Wow. The Browns can't possibly win more than two or three games this season! Therefore they should forget about Mariota and just draft for all their urgently critical needs, like offensive line, tight end, wide reciever, third down back, defensive line, outside linebacker, and everything else!
Then next year just draft a franchise quarterback, since surely they'll be so terrible that they will have a pick in the top five.
Don't worry, because all the players Ray Farmer has signed or will draft will be lousy too!
Holy loony-bin, batman!
Here are a few fun facts for you:
1: The only free agent Ray Farmer overpaid was Tramon Williams. He's also the only one over 31.
2: Buster Skrine and other unresticted guys were under no obligation to come back the the Browns to see if they would offer more than they'd been offered by other teams.
In point of fact, those other teams usually tell them "If you walk out of here today, we can't guarantee it. We might fill your slot, or have other guys competing with you."
3: Jordan Cameron does have a scary concussion history, and for that matter a history of other injuries. A second year linebacker just retired out of concern for what concussions would do to him.
It doesn't matter how late in the game they made their highest offer to him. It was a sensible and valid strategy to try to replace him with a more durable, reliable player.
4: There are two sides to every negotiation or non-negotiation. Many free agents refused to even consider the Browns. Some who did only did so to leverage more rediculous offers elsewhere.
Some of the same people who've bashed Ray Farmer for not overpaying big-name free agents are now bashing him for overpaying the last remaining cornerback.
5: Bryce Petty is still the Bryce Petty they see in the film room. So are the other quarterbacks. Their Pro Days and workouts are much less meaningful.
If Ray Farmer can't engineer a trade for Bradford, trade up for Mariota, or pull off some other miracle, he might take a shot at another quarterback at 19 despite his misgivings, and it could be Petty.
That would be called a panicked disaster, of course, since there's no way any of the guys behind Mariota and Winston rate as first rounders.
But every other quarterback-needy team will be overdrafting all these other guys, and if Ray wants to roll the dice on any of them, he'll have to pay the price himself.
The Browns can't count on Manziel, and need a quarterback in the worst way. In reality, they have too much overall talent NOT to win at least six or seven games, and planning to nab their franchise guy next season is idiocy.
In fact, it's more likely that the strong running game and defense, along with the two new wide recievers already on board, will make Josh McCown look like the guy who made Jay Cutler look like a boob.
In which case, they draft LOWER than 12, with no ammo for a trade-up.
Speaking of Jay Cutler, everything else aside, he's not a WEST COAST quarterback, so please cut that stuff out.
Terry Pluto addressed a lot of this, and I'd like to add this: What HE said!
I was at first ticked off that the Browns were even talking to Dwayne Bowe, but then I found out that he's really only 30.
Bigger, stronger wide recievers last longer, because they rely more on position and reach than on explosion or speed. An Andrew Hawkins needs daylight between himself and his defender to have a good chance for a catch, but a Dwayne Bowe can have the guy right on him and still make the catch.
No, he's not a true number one speed merchant, and you need to stop pitching temper-tantrums over that, and start living in reality. Nobody else wanted to come here.
Averaging around 13 yards per-catch should be adequate. He doesn't outrun guys. He just runs them over.
The defense now has five seasoned veterans (including Joe H) sprinkled across each position group to help the young guys round into mental shape much sooner in the second year of Pettine's system, and that is very good.
The offense now has two tall, reliable recievers that it didn't have before. The net loss with Cameron could well be around half a season, because he'll probably get hurt again.
All the young guys will naturally be better, and this remains a young team. How you think that Josh McCown, all by himself and despite all the talent around him, can somehow manage to single-handedly lose more than nine games is beyond understanding.
And that's the worst-case. Manziel is the joker in this deck.
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