, hoping that the Browns sign another veteran blocking fullback, as he seems unaware of Agnew.
Agnew is 5'10" or 11", 247 lbs. and was almost exclusively a lead blocker for four years in college. He caught eight passes for an 8.9 YPC average, so it's remotely possible that he has some skills which were never exploited by his coaches.
Many, obviously including Tony, think that a blocking fullback should be over six feet tall so that he can get his hands on the bad guys before they can get their hands on him. On the other hand, the axiom "low man wins" (the leverage battle) is a counter-theory.
I wish I could tell you about Agnew's speed and how much he squats and stuff, but I don't know. What I do know is that this guy could make the team as the situational lead-blocker Tony has been pining for.
One commenter wondered if tight end MarQueis Gray could lose a few pounds and play wide reciever. Not gonna happen. Gray played wide reciever (and quarterback, running back, ball boy and bottle washer) in college, as well as tight end.
Last season, the Browns used him at fullback, as well as H-back and tight end.
Because he was Mister Everything, he lacked experience at everything coming out of college, which is why he slid.
As those of us with cerebral cortexes will recall, Jordan Cameron got very little playing time as a rookie, and then played more, and played well, in his second season.
As a wide reciever in college, Gray had some pretty good stats. Cameron, on the other hand, looked terrible on paper.
Gray has all the physical tools to become a Cameron-like tight end, and apparently is already a better in-line blocker. While everybody else is decrying the lack of depth at tight end, I don't live in Oblivia, and see a young guy who, more likely than not, will take a big step forward to provide that depth.
Kyle Shanahan is not above using a second pass-catching tight end in lieu of a third wide reciever.
Gray remains a bit of a wild card, too: HE could be tried again as a blocking (and running/pass-catching) fullback. Poor Tony will scoff at this notion, but in reality Gray has the requisite tools.
Thankfully, Kyle Shanahan thinks outside the box, and will consider all possibilities. I really like and respect Tony Grossi, but am glad he doesn't run the Browns.
Charles Johnson is a guy I pointed out to Oblivia about a month ago, and who is gradually getting noticed just a little.
At the time I wrote him up earlier, I missed the fact that he had acl surgery in October. That's not good for 2014, because he's a wide reciever, and not a quarterback like Hoyer.
He may have his straight-line speed back by game one, but it takes longer to be able to drive off the repaired leg into a cut. Not only is the leg still vulnerable, but the player is all too aware that it is.
He might still make an impact, as the West Coast elements of this offense generally require only one decisive cut off a route, and even knowing that it will be to the inside doesn't help a defense that much. If he gets a step on anybody and remains vertical, it won't matter anyway, because nobody will catch him.
There are a number of other guys that I am overlooking or not listing. We all tend to forget that a wide reciever doesn't have to be 6'2"-plus to do damage consistantly, or that a taller guy who is slow can still catch eight or ten yard passes all day long.
Gil Brandt and others are saying that about a round and a half out of this draft fell out the bottom, and over 40 players with draftable grades went undrafted.
Many of these were juniors, with higher upsides than the more experienced players who were drafted. The biggest of all these sliding sleepers were the shorter wide recievers, and Ray collected a bunch of them.
Stay tuned.
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